Photo file managers
November 24, 2024 1:40 PM Subscribe
Seeking a replacement for an ollllld version of lightroom for a specific, file management task.
I used to use lightroom much more than I do now, and could never justify the move to a subscription service; an old version worked perfectly fine on multiple machines I had. I recently upgraded to an M3 macos machine, and lo and behold, it broke my ancient copy of lightroom. I knew the day was imminent, and I have been slowly using darktable for editing and developing photos, but they don't appear to want to incorporate any file management into their system. darktable works perfect for editing photos in the way I am used to; no issues there.
My workflow is probably hot garbage, but I am not a professional. I manually pull photos off phones and cameras using imagecapture; having those images dropped into a single folder, then asking lightroom to import then, which drops them all into their existing Pictures/[year]/[year-month-day] structure. Double check everything imported correctly, then delete the imagecapture folder.
I'm open to arguments to use the native macos photos app, but the last time I tried using the program, it hid too many files and pushed icloud integration too hard, and that was the opposite direction I was looking to go.
Are there any free or single purchase options (no subscriptions; will not consider anything subscription based for this) that will allow me to import and/or structure photos from several devices into a single library using the existing Pictures/[year]/[year-month-day] nesting folder structure that lighroom uses?
I used to use lightroom much more than I do now, and could never justify the move to a subscription service; an old version worked perfectly fine on multiple machines I had. I recently upgraded to an M3 macos machine, and lo and behold, it broke my ancient copy of lightroom. I knew the day was imminent, and I have been slowly using darktable for editing and developing photos, but they don't appear to want to incorporate any file management into their system. darktable works perfect for editing photos in the way I am used to; no issues there.
My workflow is probably hot garbage, but I am not a professional. I manually pull photos off phones and cameras using imagecapture; having those images dropped into a single folder, then asking lightroom to import then, which drops them all into their existing Pictures/[year]/[year-month-day] structure. Double check everything imported correctly, then delete the imagecapture folder.
I'm open to arguments to use the native macos photos app, but the last time I tried using the program, it hid too many files and pushed icloud integration too hard, and that was the opposite direction I was looking to go.
Are there any free or single purchase options (no subscriptions; will not consider anything subscription based for this) that will allow me to import and/or structure photos from several devices into a single library using the existing Pictures/[year]/[year-month-day] nesting folder structure that lighroom uses?
Best answer: I would do this with Big Mean Folder Machine. It’s $25, no subscription. The developer has been in the Mac community forever and still supports registrations back to like the turn of the century.
posted by bcwinters at 2:15 PM on November 24, 2024
posted by bcwinters at 2:15 PM on November 24, 2024
Best answer: I recommend NeoFinder. It does everything you want and so much more for $39, with no subscription. The developer is active and easy to contact. He has a MacOS version and iOS of the software.
NeoFinder was initially designed for photo assets, but I use it for EVERYTHING management, including a crapton of books and regular files. It is happy to catalogue and find things on internal and external drives. It has a wide range of import features, too. The metadata handling and management are solid. I have not moved or looked at other asset management software since I started using them years ago.
posted by jadepearl at 2:46 PM on November 24, 2024
NeoFinder was initially designed for photo assets, but I use it for EVERYTHING management, including a crapton of books and regular files. It is happy to catalogue and find things on internal and external drives. It has a wide range of import features, too. The metadata handling and management are solid. I have not moved or looked at other asset management software since I started using them years ago.
posted by jadepearl at 2:46 PM on November 24, 2024
but this seems like a task that could be handled through AppleScript and exiftool
If it's just getting files into a particular date-related directory structure you likely don't need more than just the right incantation of exiftool. This is what I use:
which moves all pics into a YYYY/mm/dd tree underneath a directory based on the camera/phone model (as stored in the exif data). Adjust to taste.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:27 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
If it's just getting files into a particular date-related directory structure you likely don't need more than just the right incantation of exiftool. This is what I use:
exiftool '-Directory<$Model/$DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d *jpgwhich moves all pics into a YYYY/mm/dd tree underneath a directory based on the camera/phone model (as stored in the exif data). Adjust to taste.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:27 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
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posted by isauteikisa at 1:55 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]