Here's what I need: Fast, works on existing directories (no iPhoto style import), easy to delete photos I don't want, simple color correction + cropping, and very fast. Very nice to have would be the ability to upload to Smugmug or Google, basic video stuff (time crop), video re-encoding (my camera saves videos as mjpeg for some reason). - Paul Buchheit
Aperture is the primary professional, and most excellent application for OSX. It is worth the money, it is not iPhoto. It is easy to use, and you are likely to not want to use anything else. - Steve P
I don't need anything fancy, just fast and able to handle a good number of photos. Picasa is pretty close -- I wish they would just make a Mac version (and improve the color correction and video abilities). - Paul Buchheit
I only know of, aperture, lightroom, photon & the apps that comes with phanfare.com, flickr & smugmug - Zee at WeDoCreative
Aperture is really cool because you can make batch changes to a set of photos, make branches, and undo across restarts, among other things. It requires importing though, which sounds like you wouldn't want. - Chris White
Closest to meeting all of your requirements used to be iView. Not sure if that's still true. I bailed on it after Microsoft bought it and renamed it Expression Media. http://www.microsoft.com/expre.... I use Aperture now. - Jack Baty
Files can remain in the directory in which they reside. They do not have to be imported into the library, although that makes it easier for backup. A free trial might is available at: http://www.apple.com/aperture/... . It more than adequately meets your criteria for photos, but does not deal with video, which it will back up to your chosen directory. You can readily move them, put them on an external HD, etc. Lightroom is an alternative. - Steve P
I switch to my Windows machine and use Picasa for photos. - Amit Patel
The problem with a lot of these photo organizers is that they want to own your world, but that's not what I want. I'm going to upload the photos to one or two places, copy them to other computers, etc. Having them stuck in some weird system on one computer is not ok. That's why working with the actual filesystem directory structure is important. - Paul Buchheit
Why not just use the Leopard file system + Preview? Is it because of speed? Preview supports cropping and color correction. The new finder features, like coverflow and pressing the spacebar for a preview are handy too. I put the Picasa Uploader in my dock so I can easily upload photos, although I wish Picasa would accept images dragged onto the dock icon. - Chris White
how about using expandrive and hosting all your photos on on a separate server and then using one of the many photo editors to edit them on your desktop? - Zee at WeDoCreative
I'll be interested to know what you settle on. - Bruce Lewis
Chris, I don't have Leopard -- can you delete from inside of Preview? - Paul Buchheit
I don't think you can delete from the app called Preview, but I only use that for cropping and color correction. Coverflow, which lets you flip through your images does let you delete via Command-Delete. The default app for images is Preview, so if you want to crop / color correct, just double-click. Leopard is suppose to be faster for image display in the Finder, although I haven't seen any speed comparisons. - Chris White
Chris, do all these programs retain metadata for edited photos? Most important, the EXIF date the photos were taken? - Bruce Lewis
Bruce, I'm pretty sure both Aperture and Preview maintain EXIF data, although I haven't tested that. - Chris White
man, it sounds like we're looking for the same thing. iPhoto sucks. - Brett Kelly
iView is what professional photojournalists use. I would have a look at that if I were you. I'm pretty sure MS is still keeping the Mac version of it. - Gabe Schaffer
Still using iView for now. It sounds like the newer Expression Media has had less than positive reviews. I have over 30,000 pictures in various catalogs and it works nicely. It did take a while to figure out a workflow that works for me but I had somewhat of an advantage since I had to design filesystem layouts previously. Extensis is an another option. If you care about IPTC or GPS EXIF, some hackery will be required as the different tools have different levels of support. - Jauder Ho
i like both aperture and lightroom. lightroom gives me better-looking photos though aperture is a little easier to use. at least i find that to be the case - Cee Bee
@Paul could you please share your requirements with us? Blindly suggesting an app without knowing your exact needs is pretty pointless. I use Adobe Bridge for workflow automation, meta management and multi client asset organization but I bet it won't be a good match for you. So please share your functional requirements. - Berk D. Demir via twhirl
I use Lightroom, and that's what I'd recommend. If you don't want to spend any money, you might want to check out blueMarine (http://bluemarine.tidalwave.it...). I've only played around with it for a few minutes, but I see it has potential, and it seems like it'd be just fine for the items you mentioned. - Donato (ricin)
@Donato Cool.. I haven't seen this before.. :) @Paul I was looking for something like this in the past. What I wanted was a photo browsing application with Tagging and the ability to browse what you already have. I've ended up settling for Lightroom, but it's still sort of an overkill and it's RAW features are not useful for an amateur photographer like me. I'm really interested in what you find out from these comments heheh. - Chris Chua
Maybe I need to write my own. Does AIR have the necessary capabilities for this kind of thing? - Paul Buchheit
Sure, you could write it in AIR, but I haven't heard anything yet that convinces me you can't just use the leopard finder for what you want. - Chris White
@Chris, you can Delete from Preview. @Paul: you can't show the photo full size in finder, you'd need to open with a separate program. - David Vasileff
I use Xee, http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/xee... it aspires to be what Paul is looking for I think, but it doesn't do color correction, but you can hotkey to an editor of your choice, including Preview, which does color correction. Xee is free and there's source code available, too. - David Vasileff
we might see a mac version of picasa this year. Adobe elements is a $100 alternative to iPhoto. I have used it. Works good but a very heavy tool. - pankaj
David, how do you delete in Preview? Do you need more than one document open? - Chris White
I mentioned blueMarine the other day, but just found http://www.photonator.com/ a few minutes ago - then remembered your query and posted 'er back here. You're not subscribed to me, but that doesn't mean that I can't help. ;) - l0ckergn0me
Chris, Preview Edit menu has move selected image to trash menu item or command-delete shortcut. it deletes and closes the window if you have a single image open. - David Vasileff
Picasa is the only reason I still turn my PC on... Are they going to make a Mac version any time soon? Otherwise it's time to write one. - Eugene
i second aperture... im still learning it, but it has keyword capability, rating etc... excellent... i learn something new on it everyday - Rob Reed
Picasa was the reason I reformatted my Mac into a windows machine. Nothing else comes close. - Piaw Na
