If you are looking for a Lightroom alternative which offers organizing feature for image and video files but without the monthly subscription, In this article I propose 2 applications for consideration. I will concentrate on organizing features or a DAM (Digital Asset Management) feature, not image editor which is easy to find from various applications.
I ever used Adobe Lightroom version 5. Then I used Lightroom CC for 3 years. Finally, I upgraded from version 5 to version 6 (perpetual license) and have been using it until now.
Anyway, as a Mac user which Mac OS is about to launch a new 64-bit OS Catalina (version 10.15) soon. The future of Lightroom 6 is uncertain. Although Lightroom 6 is the 64-bit but the installer and licensing code are 32-bit. Lightroom 6 may or may not continue to work on Catalina. Adobe itself stated in its blog that Lightroom 6 may function in some capacity but you will not be able to reinstall or activate it after upgrading to Catalina. I have heard some people who upgraded to Catalina Beta complained that their Lightroom 6 did not work on that one.
If I still want to stay with Lightroom, I will have 2 choices : continue using MacOS Mojave (version 10.14) or subscribe to Adobe Photography Plan. I will choose neither one. I will find the alternative to Lightroom.
Lightroom has 2 main functions: the DAM and the image editor. There are other softwares that have a DAM function and an image editors. I am looking for the ability of the software that can be Lightroom alternatives. The most important thing is that software must use the catalog system as their databases. I prefer to use catalog as a database which the user can create the collections or nested collections and smart collections. The collection is important for my workflow in managing the image and video files. With catalog, we can add a high amount of functionality especially in file management.
This is the way I organize my files: year —>month —>date —>event.
Since I spend my leisure time with stock photography, so I created collections for my stock files. These collections help me find out which files I submitted to each stock websites. The collections in the picture below show the current status of my files: submitted, approved and rejected for online selling.
The ACDSee Photo Studio provides DAM functions not much different from that of Lightroom. It has a function of rating your image files with numbers and color labels. You can edit the metadata of your image files. You can browse all of your image files from the folders you choose. As you browse, ACDSee Photo Studio adds your files to its database in the background. Therefore, you do not have to import all files to ACDSee Photo Studio. However, if you want to catalog your folder, you can do that. You can apply the keywords to your files. You can easily search all of your files. ACDSee Photo Studio supports collections and sub collections, but ACDSee calls them ‘Albums’. It also supports various RAW formats.
If any file is rejected by any stock website (123RF in this case), I would take a note of that file by using a plugin called Big note as shown in the following picture.
My alternative DAM application must have ability to create nested collections as those of Lightroom. The Collection is a method to group our files in one virtual place, although our files are kept in different location.
There are a few applications that I have some opinion as follows.
ON1 Photo RAW
This software has a Lightroom migration tool. You can migrate your Lightroom catalog files and collections to ON1 Photo Raw. But one thing that is unacceptable to me is I cannot backup the catalog of ON1 Photo Raw. That the way it was designed. If you want to back up the catalog, you may have to clone your hard drive.
Skylum Luminar
Skylum Luminar also have catalog system and photo editor. But its catalog system is at beginner level. You cannot compare with that of Lightroom. But its image editor is another level, I will write an article on Luminar eventually.
Capture One Pro
Capture One Pro, this is the professional image editing software. This is a pricey application. I do not want to invest so much money. I am not a pro just only a hobbyist.
Photo Mechanic
Photo Mechanic is a browser and has a very limited editing function. I do not think it is a DAM software. I use Photo Mechanic to import and cull my photos from SD card to computer. And I use it intensively for assigning keywords. Anyway, Photo Mechanic Plus is coming soon. This new software has a catalog system and it will be worth having a look when the time has come.
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge is a browser. You can browse various digital files, from a photo, video, to document, pdf and audio files, etc. I will not choose Bridge as my application for photo and video file management because it lacks the catalog system and the perfect collections. You can’t create nested collections or sub collections in Bridge.
