Best Free Raw Photo Managing Software For Mac
Bradly Brauer
You'll need one of the best photo organizer apps if you ever take photos on your smartphone. And given that almost everyone on the planet takes photos on their phone, there's almost nobody who won't benefit from using one!
As well as simply storing all of those images you snap each day so they're nice and safe should you lose your phone, the best photo organizer apps can also make it a lot easier to find that one shot you took of your best friend's dog on a beach last year, or your niece's birthday party, or that great fancy dress outfit you once wore. That's because many can automatically tag your images via advanced machine learning, so you can find pictures simply by searching for a keyword.
A smart Assistant feature can help you set up albums, collages, grouped photo stories and animated photos. There's even a powerful "visual search" feature that works even on untagged, unlabeled photos; simply search for "cat" or "food" or "beach" or any other term and it'll serve up your relevant shots with uncanny accuracy. It'll also recognize people and group them together, making it easy to find photos of a particular family member or friend.
Google is continually refining the mix with additions like new editing tools and refinements to the Assistant. For instance, the video editing tools were upgraded last year so you can now crop, edit and apply filters as you can with photos.
While Google Photos is free, any new photos you add will count against your general Google account's 15GB limit, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google Cloud services. If you need additional storage, plans start at $1.99/month for 100GB.
Flickr still offers a good deal in the online photo storage business, although it's not as good as it once was. Where it used to offer 1TB of free cloud storage, the photo management app now limits free users to 1,000 photos stored online for free. If that's not enough for you, however, you can upgrade to the paid Pro package for perks such as unlimited storage at full resolution, and support for videos at up to 10 minutes in length; that costs $8.25 / month on a month-by-month basis, or $71.99 for a year.
Flickr includes automatic uploading, as well as smart search features. That means that organization isn't as dependent on users manually tagging each photo. The default Camera Roll groups your photos by date, and social features let you share your photos as well as keep track of images shared by your friends and other users.
Previously exclusive to Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon's cloud photo storage service has since opened up to everyone as Amazon Photos. Prime Photos provides Prime subscribers with unlimited cloud storage of their original resolution photos, as well as 5GB for video and document storage, while free users get a combined limit of 5GB for photos and videos.
The app automatically syncs so your photos can be accessed from any device with a connection, and includes a wealth of organizational features and AI-assisted search. Prime Photos also has enhanced family sharing features, allowing you to share your unlimited photo storage with up to five family members and adding a shared Family Vault.
Just as Android has Google Photos, iOS has Apple Photos. It's improved hugely over the years and now offers plenty of advanced photo organizing options, including the ability to order and browse by people and places, or by date, or to create custom albums. The Media Types option is another good one; this groups content into images and videos, but further splits them up to include Portrait Mode, screenshots and so on. There's a lot of AI at work under the surface, too: as well as being able to search for "dogs" or "New York" you can use more complex phrases such as "dog sunshine beach" to be served up content that matches. And it's worth it just for the Memories feature alone, which surfaces images, galleries and videos for specific dates.
Photo organizer app Slidebox takes a Tinder-like approach to sorting through your picture reel: there's a quick, swipe-driven interface for sifting through your locally stored photos, screenshots and other assorted images. When you enter the app, all of your unsorted photos are presented to you in a queue. Swiping left or right moves through your queue, swiping up tosses a photo into a trash bin, and tapping on a series of labels at the bottom of the screen allows you to save photos into albums or create new ones.
In addition, there are tools for comparing similar photos and sharing entire albums over email or text. The iOS version also offers a subscription-based cloud backup option for up to 10,000 images at $4.99 per month. Otherwise, Slidebox is a compact tool that's all about getting your photos right into the albums you want them in.
PhotoSync aims to take the pain out of moving your photos to and from your mobile devices and your desktop, with file transfers over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or personal hotspot. PhotoSync supports cross-platform transfers, so you can move photos and videos from your Android to iOS devices and vice versa, as well as through a variety of supported cloud storage platforms. Desktop transfers can be achieved through a browser interface, or through a desktop companion app for Windows and macOS machines. As a bonus, PhotoSync also supports the transfer of RAW photos complete with metadata. A Premium version for iOS only supports automatic backups, camera tethering, Amazon cloud storage and more for just $0.99/month or $6.49/year.
A+ Gallery tries to work in a bit of an iOS-style aesthetic to Android photo management, with bright gallery modes sorted by year, collection, or moment. Cloud support lets you backup photos to Dropbox or a Facebook album, and a color-based search lets you easily find photos with a particularly dominant hue. There's also a map view, which shows where you've taken your shots. Additional visual themes can be unlocked by sharing an install link with other users. It's an OK gallery, with some convenient cloud storage support and some cute features.
Piktures uses a slick three-pane interface to help you navigate your photo collection. The main center panel displays the currently selected album; swiping right brings up a tiled list of your albums that you can sort as you see fit, while swiping to the left shows you geotagged labels for sorting your images by location. An optional Calendar view also places your photos on a calendar for sorting images by date taken. Additional tools include a slideshow mode, resizing tools, a video or GIF player and a photo vault for hiding images.
Users looking for a more powerful photo organizer app on Android devices can also check out F-Stop Gallery. It includes loads of tools such as tagging, smart galleries, ratings, favorites and other features to manage and categorize your mobile images. Photos can be organized by folder or album, automatically sorted through smart galleries, or custom sorted through drag and drop. Users can read image metadata, exclude folders from gallery search, password protect photos and more. A pro key unlocks further features such as nested albums, the ability to write metadata and other premium features.
We have a wide range of buying guides to help you make the right decisions. If you're also looking to edit photos, make sure you check out our photography guides, including the best photo editing software, best free photo editing software and best photo editing apps. If you're a videographer, check out our guides on the best video editing software and best video editing apps. If you're not keen on paying for your software just yet, why not read our guide to the best free video editing software. Only need to store images? You might also be interested in our guide to the best cloud storage for photos. And if you want to upgrade your gear, make sure you read our round up of the best cameras you can buy today, as well as our guides to the best DSLR cameras, best mirrorless cameras, best point-and-shoot cameras and best instant cameras.
It would be great to have a UI supporting various devices (I guess in a browser?) and then the ability to mark / tag a single or a set of photos for future processing. I'm not a big fan of doing irreversible changes to the .jpegs, but of course I could have a full backup just in case something goes wrong.
The best software is the one that provides the tools you need (or want). In order to find your favourite app, I'd propose to a) search for app comparisons/tests and b) test the ones that strike a chord - if a free trial is available.
Please, keep in mind that Lightroom comes on two platforms. Lightroom is designed to work on mobile devices with your photos stored in the cloud. Lightroom Classic is for use on a desktop or laptop with your photos stored locally. Depending on the workflow that's a good fit for you, you may prefer one over the other.
If you are in the Apple ecosystem I have found Apple's photos SW very easy to use, plus to manage my photos. Everything is updated to the cloud and on all my devices. It does not offer as many features as LR or PS, or others, but for posting social media and sharing photos it works great for me. Best of luck.
Take a look at Snapseed on iOS or Android. There is output limitation, 8MP, 10MP, and 20MP depending on the device. A professional landscape photographer I know use this when he want to do a quick edit and post something quickly in the field, when he only has his phone with him. [free]
You probably will not get a consensus on what's best from an online public forum. Everyone has their own favorites. I use DxO. What's important to me is the de-noise and I only do minor global edit, so it's good enough for. Yeah, I picked DxO mainly for one feature.
For a total of $25 out of pocket one time, that works for my family and vacation photos. Personally, I have a hard time justifying the cost of some of the other admittedly quality offerings out there.
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