Lightroom alternative with good compare functionality? Acdsee and CaptureOne fall short

[APCUser]

I would like to find an alternative to Lightroom for Windows, but I can't seem to find a program that ticks all my boxes.

AcdSee Ultimate and Capture One fall short for the reasons I describe below (poor compare functionality / cannot select multiple folders), and which I hadn't found mentioned in any of the previous discussions or reviews - which is why I trust this thread is not a repetition of similar other discussions.



My priorities are:

• decent DAM, file management and classification/filing features
• decent way to compare multiple photos at once (eg when you have 8 shots of a child running and you need to find the best one)
• lets you select multiple folders and export retaining the folder structure
• a perpetual, not periodic, license

I am not asking for anything super fancy or advanced, yet all these programs fall short:

AcdSee: great DAM, great pricing, some quirks (like always saving a developed jpg) but the functionality to compare multiple photos is so dysfunctional it's useless: you can only view 4 at a time, keyboard shortcuts are disabled when comparing, and the boxes containing the photos don't adjust automatically like Lightroom's survey mode does - you end up with empty boxes into which you then have to manually drag the photos. A detailed description with screenshots is here . I spend a LOT of time comparing similar photos so this is a deal-breaker for me.

CaptureOne: more expensive than AcdSee, decent functionality to compare multiple photos, but it doesn't let you select multiple folders (see 1 or 2 ), nor one folder and all its subfolders, at once. Using albums doesn't work for older photos (I am not going to waste hours manually filing 15 years of photos) but neither for new ones, since albums cannot be nested into each other.

Corel After Shot Pro: it doesn't support DNGs, and many people complain it's been kind of abandoned by Corel.

Luminar: limited DAM, no keywords

Darktable: many reviewers say it wouldn't handle libraries > 40k photos well; no file management feature

Digikam: DAM only, limited editing

RawTherapee: very limited DAM

Any thoughts? I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I expect that the basic tasks of comparing multiple photos and filing, browsing and exporting by folder shouldn't become a waste of time.

Thanks!

 

[hectorsm]

Like you, many other people have been looking for an alternative to Lightroom for a long time. However, there is no "true" alternative to Lightroom. Lightroom is a well rounded product that does everything well, even if it does not have all the latest features like AI.

You'll need to decide what's more important to you and pick from what's out there now. You can also look at Exposure X6 and ON1. However, those products will probably far short short also.

Hector

 

[KCook]

you can only view 4 at a time

Yup, that is a limitation for ACDSee (which is my one and only DAM). The freebie utility XnView gets around this, uses stacked images (with offset tabs) to compare numerous images. So you see only one image at a time, but those tabs make it super quick to hop between images. I have not dug any deeper into the DAM side of XnView, have no idea what its limitations are.

Kelly

 

[Zeee]

Like you, many other people have been looking for an alternative to Lightroom for a long time. However, there is no "true" alternative to Lightroom. Lightroom is a well rounded product that does everything well, even if it does not have all the latest features like AI.

It does with Auto. Machine learning which they named Sensei. I think LR could use Sensei Noise Reduction as an added feature to the current method. Maybe we will see it one day. I had DXO for a while and now use Topaz for more troublesome files but I prefer to keep everything under one roof.

You'll need to decide what's more important to you and pick from what's out there now. You can also look at Exposure X6 and ON1. However, those products will probably far short short also.

Hector

 

[irv00]

I would like to find an alternative to Lightroom for Windows, but I can't seem to find a program that ticks all my boxes.

Any thoughts? I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I expect that the basic tasks of comparing multiple photos and filing, browsing and exporting by folder shouldn't become a waste of time.

There is no "alternative to Lightroom for Windows" - there is Lightroom and other excellent choices, none of the "ticking all your boxes". Pick your poison...

 

[Graham]

Photo Mechanic has what it calls the Greg Gorman view. You can select 2 images to compare side by side full screen. The first stays in place while the second is advanced. If you prefer the second, you promote it to the position of the static image. Thus you can cycle through all your candidates, picking progressively the better one to the static position and passing over the non-preferred images. This probably works better than having a larger number of smaller images on screen at the same time.



