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User profile for user: WaxwingCathy
WaxwingCathy Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Photos alternative

With limited storage on my laptop, and slow internet, I've been looking for an alternative to Photos (for DAM) where I can store full-size on an external hard drive, and keep aliases/small sizes in various folders on my laptop. I'd like the option to have a list view, and dislike the odd way Photos organizes and labels the aliases.

On Jun 5, 2007 eww posted this -- wondering what an up-to-date version would be:

"You would be much better served by digital-asset-management software such as Extensis Portfolio or Canto Cumulus, which would give you total control over the storage locations of your photos while enabling you to create multiple, complex interrelationships among them — iPhoto on steroids, without the storage-location strictures of iPhoto's database organization."

Also I will keep Photos in the cloud on my iPhone, another complication.

I'm presently using Affinity Photo for editing, and ApolloOne.


MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Feb 23, 2023 1:08 PM

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User profile for user: Kurt Lang
Kurt Lang
User level: Level 9
58,458 points

Posted on Feb 23, 2023 6:14 PM

I've been using NeoFinder for at least the past five years in exactly the way you're looking for. All of the high res images are on a NAS, and all that's on the Mac are thumbnails. I have over a terabyte of images and the entire DAM content on the Mac is 1.5 GB. Cheap, too, for a single user license at $40.


It can be downloaded and run in demo mode to try it out. Lots of tagging options.


For me, this was the only replacement I could find that worked almost exactly like the DAM software On1 suddenly dropped. I also needed one that could understand and import CMYK images. This is one of the very few that can.

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User profile for user: Kurt Lang
Kurt Lang
User level: Level 9
58,458 points

Feb 23, 2023 6:14 PM in response to WaxwingCathy

I've been using NeoFinder for at least the past five years in exactly the way you're looking for. All of the high res images are on a NAS, and all that's on the Mac are thumbnails. I have over a terabyte of images and the entire DAM content on the Mac is 1.5 GB. Cheap, too, for a single user license at $40.


It can be downloaded and run in demo mode to try it out. Lots of tagging options.


For me, this was the only replacement I could find that worked almost exactly like the DAM software On1 suddenly dropped. I also needed one that could understand and import CMYK images. This is one of the very few that can.

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User profile for user: Yer_Man
Yer_Man
User level: Level 10
162,420 points

Feb 23, 2023 3:15 PM in response to WaxwingCathy

You could certainly use either of those apps, but both a extremely expensive and designed for use in places like newspaper offices, with server and client relationships to manage - not so much a sledgehammer to crack a peanut as a jackhammer. And an extremely expensive jackhammer at that. Last time I checked both these apps were around the $300 per seat mark. Not exactly aimed at the home user :)


You don't mention your budget, or the size of your Library, or how fast it grows. Neither do you mention what you're shooting with, and if you're a raw shooter, pro, or serious hobbyist. Or are you a family snapper? So, the landscape has altered immensely since 2007, so here's a few options to check out:


From the point of view of pure DAM then Photo Supreme is worth checking out: https://www.idimager.com/


All the other suggestions I make will involve some editing capacity as well:


Industry standard: Lightroom Classic. Paired with Lightroom CC you won't need Photos at all. You can get both and Photoshop as a subscription.


Others: Mylio, deceptively simple looking but very powerful, may also render Photos redundant. OnOne Photo Raw - bit more of an editor than a Dam but still useful.


IF you can describe your intended use, volume and budge we might be able to be more specific.





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User profile for user: WaxwingCathy
WaxwingCathy Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Feb 23, 2023 5:50 PM in response to Yer_Man

Thanks, Yer Man -- I switched from my old Nikon film cameras to digital (now Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII) and have previously kept images in simple folders by date. And have a ton of slides still to digitize! So I use both RAW and jpeg/heic. I'm a serious amateur but don't have an extraordinary number of photos -- only got into Apple when a "helpful" Apple specialist figured putting a Photos library on my external hard drive was the way to go. ADSL sucks! However, the ability to keep aliases on my laptop is a boon because I have several in various other folders, and don't know if others that do that. (I see Mylio does but I only have my laptop and iPhone, and it's likely more than I need at $100/year).

What about Power Photos? It looks to have a list view which I often prefer, and a duplicate finder, and is a quite reasonable cost. As I'm running on Catalina I'd have to get version 1, and "With version 1, PowerPhotos couldn’t access media stored in iCloud". I suppose I'll have to download from the cloud, and put up with the strange names aliases are given. (Upgrading to Ventura etc. costs GB's of storage too). But I believe it does do aliases?

PS I used to have Creative Cloud but got fed up with Adobe changing things all the time and loading up storage with all sorts of bits and pieces.

Thanks, Cathy

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User profile for user: Yer_Man
Yer_Man
User level: Level 10
162,420 points

Feb 24, 2023 1:33 AM in response to WaxwingCathy

However, the ability to keep aliases on my laptop is a boon because I have several in various other folders, and don't know if others that do that.


Most apps will do that. Library on your HD and the master stored on an external is perfectly possible. I suspect from your description that Photo Supreme is closest to what you're looking for. Maybe NeoFinder next.

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Photos alternative

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