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Can anyone recommend a good program for captioning, keywording, cataloging and searching a very large library of labelled pictures? For years, I used iview Media Pro (and predecessors) but the current owners have stopped supporting it, and it's now almost useless. Any suggestions welcome. Many thanks.

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7 minutes ago, Sally said:

Lightroom does a great job as a catalogue as well as processing images. 

 

I use Lightroom too, and I am happy with it in this regard, except for a few quirks, such as not being able to delete multiple keywords at the same time.

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15 hours ago, BobGibbons said:

I used iview Media Pro

Bought by Phase One, makers of Capture One, which might also be an option for you, but they haven't made use of it as I'm sure you know. I imagine one of your main concerns is migrating the metadata to the new program.

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4 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Bought by Phase One, makers of Capture One, which might also be an option for you, but they haven't made use of it as I'm sure you know. I imagine one of your main concerns is migrating the metadata to the new program.

 

Unfortunately, while Capture One is good for many other things, it's terrible when it comes to cataloguing and searching.

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15 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

it's terrible when it comes to cataloguing and searching.

Thanks, good to know, shame they didn't learn from their purchase of what was originally IView Media Pro.  Lightroom is pretty much out there on its own with regard to cataloguing.

Edited by Harry Harrison
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1 hour ago, Harry Harrison said:

No idea that you could do this in Photoshelter, do you mean all your images (RAW files?) are uploaded to Photoshelter for keywording etc. and then downloaded for uploading to Alamy?

 

 

Not sure exactly what an image management program does but I use Photoshelter to store all my RAWS, also upload finished JPEGs from Photoshop for keywording and assigning to multiple galleries ( both public and private), and then distribute by ftp to Alamy and elsewhere. I also use it as my website. 

 

There is an internal Search system to locate images by keyword, file ref etc. So, for example, I recently searched for all images with a particular keyword, was able to select all of them and then create a public gallery. A few seconds after the gallery has been created I can edit my website homepage and make it appear there. 

 

https://www.geographyphotos.com

Edited by geogphotos
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38 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Not sure exactly what an image management program does but I use Photoshelter to store all my RAWS, also upload finished JPEGs from Photoshop for keywording and assigning to multiple galleries ( both public and private), and then distribute by ftp to Alamy and elsewhere. I also use it as my website. 

 

That's very interesting, thank you, I had no idea you could do that, Squarespace certainly doesn't. That does indeed seem to act like an image management system

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It has to be Lightroom, which keeps being improved.
It's subscription, and despite people whinging, about the model, we all pay bills by direct debit, we spend money on beer, holidays etc etc, and I use Lightroom nearly every day of the week, so I think it's good value.
Import your files RAW DNG JPG, from any source, apply presets and metadata choices automatically, have them renamed and saved in multiple places as they are being imported if you like.
Work on the file (I hardly touch PS now) edit and keyword, change metadata, then export multiple files to multiple destinations at the same time, ie one folder for images 1600px on the long side, one folder with full size files converted to jpgs, one folder converted to DNG, one for TIFFs, one for sending to Alamy stock, one for Alamy news... (for example), as many combinations as you like. 
There are also plugins to use to ftp images straight to Alamy, and also to download all the Alamy info as collections (sold, not for sale, no tags etc etc).
I have only touched the surface, you can also import /export catalogues, reference images on external drives and work on virtual copies then apply changes to the originals when you re-connect... the list goes on.

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4 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Lighroom is excellent and you could use it in conjunction with Photo Mechanic

 

Still using LR 6 with perpetual license - it does what I need and more.   I've no need or desire for Adobe's distasteful forced subscription model for newer LR versions.

 

One disappointment with LR is it's insistence on forcing keywords into alphabetical order.  There are cases where keywords are needed in a non-alphabetic order.  That's one reason I added Photo Mechanic 6 to my work flow.  No forced keyword sorting - WYSIWYG. 

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5 minutes ago, Phil said:

Still using LR 6 with perpetual license

Same here, and the two cameras that I might buy in the future will still be covered by it, even the Sony RX100 up to version 5 I see, not the 5A though. If that wasn't true then I would subscribe, I would find it hard to do without it. 

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I don't want to get into an argument about Adobe and I don't like subscriptions myself, however my LR subscription has to be the bargain of a lifetime because of the amount of time I spend in LR and PS and I definitely use the new features a lot.  Contrast that with my mobile phone subscription which costs four times more and I use a fraction of the time.  Saying that, if Adobe increased their subscription pricing it might stop being a great bargain and I would seriously think about moving to another platform.

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Definitely photo mechanic - not only does it work in full conjunction with LR but it goes way beyond it in functionality - and is a lot lighter and faster to use, especially on culling.  If I imported every image I took into LR it would take forever (when not doing stock I do sport - over 600 images a pop) whereas photomechanic can have them off the card viewable very fast - I then run through them and choose the ones I will keep and only import those to LR.  I can keyword and annotate in either

 

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25 minutes ago, Starsphinx said:

Definitely photo mechanic - not only does it work in full conjunction with LR but it goes way beyond it in functionality - and is a lot lighter and faster to use, especially on culling.  If I imported every image I took into LR it would take forever (when not doing stock I do sport - over 600 images a pop) whereas photomechanic can have them off the card viewable very fast - I then run through them and choose the ones I will keep and only import those to LR.  I can keyword and annotate in either

 

The same choice is available inn the LT import screen.

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1 hour ago, Harry Harrison said:

Same here, and the two cameras that I might buy in the future will still be covered by it, even the Sony RX100 up to version 5 I see, not the 5A though. If that wasn't true then I would subscribe, I would find it hard to do without it. 

