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05-20-2014, 03:41 PM   #1
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Photo Management on Macs

I use Linux, but my wife is just getting into photography and is using a Mac.

I plan to show her how to use Darktable, but it lacks a photo management tool (it supports tagging, etc, but the copying and renaming of files must be done externally).

On Linux I use rapid photo downloader. Anything similar that can be used on Macs (that is free)?

Thanks.

05-20-2014, 04:01 PM   #2
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What do you mean? Where are you "rapidly" downloading photos from. The SD card?

Since OSX is UNIX certified, there are lots of Linux stuff that has been ported to OSX. I can't say about your particular downloading app though. But tools like Fink, and Homebrew allow you to install apps from a repository much like the flavors of Linux do and, of course, you have better support for secret, proprietary file formats on OSX that we can't help but run into in everyday life.
05-20-2014, 04:20 PM   #3
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Can someone explain Fink, MacPorts, and Homebrew to me? - Ars Technica OpenForum

But why not just use iPhoto?
05-20-2014, 04:30 PM   #4
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@tuco:

Rapid Photo Downloader: Rapid Photo Downloader

Basically what I'm talking about is:

1. I copy the files from the card to the computer manually.
2. The files will have a horrible name like P000345.DNG. It'll contain photos from multiple shootings. I want to select photos from one shooting, and rename them to tahiti_0000.DNG through tahiti_0100.DNG (or whatever the number would be).
3. The program, after renaming, should copy the files to some appropriate directory structure (e.g. Photos/2014/Tahiti/03-28-2014/tahiti_0000.DNG)

The rest will be handled in Darktable.

rapid photo downloader is not officially supported on Mac. I know that Mac is UNIX and many Linux apps will work on it, but some may have heavy library dependencies that don't usually exist on Mac and installing all dependencies is a pain. I'd rather have something that is designed for Mac. Also, if I spend a lot of time figuring out stuff like Fink on her laptop, have things break, etc - she (like most mortals) is going to quickly lose all interest in photography. I'd rather just have something that works immediately.

@boriscleto: Is iphoto free? Will it handle RAW files?

Thanks!

05-20-2014, 04:47 PM   #5
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You can always use Picasa for downloading and organising if you don't favour iPhoto, but the editing facilities are very basic, eg you can't retrieve information from highlights easily. iPhoto comes with the Mac.
05-21-2014, 09:31 AM   #6
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Thanks everyone, but iPhoto is a pain. It stores the files in its own manner and the Internet is replete with warnings about editing the directories they're in (darktable will create xmp files in there). People are suggesting using it to export to a folder structure, and working in the new folder. But that leads to needless duplicates, etc.

Maybe I'll try Picasa. I'm a bit surprised I can't find anything similar to rapid photo downloader. All I want is something that copies files "intelligently" into a desired directory structure.

---------- Post added 05-21-14 at 09:35 AM ----------

I think this is along the lines of what I need:

qdev.de - ExifRenamer
05-21-2014, 09:48 AM   #7
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I guess people love to install lots of photos on their computer. And I guess I do things the hard way but it's a very lean way. I create a directory for my shots I did that day or event, I open the all the JPGs on the SD card via OSX's preview app, scrutinize them and only copy the RAW files over to the directory I just made that are actually worthy of keeping.

Out of 100 photos typically 5 or 10 will make it. I find that method even more lean than copying all the RAW files over, reviewing them in Lightroom and then deleting the rejects because for some reason once they are imported I have a hard time getting rid of them.

05-21-2014, 10:13 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by tuco Quote
I guess people love to install lots of photos on their computer. And I guess I do things the hard way but it's a very lean way. I create a directory for my shots I did that day or event, I open the all the JPGs on the SD card via OSX's preview app, scrutinize them and only copy the RAW files over to the directory I just made that are actually worthy of keeping.

Out of 100 photos typically 5 or 10 will make it. I find that method even more lean than copying all the RAW files over, reviewing them in Lightroom and then deleting the rejects because for some reason once they are imported I have a hard time getting rid of them.
Even if I used your method, I'd still want to rename them all. And I'd rather a smart tool put it in an appropriate folder structure than me doing it manually each time.