Graham

 

[Henry Richardson]

Corel After Shot Pro: it doesn't support DNGs, and many people complain it's been kind of abandoned by Corel.

Worrying about what "many people" say who often know nothing (talk is cheap on the internet) is not a good way to proceed, IMO. I think there is a free download so it would be best to actually try it out and see how it does for you.

Darktable: many reviewers say it wouldn't handle libraries > 40k photos well; no file management feature

I have never heard the claim that darktable doesn't work well with > 40k photos. I have read of people with hundreds of thousands of photos that are using it.

I suggest you check both of them out for yourself since you can download them for free.

I am still using LrC and mostly like it, but I sometimes play with darktable too since it is free. It has many interesting things, although I still like LrC better in general.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

 

[myotisone]

Photo Mechanic has what it calls the Greg Gorman view. You can select 2 images to compare side by side full screen. The first stays in place while the second is advanced. If you prefer the second, you promote it to the position of the static image. Thus you can cycle through all your candidates, picking progressively the better one to the static position and passing over the non-preferred images. This probably works better than having a larger number of smaller images on screen at the same time.

Graham

Just for information, Capture One and, I think, LR does this as well.

Another Graham

 

[Hans de Zomers]

As someone already mentioned: don't trust on what you read. Almost every review is the sole interpretation of the writer. Your findings may very much vary.

My recommendation is to not try to find the Holy Grail. You will not find an all-in-one solution that has it all. I tend to compare it to those all in one stereo sets that were popular in the 80s and 90s. Yes, they could offer good quality, but don't come close to separate audio components. The same applies to photo software.

Lightroom, and its many clones, is such an all-in-one solution. But Adobe mainly focusses on editing. Its DAM is ok'ish but far from top notch. The same applies to all the Lightroom clones, some of which you mentioned.

Get a good DAM and combine it with a good RAW edition and optionally a good pixel editor. And the best part is that when you get fed up with one of these tools, you can replace it with something else without having to sacrifice the other tools.

I use the tools set: Photo Supreme for DAM, DXO for RAW development, and Affinity for pixel editing. Photo Supreme offers a great Light Table to compare up to 8 images side by side with feature like dimming, synchronized scrolling, synchronized zooming, synchronized loop feature, add box, close box.

 

[IanYorke]

I would like to find an alternative to Lightroom for Windows, but I can't seem to find a program that ticks all my boxes.

AcdSee Ultimate and Capture One fall short for the reasons I describe below (poor compare functionality / cannot select multiple folders), and which I hadn't found mentioned in any of the previous discussions or reviews - which is why I trust this thread is not a repetition of similar other discussions.

My priorities are:

• decent DAM, file management and classification/filing features
• decent way to compare multiple photos at once (eg when you have 8 shots of a child running and you need to find the best one)
• lets you select multiple folders and export retaining the folder structure
• a perpetual, not periodic, license

I am not asking for anything super fancy or advanced, yet all these programs fall short:

AcdSee: great DAM, great pricing, some quirks (like always saving a developed jpg) but the functionality to compare multiple photos is so dysfunctional it's useless: you can only view 4 at a time, keyboard shortcuts are disabled when comparing, and the boxes containing the photos don't adjust automatically like Lightroom's survey mode does - you end up with empty boxes into which you then have to manually drag the photos. A detailed description with screenshots is here . I spend a LOT of time comparing similar photos so this is a deal-breaker for me.

CaptureOne: more expensive than AcdSee, decent functionality to compare multiple photos, but it doesn't let you select multiple folders (see 1 or 2 ), nor one folder and all its subfolders, at once. Using albums doesn't work for older photos (I am not going to waste hours manually filing 15 years of photos) but neither for new ones, since albums cannot be nested into each other.

Corel After Shot Pro: it doesn't support DNGs, and many people complain it's been kind of abandoned by Corel.

Luminar: limited DAM, no keywords

Darktable: many reviewers say it wouldn't handle libraries > 40k photos well; no file management feature

Digikam: DAM only, limited editing

RawTherapee: very limited DAM

Any thoughts? I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I expect that the basic tasks of comparing multiple photos and filing, browsing and exporting by folder shouldn't become a waste of time.

Thanks!