 

LR 6's lack  of support of new/future cameras is usually an issue with older LR versions lack of being updated to recognize newer camera bodies for LR's internal RAW conversion.  Thanks Adobe.  

 

But there are other ways to skin that cat.   Standalone RAW > TIFF/DNG convertors should allow LR 6 to be used far into the future if one is willing to adapt their work flow to incorporate standalone RAW conversion s/w.   Depending on the camera standalone RAW convertors can sometimes do better RAW conversions than LR.

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1 hour ago, Phil said:

Standalone RAW > TIFF/DNG convertors should allow LR 6 to be used far into the future if one is willing to adapt their work flow

It certainly would be possible to continue like that but I think you do miss out on specific camera profiles. When I brought in .DNG files from the latest Fuji Xpro-3 none of the normal Fuji profiles were present, just Adobe Standard.

 

It's also not altogether clear whether lens corrections are automatically applied during the conversion but they don't appear as an option in Lightroom once imported, at least they didn't for me. On the other hand subscribing to CC means upgrading your catalogues to the new version so there is no going back and you're not left in a particularly good situation if you stop subscribing. I'm quite prepared to accept that the latest version of Lightroom is better in many ways and I don't have a problem with the current cost but I'd rather opt out for now.

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For those of us who started back in the days of film, a tenner a month is nothing in compared to. what we would have been paying. I get that people object to subscription models but it is a fact of modern life and the Adobe package is a real bargain, moreover for those of us who use Photoshop as well as Lightroom and who used to pay regularly for Photoshop upgrades. I don’t get how people who spend small fortunes on camera kit are reluctant to pay a few quid for the means to efficiently process and view their work. Complaining or conscientiously objecting to subscriptions is not going to get them anywhere. And the idea that Adobe or any other software company would continue to update older versions that they no longer sell is a real stretch. There are other options but none so comprehensive and such good value as the Adobe photography plan. 

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1 hour ago, Harry Harrison said:

It certainly would be possible to continue like that but I think you do miss out on specific camera profiles. When I brought in .DNG files from the latest Fuji Xpro-3 none of the normal Fuji profiles were present, just Adobe Standard.

 

It's also not altogether clear whether lens corrections are automatically applied during the conversion but they don't appear as an option in Lightroom once imported, at least they didn't for me. On the other hand subscribing to CC means upgrading your catalogues to the new version so there is no going back and you're not left in a particularly good situation if you stop subscribing. I'm quite prepared to accept that the latest version of Lightroom is better in many ways and I don't have a problem with the current cost but I'd rather opt out for now.

 

With Irident X-Transformer's Fuji RAF>DNG converter it seems that Fuji's camera film sim profiles are carried thru metadata and can be changed in LR's Camera Profiles. 

 

Fuji lens correction profile handling also available in Irident X-Trans and can either be applied during the conversion or passed along as DNG metadate to LR's Lens Correction which in both cases indicate "Built in lens profile applied".

 

https://www.iridientdigital.com/products/xtransformer.html

https://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2017/3/updated-iridient-x-transformer-settings

 

 

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It's so much less expensive now to get the subscription to LR/PS than it was to upgrade with the older versions, at least if you use PS as well as LR, and for all that you can do in LR these days, it is certainly quite a bargain. I pay more for streaming TV services (and I only have basic Netflix and Amazon), so I have to agree that the subscription price for something work-related is a no-brainer. 

 

The organizational portion of LR has also improved, IMHO, and I've been using it since V1.0. 

 

The only downside on keywording is the alphabetization, which, with Alamy's supertags, really isn't a problem uploading here. I think that, in that regard, the "supertag" interface is brilliant. Ironically, Adobe's own site makes you re-order your keywords when you upload directly from their LR interface (or any other way). It's been brought up to Adobe countless times, but is not going to be changed. Alphabetization does help you avoid duplicate keywords, something I often end up with if I keyword in Bridge or PS, but I don't understand why they can't eliminate duplicates for you and leave them in the order you've inputted them. I have keyword presets, and do all my basic importing when I upload my images from my SD card. Then I tweak them as I'm culling and processing.

 

I spent about an hour the other day uploading (with keywords) and then culling a vacation shoot from 600+ RAW files down to 170 images* - I haven't figured out how to just import the ones I want, but it's easy enough to hit x on my keyboard for those I wish to delete as I'm reviewing a shoot, then when I'm done I sort by pick. All the x files (pun intended 😎) are at the end and I can highlight them all hitting shift, then delete all at once.

 

This year I qualified for a free subscription by having 300+ new images accepted at their eponymous site, but I have been really happy switching to the subscription and love having the latest upgrades immediately rather than pondering if it's time to pay a substantial amount to upgrade. Since ~2006, I'd upgraded every other version of PS, but upgraded LR each time. Love the way they work together, and my old Nik filters still work in LR too, though with all LR does on it's own, I rarely use them anymore.

 

I've used the free version of Capture One with my Sony. It does a beautiful job with RAW files, but it is slower than LR and useless IMHO for organizing. 

 

If you've got the LR/PS subscription, then stick with LR Classic. Easiest way to keep your images organized. And with the Sync feature you can take files you've organized in another program and just make them into a catalog. 

 

*I somehow ended up having bracketing turned on for an entire day (maybe because I had used the handheld twilight setting the night before and when I switched back to RAW it kept bracketing on ? )  I got three of everything (actually 6 of everything since I was also shooting jpegs, but they go into a separate folder and usually get deleted, though it would be easier if I didn't have to upload them first). 

Edited by Marianne
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