After searching and installing various softwares for trial, finally the suitable application for serving my workflow is ACDSee Photo Studio and NeoFinder.
Both of them are not perfect but they can serve my purpose by using these applications as a DAM solution.
ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac
ACDSee Photo Studio is a browser but it has a database system. You can catalog folders and process the image files as well.
Normally, ACD Systems International is a company which have produced digital image editing and management software for quite a long time. Most of their products are Windows-based. Now they have ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 5. I know their Windows versions are superior to their Mac version.
It is a bit of headache when ACDSee differentiate their products in Windows versions.
– ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2019: This version provides a DAM and raw processing function just like the Library and Develop modules in Lightroom. This ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate provides layer function in its image processing which Lightroom does not have the layer function.
– ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2019: This version is the same as the Ultimate version except there is no layer support.
– ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2019: This version provides only a DAM function.
For the Mac OS version, they only have ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 5. Its functions is the same as ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2019.
I am a Mac user, so the features provided in this article is from ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac version 5.
The picture below is the interface of ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac.
The ACDSee Photo Studio provides DAM functions not much different from that of Lightroom. It has a function of rating your image files with numbers and color labels. You can edit the metadata of your image files. You can browse all of your image files from the folders you choose. As you browse, ACDSee Photo Studio adds your files to its database in the background. Therefore, you do not have to import all files to ACDSee Photo Studio. However, if you want to catalog your folder, you can do that. You can apply the keywords to your files. You can easily search all of your files. ACDSee Photo Studio supports collections and sub collections, but ACDSee calls them ‘Albums’. It also supports various RAW formats.
ACDSee Photo Studio for Windows has a function for Lightroom migration by importing Lightroom database. This includes collections, keywords, ratings, and color labels. Unfortunately, this function is not available for the Mac version. It is one of the problems that I mentioned above that Windows version is superior to the Mac version.
Anyway, since ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac cannot import collections from Lightroom I have to create albums manually. The method in creating albums in ACDSee differs from creating collections Lightroom. The Organize & Properties panes on the right-hand side of the interface. They are the places where you assign keywords, categories, ratings, color labels, and view and edit EXIF and IPTC metadata.
If you want to create albums, you have to do it in the Organize pane. The picture below shows how I create Albums which similar to Collections in Lightroom.
The keyword field in the Organize pane does not show the keywords that were embedded in Lightroom. You have to assign keywords by yourself. The keywords in the Organize pane shows a keyword list that you have to insert a check mark.
The purpose of the Organize pane is to find the files quickly. I understand the concept of a list keyword in the Organize pane is to retrieve the thumbnails of all catalog items that have the specific keyword assigned. For example, if you click the flower keyword then all the images that have flower keyword will display.
If you want to see the keywords embedded in the files, choose the Properties pane which will display the metadata of the files. In the picture below is the example of Properties pane displaying the IPTC Core of the specific image file. Please notice the keywords on the status bar which is the keywords I check marked them in the Organize Pane.
With the same image file as shown above which was rejected by 123RF website, I chose ACDSee metadata. This ACDSee metadata provides a space for taking a note as shown in the picture below.
ACDSee Photo Studio cannot create a virtual copy, snapshot, history of editing. Anyhow, when using its image editor it is a non-destructive editing. You can reset your edited file to the original anytime.
ACDSee Photo Studio has a function of database backup. You can assign the location of database back up.
For the image editor, ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac does not provide local adjustment. There is no brush or even clone & stamp tool. I hope they will add these features when the next version is released.
NeoFinder
NeoFinder is the DAM software for Mac OS. As of this writing, the current version is 7.4.1. It does not have Windows version. Anyway, there is a Windows application called ‘abeMeda for Windows ‘ which is similar to NeoFinder. Both NeoFinder and abeMeda teams are German. I think they are allies. NeoFinder’s old name is CDFinder and abeMeda’s old name is CDWinder.