Which software you use is a personal choice based on many factors. There is no "Best" software, there is only the one that does what you want it to do.

The same is true for cameras, we are all not using the same camera and although a Phase One 150Mp XT camera may be the "Best" camera not everyone is using one, for many reasons

You have not said why you want to move from LR? Just because somebody else is using different software to you doesn't invalidate the reasons you are using the software. LR is very good software and I used it for 10 years from V1 before I changed to something that, for me, was much better.

I would just relax and enjoy using LR which, from what you have said, meets all of your needs.

Ian

 

[APCUser]

Like you, many other people have been looking for an alternative to Lightroom for a long time. However, there is no "true" alternative to Lightroom.

Well, but I am not looking for a Lightroom clone that does everything the exact same way. I am simply looking for something that lets me compare images without going nuts manually dragging photos into boxes which become empty, and that lets me manage 100 subfolders without going nuts selecting them one by one. Everyone's workflow is different, but these are glaring omissions which make the software very dysfunctional.

KCook, post: 64603903, member: 445124"]

you can only view 4 at a time

Yup, that is a limitation for ACDSee (which is my one and only DAM). The freebie utility XnView gets around this, uses stacked images (with offset tabs) to compare numerous images. So you see only one image at a time, but those tabs make it super quick to hop between images. I have not dug any deeper into the DAM side of XnView, have no idea what its limitations are.

Kelly

How does that work? Xnview has a good compare function but, according to the forum, it doesn't support stacking.

Regardless, what is your workflow? Is your workflow to select photos with XnView and to do everything else with AcdSee? If yes, how do you do it? E.g. do you assign ratings to the photos with XnView, which Acdsee then reads?

If instead you do everything with AcdSee, how do you compare photos? The limitations I pointed out don't bother you?
[/QUOTE]

 

[APCUser]

There is no "alternative to Lightroom for Windows" - there is Lightroom and other excellent choices, none of the "ticking all your boxes". Pick your poison...

Then maybe someone who uses AcdSee or CaptureOne can elaborate on how they handle those limitations?

I can't believe I am the only one who needs to compare multiple photos or select files from multiple folders...

I am willing to keep an open mind, I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I'd need the same results to be achievable without jumping through too many hoops.

 

[APCUser]

Photo Mechanic has what it calls the Greg Gorman view. You can select 2 images to compare side by side full screen. T

Thanks. But the problem remains how to integrate something like this in an Acdsee-based workflow. If it were just about deleting photos it wouldn't be a problem, but often it's about deleting 4, flagging 1 as picked (which will be edited) and keeping but not editing nor sharing 2, or something like that.

Maybe one of these programs can write a rating/flag into a sidecar file which Acdsee can read?

Also, FWIW, I can often make some initial culling comparing 4 to 6 photos, especially on large screens, and then drill down into a more detailed 1 vs 1 comparison, but of course YMMV

 

[APCUser]

I use the tools set: Photo Supreme for DAM, DXO for RAW development, and Affinity for pixel editing.

May I ask how your workflow works with this combination of tools? I have heard a few people mentioning something similar. I would find it clunky, but I have never tried, so maybe I am missing something?

So how do you handle DAM + editor?

Say you import 100 raw files and 30 jpgs to your PC.

You open the raws with DXO, do the first culling there, edit the photos to your liking, then save jpegs for Photo Supreme to read?

How about keywords, labels etc? Can DXO and PhotoSupreme read each other's metadata? Many programs have some kind of proprietary way of handling metadata. reimporting everything every time to ensure that another software hasn't changed some metadata doesn't seem very efficient.

If you want to export some photos, say one set for printing and one for viewing on screen (so different sharpening), how do you do it? The DAM would have access only to the developed jpegs. If you want to do it from the raw processor/editor, you run into the limitations of the editor, like Capture One not being able to select multiple folders.

I have read some reviews of digikam and darktable used together, but getting one to read the metadata of the other seemed very clunky.

Also, how do you tell the DAM that a developed jpg and a raw are actually linked?

As someone already mentioned: don't trust on what you read. Almost every review is the sole interpretation of the writer. Your findings may very much vary.

Of course, but some things are subjective, whiloe others are factual pieces of information. "It;s clunky" is subjective. "The developer has confirmed there is no way to back up the catalog" (OneRaw) is not.

