What are you using for DAM with AP and AD?

[Rhod]

Well, I guess the question is in the title...  :) I have LR6 but I'm wondering if there are any alternatives.  Of course the ideal would be a fully integrated Affinity DAM and I know this is in the pipeline, but there seems to be little movement on that at present (I guess things might well be happening behind the scenes).  I suppose what I'm really interested in is knowing how you folks with thousands of photos (like me) integrate AP and AD into your workflow.  

 

Thanks

[C-F]

Hey,

yes, that is a good question!

 

I just discovered Affinity Photo and purchased it. Until now my workflow is/was,

- Ingesting with Photo Mechanic 5 (PM5) or tethered with Capture One pro 9 (COP9)

- Raw converter and 'enhancements' with COP9 in session mode

- Media pro 1.5 for "DAM" of the various external hard drives (archives).

 

For the current work in progress I rely on memory which session contains what image set I'm not done with - not the best solution but as I'm just a hobbyist it works. If I get lost I have picasa to quickly browse my hard drive and find a picture to work on (I restricted it to only stay current with my pictures folder where all my current images are stored).

 

I too am curious to see what Affinity will be able to come up with in that department and hope they DON'T try to integrate it with AP and or AD - compatible yes but please not in one program...lol.

 

Meanwhile I ran across a software called 'Photo supreme'  http://www.idimager.com/WP/?page_id=20-which I'm on a 30 day trial.

I like it. However, it is VERY picky and strictly adheres to the xmp protocol for metadata handling giving me some trouble with my existing metadata as other software apparently is - let's say a bit more loose in its implementation.  

Very flexible and powerful DAM if you are willing to spent the time and effort to learn and commit to it as a sole metadata handler! As with all programs, one has to first let your head wrap around its requirements and than use it as intended - thats my hope at least.

 

So, I'm quite busy in 2 new avenues ( Affinity Photo for pixel editing and Photo Supreme to get a bit more organization into my messy collection of images).

 

Oh, and to answer your question about AP integration into the workflow, for me there are two possible points of integration,

a-) after COP9 to modify an image that can't be done with COP9 and

b-) parallel to COP9 as raw developer and editor depending what your intentions with certain image are.

 

 

Cheers, and I hope that helps a bit...

Franz

[James Ritson]

I'm fairly low tech, I use Finder to preview my raw files and I organise them into dated folders! For example "2017-03-25 Cumbria" or "2010-09-18 Jake and Amy's Wedding". Then I just drag the raw files into Photo and develop them individually.

 

If I need more advanced organisation I tend to use FastRawViewer (by the LibRaw team) as it's cross-platform and works well with .xmp metadata, so ratings and colour coding work from other software.

[David4]

Low tech:  That's me as well, also, too.  I have a Lightroom folder (don't get ahead of me) and I use that folder for my DAM, or, if you will, simple collection of image files.  I don't see a need for DAM in Affinity Photo, at least not for me.

 

That I do have a Lightroom folder simply makes it easy for me to know where my image files are.  

 

Most importantly for me, the Lightroom folder is on an external 2GB FW 800 HD.   And is copied using SuperDuper, to another identical external HD, about once a month.  You might say this is just like using Lightroom.

 

It's easy for me to find image files to work with wether in Gimp, Affinity Photo, PS CS5, of Lightroom.

 

Enjoy your Affinity Photo.

 

Cheers

 

David

[LilleG]

I've been using MediaPro from Phase One since back in the day when it started as iView MediaPro (don't remember the company name then) through it's transition to Microsoft Expressions 2 and on to it's current home at Phase One.  It's not cheap but it's good.  I don't think I'd change unless something new offered a lot more than it does.  If you're curious, you can check it out here.

 

https://www.phaseone.com/en/Download-MediaPro.aspx

[Rhod]

Thanks for the great replies.  I take a LOT of photos, so I think I would soon get completely overwhelmed using Finder (I'm on a Mac).  I'm currently downloading the trial of Photo Supreme and will be giving that a try.  The problem with Capture One Media Pro for me (I downloaded a trial of that also) is that it's not been updated for retina displays so it's very unsatisfactory for viewing images.  At least that was the case a few months ago and when I emailed their tech support they said there were no immediate plans to support retina displays (I wonder how many millions of retina displays there are now in the world and why Capture One hasn't updated to 'capture' that market!).

 

I'm using Lightroom and that's great, because I use keywords a lot to organise my images, but I'm concerned how much longer Adobe will produce the stand alone version.  I really (probably illogically!) resent the idea of a monthly rental of software!

 

I agree that the new Affinity DAM should not be 'integrated' into AP and AD and should be stand alone, but able to work seamlessly with AP and AD.  It seems to me to be the one missing element in the whole software suite and I'm surprised that it still remains in the planning stages.  I'd love to hear from someone at Affinity what is the current state of play.

[David4]

Rhod, stand alone is my thoughts as well..

 

Cheers

 

David