NeoFinder has no function of an image editor. It is purely DAM software just like ACDSee Photo Studio Standard version. You have to use other editing applications for post processing. This is a different approach to use the application for file organization & management and other applications for image post processing. You can use any software to process your files and then update the catalog of NeoFinder.
NeoFinder is not a browser so you have to import your files into it. This workflow is similar Lightroom. NeoFinder can view various kinds of digital files just like those of Bridge. NeoFinder can view some proprietary file formats such as Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Luminar files. If you have already used these softwares it will facilitate your workflow.
You may think NeoFinder is not the photo-centric DAM because it can view various kinds of files. It can be used for organizing CD, music files, pdf files, docx, etc. But it is easy to configure NeoFinder to organize only image and video files.
The following pictures is the interface of NeoFinder.
From the pictures shown above, you can see the difference of the library pane between Lightroom or ACDSee Photo Studio and NeoFinder. In NeoFinder library pane, you cannot expand the folder to sub folder. It shows only the top-level folder. Your sub folder will be displayed in the main window. You have to click the sub folder in the main windows again and again to expand to the sub folder that contains your image files. You do not know the number of files in each folder or sub folder (as in Lightroom) until you reach the destination subfolder. It would be nice if we can expand the volumes or folders in the library pane without drilling down through each sub folders in the main window. This is what I dislike in NeoFinder.
Creating catalog system in NeoFinder, you have 2 options to choose between creating a new catalog from a volume and from a folder. The difference between them is if you create catalog from a volume like your hard drive, only your volume will be on the library pane. Your year/month/date folders will be displayed in the main window. If you create catalog from each folder, you still have to click the sub folders of month/date/subject in the main window as well but the distance to your destination is shorter.
In Lightroom library pane, you can expand the folders/sub folders and collapse sub folder from the library pane only. The main windows is for displaying your photos and videos only. This is very quick and very convenience for the user.
The picture below shows the library pane that has both catalogs from volume (red line) and from folder (green line).
If you double click either the volume or the folder in the library pane, NeoFinder will open the folder or sub folders in another window. I think this function is very good for looking inside other folders/sub folder without closing the main window.
When you use Lightroom to manage your files, you have to do it in Lightroom only. You should not do it outside Lightroom for example: copy, move, rename the files or folders. For NeoFinder you can do it outside NeoFinder. Then you manually update your catalog. Updating the database of a volume takes a longer time than updating the folder because of the numbers of the files. In my case, having more than 100,000 files, it takes longer than 1 hour.
You can backup the database file and choose the location of the backup. Backingup 1 volume you will get 1 large backup file but backingup 20 folders you will get small 20 backup files.
About Collections, NeoFinder can create Collections and Sub Collections as in Lightroom and ACDSee Photo Studio. NeoFinder also call them Albums as called in ACDSee Photo Studio. We clearly see the information of the files on the right – hand pane. By design, the text box use the white background, so it is easy to read the text than the black background. I can take a note on the comment box. We can expand and collapse any info that we want to show or not to show. The picture below showing the info about the rejected file in rejected Album.
I prefer the user interface of NeoFinder to that of ACDSee Photo Studio when dealing with albums. It is easier to look at information, no need to click any other panes. You can find all information in one page.
In the current version, you can prevent NeoFinder from sorting keywords alphabetically when displaying and saving them. This is the feature which I requested NeoFinder to add it as an option to choose between alphabetical and non alphabetical order of keywords. This is a good option for stock photographers because some stock websites ask the photographer to prioritize the keyword list when submitting the files.
NeoFinder and ACDSee Photo Studio are 64 bit applications, so there will be no problem with the new 64 bit Mac OS. In my opinion, both of them can be a Lightroom alternative in the scope of DAM solution. It is difficult for me to choose which one is better. The best choice for you is to download the applications and install them. You can use both of them as a trial for 30 days.
The website of ACDSee is www.acdsee.com.
The website of NeoFinder is www.cdfinder.de.