4 Photo Managers Quick Review: Lightroom, ThumbsPlus, ACDSee, IdImage - Digital Asset

[sqw]

OK, so I had been a user of ThumbsPlus for years and for the last 3 years I've been dedicated to ACDSee.** Like all of the DAM's listed, it catalogues your images, lets you add keywords, do general editing and file management.

But Lightroom made me have a re-think of what I was using DAM for, how it fitted in my workflow and so on.

So, firstly, here's the things I want a DAM to do:

1) Access my file system directly – not have a separate import catalogue

2) Let me preview, rate and select files very quickly

3) Carry out batch processing for resizing in particular, but other things too

4) Let me post direct to my blog, to FaceBook, to my website for client albums

5) Create effective slideshows and/or export to external slideshow creator

And I need it to work in the context of a typical shoot being between 500 – 2,000 images and nearly a Terabyte of image store.

So, I've been having a bit of a look at all of the likely contenders are here's where I've got to.* None of them do what I want, but some are closer than others.

THUMBSPLUS

OK, this was my long standing tool, so I'm very familiar with it.** It does (1-File System), (3-Batches) very well.* (2-Selection) is OK, but it doesn't support ranking.** It doesn't do any kind of external posting. Finally it fell behind the wayside in terms of editing functionality.

LIGHTROOM

Fails at the first and second hurdles (File System and Fast Preview) completely for me.* I really want to like Lightroom, I recognise that the whole "Develop" thing is great.* But for me the tedious and clunky import and the really slow previews make this unusable for me.

If you don't get what I'm talking about, any of the other products you just open your file system and the catalogue is built while you watch – in seconds – then you can zap through previews at any size instantly.

Then finally there's the clunky export at the end.

ACDSee

I've been using ACDSee for 3 years now and is my firm favourite.* It deals directly with the file system, lets me preview and rate files quickly either by tag or by rating – I've been able to customise it to use the same keystrokes as other apps so my muscle-memory still works.

The batching doesn't quite do what I need – it has batch processes, but they don't offer the same flexibility and programmability of ThumbsPlus.

It does do some posting direct – so I can get to website and Flickr, but not to FaceBook.

It does have a slideshow option, but I don't use it - preferring ProShow Producer instead.

What I have liked in using it is (a) it's very quick, quick to preview at any size, quick to scan a folder, quick to move around in.** I also like the develop module – not as sophisticated as LightRoom, but in particular some quick exposure fixes and cropping are all I really I want. In the latest release this has become much more sophisticated and is getting closer to rivalling Lightroom

IDIMAGE

Not played with this so much, but it does handle (1-File System) and (2-Previews) well.* Haven't explored (3-Batches) yet.

It does handle posting to FaceBook as well as other sites and websites.** The FaceBook thing is a big plus

It also creates slideshows, but I've not investigated thoroughly yet.

BOTTOM LINE

At the moment, ACDSee is my go to DAM. New features have really brought it up to spec for me. I still miss batch processing, but these days I've built a workflow that gets round that. You can apply a single develop action to multiple files - which is close enough to batch processing.

Lightroom amazes me – just how crap the whole file management and previewing side is – it's just so horribly slow and grotty (and yes I've tried it on more than one machine).* I can only assume that people who think its great have never used anything else. It has to be said that the Develop module is still the best of them all. I can see why with just Lightroom you might never need to go to Photoshop

ThumbsPlus – much as I love it – it doesn't cut the mustard any more, the single exception being it's batch processing which is great – I have pre-programmed batches for building websites, CD's for clients, presentations and all sorts and at the moment I can't see a way of replicating that in any of the others.


Your Views?

Would any users of other DAM apps - especially NOT lightroom which is so well covered - like to chip in and add their thoughts?

[postcardcv]

Well as a Lightroom user who thinks it is great I can assure you that it is not because I haven't tried other options. I have tried a few but find that as a complete package LR wins out for me. It took me a while to get used to the way it works but now I find it very quick and easy to use. I have no issue with the import system, it might take a few moments but then again I'll need a coffee while I go through my shots so I use that time well. I find it quick enough to flick through the previews and remove the chaff and select and images I particularly want to work on. The developing side of it is really nice to use and allows me to churn through processing quickly (I know some people won't shoot raw because they think it takes too long to deal with in PP but I spend less time on a batch of raws in LR then I ever did on jpgs).

[davet47]

I also use ACDSee, having got a copy of ACDSee 3 (!) with an early digital camera I bought. I liked its ease of use and it did all that I wanted. I'm now on ACDSee Ultimate 8 (which I only found while looking for any new tutorials) and this does more than I need.It has Layers (which has always been missing from previous versions), but I haven't mastered these yet! I've tried Lightroom but I don't like the way it wants to import all the images on my hard drive (all these are in ACDsee anyway). It's also a large program and any updates seem to only be by way of a complete program download.I've also tried Corel Aftershot Pro (a Lightroom Clone) but decided to stick with ACDSee.