“Where have you been all along”?
Oh, I had feared you would ask – sorry for that extended break again. Now that the football world cup is over, more time for the important things in life remains, like updating my blog 
Promise!
A lot actually has happened since my last post, and I will need some time (yes, I know, if I am ever able to…) to catch up, with my existing posting ideas turning into articles.
One of the major decisions I have made some weeks ago is to actually abandon Photoshop Elements for most purposes – a software I have used since version 2.0 when it was still called Photoshop Album – for something better. And of course, like everybody else not using a Mac (those also have the choice of Apple’s Aperture) I had considered Adobe Lightroom as the natural next thing to turn to. So when Adobe released the Lightroom 3.0 beta version, I gave it yet another try and installed it on my machine, to find out if I would like it this time. My first experiments two years ago ended with me not purchasing it, because Lightroom actually lacked many of the features I had come to like in Photoshop Elements back then.
Concurrently, I thought why not follow a tip I got on a workshop last fall by some fellow photographer who is actually a Lufthansa airline pilot and who recommended Photo Mechanic from Camera Bits, a tool seemingly known and used mostly by pro-photographers. Thinking, “Hey, this guy is a pilot, so he sure must like stuff that works and gets a job done!”, I downloaded and installed Photo Mechanic, and tried it concurrently with Lightroom for the image downloading and selection of a few photo shoots back in May.
To put it into perspective: Photo Mechanic is a pure photo downloading, browsing, and tagging/keywording application. That’s where the functionality stops. It is not a RAW converter, and has no image editing capabilities. In that, it is much more like the tandem of Nikon ViewNX and Nikon TransferNX you get for free when you buy a Nikon DSLR. The troubles I had with Nikon ViewNX I had blogged about earlier, and was starting to turn away from this combination as well.
“So what happened?”
From day one, I started using Photoshop Mechanic for my real “work”, instead of Nikon ViewNX. I had had the intention to merely test it, but I just never went back to my old tools. Hmmm. Does tell something, doesn’t it?
“And Lightroom?”
Yes, I forced myself to test it as well. I did, and though I had taken some classes on Lightroom previously on various occasions, and had a good grip on the software and its capabilities, it didn’t do the job for me as effortlessly and unobtrusively as Photo Mechanic. Instead of going into detail why, I for my part don’t think the selection of a software is a rational decision only – just like the selection of a camera body or a lens requires the real tactile feedback, the software has to feel like the right tool for the job at hand.
One point that certainly made a strong point for Photo Mechanic is the ridiculously low computing power requirement of the software. Mostly probably because it is exactly not a RAW converter, and since my lesson learned I always shoot JPG+RAW together, so I rely on Photoshop CS3 for the RAW conversion should I start image editing.
“Why is this important? Just get a faster machine!”
Well, for one, I did make a decision to spend money to buy stuff that makes me produce better photos, and just a new computer with more GHz and GByte will not do this for me. And secondly, looking forward I know I will need to get a Netbook for traveling soon, and as these are pleasantly cheap and pleasantly light by now, I have no intention to revert to a heavy and costly laptop for during-the-trip image downloading, selection and tagging (oh – you see my case now?). Photo Mechanic actually made me feel I just got a new PC, it is so much faster than Nikon ViewNX. And I am running this on a 2003 Dell. If it runs on that, it will run on the Netbook as well.
“Well, that’s not a fair comparison – Lightroom is meant to run on modern PCs!”
Never said this was a fair comparison – I am just reporting what works for me at this time, and maybe to encourage you – if you are facing the same decision I did – to consider also non-mainstream solutions for yourself, maybe they fit you better, as they did fit me!
“Can you show me this ‘wonderful’ software?”
Sure I can! Here are some screenshots of the software in production at my place, but I want to encourage you to go to Camera Bits website – they of course have a fully functional trial version as well!
Here is a look at the thumbnail contact sheet view:
There is of course a larger single view as well:
This can do comparison views, in horizontal and vertical, locked and unlocked (surpassing ViewNX in this):
And the IPTC dialog looks very raw, but has many useful features:
It does support GPS as well, though I won’t change my GPS workflow using Geosetter for this, it is useful to be able to pop up the window with the Google Maps embedded:
“Hey, you must be kidding! This ain’t pretty!”
As said before, it works for me. Your mileage may vary
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