What I currently have would be something like:

tahiti/2014-03-25/tahiti_0001.DNG
.
.
.
tahiti/2014-03-26/tahiti_0239.DNG
.
.
.

And so on. I prefer to have it organized by date within an event. I'll grant that I still manually have to separate the Tahiti photos from the Maui ones. I use the JPEG to figure that out.
05-21-2014, 11:07 AM - 1 Like   #9
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Interesting how much trouble folks invent. Now I can see if you have a particular bent you do it that way. It's your prerogative. As for not starting your wife with iPhoto... that's a little extreme. Why not start her with iPhoto and if it turns out she needs something better, then upgrade her? Honestly, I give folder names similar to the what you put in the file name. I can find my files in Aperture by creating a smart folder based on date, then I get all files from all four cameras and both shooters, in order. The only files I actually put into folders are ones that are good enough to print, and those are exported into folders to be printed and backed up on several drives. Those are exported as 16 bit Tiffs and full size jpegs, and put into folders on my hard drive.

The disadvantage to starting your wife on an un-necessarily complex system is she may just decide to ditch post processing altogether and just go with jpegs off the camera. Honestly, what you propose is anti-Mac. You know the ease of use thing? My guess is, your wife wants a Mac because she doesn't want to have to mess around with all that crap. This might be your passive aggressive way of punishing her for not sharing your need for unnecessarily complexity to accomplish minimal gain.

As a Mac user, I would certainly consider being forced into such a system on such spurious complaints to be punishment. Don't get me wrong, I've programmed in machine code and a few different languages, I'm not a computer ninny. I just choose not to make work for myself, when it's not absolutely necessary.

Last edited by normhead; 05-21-2014 at 11:19 AM.
05-21-2014, 11:29 AM   #10
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My photo management needs are minimal. I've set up my Mac so that when I plug in my card reader:

* AutoImporter starts up and creates a folder named for today's date
* The images are copied into the folder
* My SD card is erased

I then fire up Adobe Bridge to browse the day's take.

AutoImporter is found in /System/Library/Image Capture/Support/Application and it's preferences can be set re: folder name location etc. I'm using Mountain Lion--the location may vary on other OS's.
05-21-2014, 11:41 AM   #11
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QuoteQuote:
As for not starting your wife with iPhoto... that's a little extreme. Why not start her with iPhoto and if it turns out she needs something better, then upgrade her
I quite sympathize with what you're saying, but perhaps at the other end of the spectrum. If she has all her photos in iPhoto and decides to use some other software, it's a pain to get all her photos in the other tool and so she may give up on PP - just restricting her usage to iPhoto forever.

How capable is iPhoto? Does it have basic stuff like Curves? How about noise reduction? Or masking?

The reason I'd like to teach her darktable is that I know darktable quite well. Otherwise she'll see me or someone else do something and ask how she can do it. I wouldn't know if iphoto can do it or not. I can't teach her what I don't know.

QuoteQuote:
Honestly, what you propose is anti-Mac. You know the ease of use thing? My guess is, your wife wants a Mac because she doesn't want to have to mess around with all that crap. This might be your passive aggressive way of punishing her for not sharing your need for unnecessarily complexity to accomplish minimal gain.

And that response is a very Appleish response. It's more or less saying, "You want to do something other than what we've dictated? Screw you and use something else!"

I wish you could see how extreme your response is. If she wants to use Lightroom in the future, she'll face the same problem we're discussing now. Look at the convoluted solution:

Lightroom Help | Import photos from iPhoto (Mac OS)

Easy for you and me, but not for someone like her. I'd rather she not get locked into iPhoto and have better options for the future. I picked darktable only because it's almost as good as Lightroom and free. If you think I'm going for unnecessary complexity, you're essentially condemning all Lightroom users on Mac as well. Also, I don't want her to think I'm giving her a lower quality tool just because she's a Mac user.