Plus one has to start from somewhere...

My recommendation is to not try to find the Holy Grail. You will not find an all-in-one solution that has it all.

Of course, that goes without saying. Indeed, I have been extremely generic in my wishlist.

 

[APCUser]

You have not said why you want to move from LR? Just because somebody else is using different software to you doesn't invalidate the reasons you are using the software. LR is very good software and I used it for 10 years from V1 before I changed to something that, for me, was much better.

I have LightRoom 6.

In terms of here and now:

• On one hand, software like Acdsee and CaptureOne allow me to do a bit more edits non-destructively within the program itself, without the need to use a separate photo editor like Corel PhotoPaint (I don't have Photoshop).
• Both have a more customisable interface.
• Of AcdSee I Like the DAM and file management features.

In terms of future-proofing my workflow:

• Now that Lightroom 6 is no longer supported and Adobe is forcing subscriptions down everyone's throats, converting raws to DNGs is the only way to continue using Lightroom 6 with new cameras
• I am afraid that at some point Lightroom 6 will become incompatible with newer versions of Windows (no, I am not switching to Mac nor Linux)

Of course it goes without saying that, like any choice in life, whether trivial or important, I have to decide what's more important for me...

 

[Boomanbb]

There is no "alternative to Lightroom for Windows" - there is Lightroom and other excellent choices, none of the "ticking all your boxes". Pick your poison...

Then maybe someone who uses AcdSee or CaptureOne can elaborate on how they handle those limitations?

I can't believe I am the only one who needs to compare multiple photos or select files from multiple folders...

I am willing to keep an open mind, I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I'd need the same results to be achievable without jumping through too many hoops.

You are not the only one, its that the majority of us use Lightroom rather than kluge together a bunch of apps to do something similar.

 

[Jim B (MSP)]

I would like to find an alternative to Lightroom for Windows, but I can't seem to find a program that ticks all my boxes.

AcdSee Ultimate and Capture One fall short for the reasons I describe below (poor compare functionality / cannot select multiple folders), and which I hadn't found mentioned in any of the previous discussions or reviews - which is why I trust this thread is not a repetition of similar other discussions.

My priorities are:

• decent DAM, file management and classification/filing features
• decent way to compare multiple photos at once (eg when you have 8 shots of a child running and you need to find the best one)
• lets you select multiple folders and export retaining the folder structure
• a perpetual, not periodic, license

I am not asking for anything super fancy or advanced, yet all these programs fall short:

AcdSee: great DAM, great pricing, some quirks (like always saving a developed jpg) but the functionality to compare multiple photos is so dysfunctional it's useless: you can only view 4 at a time, keyboard shortcuts are disabled when comparing, and the boxes containing the photos don't adjust automatically like Lightroom's survey mode does - you end up with empty boxes into which you then have to manually drag the photos. A detailed description with screenshots is here . I spend a LOT of time comparing similar photos so this is a deal-breaker for me.

CaptureOne: more expensive than AcdSee, decent functionality to compare multiple photos, but it doesn't let you select multiple folders (see 1 or 2 ), nor one folder and all its subfolders, at once. Using albums doesn't work for older photos (I am not going to waste hours manually filing 15 years of photos) but neither for new ones, since albums cannot be nested into each other.

Corel After Shot Pro: it doesn't support DNGs, and many people complain it's been kind of abandoned by Corel.

Luminar: limited DAM, no keywords

Darktable: many reviewers say it wouldn't handle libraries > 40k photos well; no file management feature

Digikam: DAM only, limited editing

RawTherapee: very limited DAM

Any thoughts? I don't expect to do things "the Lightroom way" but I expect that the basic tasks of comparing multiple photos and filing, browsing and exporting by folder shouldn't become a waste of time.

Thanks!

Since you seem to have ruled out the latest Lightroom (which I still use), I would urge you to take a look at a combo of Capture One for your processor, and iMatch for your DAM.

I have and use CO at times, but its DAM is quite poor. I have trialed iMatch, and it works well with CO sessions. It is the best photo DAM that I have tried, and might be able to do what you want.