Besides, I'm not asking for something overly complicated or nonstandard. Software like Lightroom, AftershotPro, etc do exactly what I'm asking for. The only difference is that darktable doesn't come with it built in, and so I need a 3rd party tool. I've tried different DAM methods in the past, including one similar to yours. In the very end, I found my/Lightroom's solution to be simpler.
05-21-2014, 12:02 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by Beetle B. Quote
Even if I used your method, I'd still want to rename them all. And I'd rather a smart tool put it in an appropriate folder structure than me doing it manually each time.

What I currently have would be something like:

tahiti/2014-03-25/tahiti_0001.DNG
.
.
.
tahiti/2014-03-26/tahiti_0239.DNG
.
.
.

And so on. I prefer to have it organized by date within an event. I'll grant that I still manually have to separate the Tahiti photos from the Maui ones. I use the JPEG to figure that out.
I thought you said you're running Linux? Assuming the following files are in a directory:
IMG0295.DNG, IMG0296.DNG, IMG0297.DNG, etc.
Then following command will rename them to:
TAHITI0295.DNG, TAHITI0296.DNG, TAHITI0297.DNG, etc
Code:
 $ rename IMG TAHITI *.DNG
05-21-2014, 12:06 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by tuco Quote
I thought you said you're running Linux? Assuming the following files are in a directory:
IMG0295.DNG, IMG0296.DNG, IMG0297.DNG, etc.
Then following command will convert them to:
TAHITI0295.DNG, TAHITI0296.DNG, TAHITI0297.DNG, etc
Code:
 $ rename IMG TAHITI *.DNG
Yes, but it won't create date based directories. In any case, I'm not going to get my wife to type shell commands...
05-21-2014, 12:07 PM   #14
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On MacOS the iPhoto library is available to any program that uses the correct framework. Additionally you can set up an external editor to use in place of the iPhoto editor.

iPhoto '11: Edit photos using another application

I use Aperture now, but if i need an external editor I use Pixelmator. Not free, but it's only $30.

Pixelmator

It shouldn't be any different for darktable.
05-21-2014, 12:10 PM - 1 Like   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by Beetle B. Quote
I quite sympathize with what you're saying, but perhaps at the other end of the spectrum. If she has all her photos in iPhoto and decides to use some other software, it's a pain to get all her photos in the other tool and so she may give up on PP - just restricting her usage to iPhoto forever.

How capable is iPhoto? Does it have basic stuff like Curves? How about noise reduction? Or masking?

The reason I'd like to teach her darktable is that I know darktable quite well. Otherwise she'll see me or someone else do something and ask how she can do it. I wouldn't know if iphoto can do it or not. I can't teach her what I don't know.


And that response is a very Appleish response. It's more or less saying, "You want to do something other than what we've dictated? Screw you and use something else!"

I wish you could see how extreme your response is. If she wants to use Lightroom in the future, she'll face the same problem we're discussing now. Look at the convoluted solution:

Lightroom Help | Import photos from iPhoto (Mac OS)

Easy for you and me, but not for someone like her. I'd rather she not get locked into iPhoto and have better options for the future. I picked darktable only because it's almost as good as Lightroom and free. If you think I'm going for unnecessary complexity, you're essentially condemning all Lightroom users on Mac as well. Also, I don't want her to think I'm giving her a lower quality tool just because she's a Mac user.

Besides, I'm not asking for something overly complicated or nonstandard. Software like Lightroom, AftershotPro, etc do exactly what I'm asking for. The only difference is that darktable doesn't come with it built in, and so I need a 3rd party tool. I've tried different DAM methods in the past, including one similar to yours. In the very end, I found my/Lightroom's solution to be simpler.
SO start her with Lightroom... I didn't ask you, well if she starts with Lightroom and then wants to go to Aperture she'll have to do all this stuff did I? As mine is a typical mac Users response, yours is a typical PC user's response. I have to do this and this and this so I can't use Apple product. Influenced by a lot of really silly posts on line, these corporations convince you you have to use their product to achieve something you don't really need, to sell you product. Apple is no different. Your insistence that I'm buying the Apple cool aid, well, you drink your own brand of cool aid. I don't find what you describe necessary, and your wife may not either. End of story.

Last edited by normhead; 05-21-2014 at 12:17 PM.
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