 

[KCook]

Yup, that is a limitation for ACDSee (which is my one and only DAM). The freebie utility XnView gets around this, uses stacked images (with offset tabs) to compare numerous images. So you see only one image at a time, but those tabs make it super quick to hop between images. I have not dug any deeper into the DAM side of XnView, have no idea what its limitations are.

Kelly

How does that work? Xnview has a good compare function but, according to the forum, it doesn't support stacking.

I'm not sure what you mean by stacking.

Regardless, what is your workflow? Is your workflow to select photos with XnView and to do everything else with AcdSee?

I only use XnView as a viewer, for a quicky look at images.

If yes, how do you do it? E.g. do you assign ratings to the photos with XnView, which Acdsee then reads?

Nope, completely separate programs. I may use XnView to copy image files to another folder for later registration with ACDSee, but even that is rare.

If instead you do everything with AcdSee, how do you compare photos? The limitations I pointed out don't bother you?

4 at a time. This limitation is a nusiance, but at this point I've got several years of images cataloged with ACDSee, so not in the mood to try to migrate all that to another DAM. If I were starting fresh, no catalogs, I might chose something other than ACDSee. IMatch and Photo Supreme would be at the top of that list. So far I have not seen any other DAM / editor package that impresses me more that ACDSee and Lightroom.

Kelly

 

[jack scholl]

I use the tools set: Photo Supreme for DAM, DXO for RAW development, and Affinity for pixel editing.

May I ask how your workflow works with this combination of tools? I have heard a few people mentioning something similar. I would find it clunky, but I have never tried, so maybe I am missing something?

So how do you handle DAM + editor?

Say you import 100 raw files and 30 jpgs to your PC.

You open the raws with DXO, do the first culling there, edit the photos to your liking, then save jpegs for Photo Supreme to read?

How about keywords, labels etc? Can DXO and PhotoSupreme read each other's metadata? Many programs have some kind of proprietary way of handling metadata. reimporting everything every time to ensure that another software hasn't changed some metadata doesn't seem very efficient.

If you want to export some photos, say one set for printing and one for viewing on screen (so different sharpening), how do you do it? The DAM would have access only to the developed jpegs. If you want to do it from the raw processor/editor, you run into the limitations of the editor, like Capture One not being able to select multiple folders.

I have read some reviews of digikam and darktable used together, but getting one to read the metadata of the other seemed very clunky.

Also, how do you tell the DAM that a developed jpg and a raw are actually linked?

As someone already mentioned: don't trust on what you read. Almost every review is the sole interpretation of the writer. Your findings may very much vary.

Of course, but some things are subjective, whiloe others are factual pieces of information. "It;s clunky" is subjective. "The developer has confirmed there is no way to back up the catalog" (OneRaw) is not.

Plus one has to start from somewhere...

My recommendation is to not try to find the Holy Grail. You will not find an all-in-one solution that has it all.

Of course, that goes without saying. Indeed, I have been extremely generic in my wishlist.

APCUser,

I use these two almost exclusively for my 110,000 file catalogue for the past year after leaving LR. Basic workflow is as follows.

1. Import all files from the HD into Photo Supreme (PSU).

2. All keywords assigned initially in PSU with culling, ratings, etc done any time afterward in PSU as well.

3. Any editing on selected files done through PSU's external editing link to PhotoLab (PL) (or any other PP software desired). Once completed, the edited file is exported back to the original file folder and incorporated into the PSU DAM. I never touch keywords, ratings or any metadata in PL, only in PSU.

4. Printing can be done from either program depending when it is needed.

5. PSU embeds all keywords into the metadata of each file, so the keyword structure is transferable if needed in future as long as other options follow standard DAM specs.

Very powerful tools with both programs, not quite as convenient as an all in one. But so far, nothing comes close to the features of the combo.

Try the trial with PSU and see if it "fits" your needs. Lots of options . . . just need th one the makes sense to you.

Good luck,

Jack

--

Galleries by Jack Scholl

www.pbase.com

Shutterfly: Photo Books, Cards, Prints, Wall Art, Gifts, Wedding

Create photo books, personalize photo cards & stationery, and share photos with family and friends at Shutterfly.com.

jackschollphotography.shutterfly.com

 

[Robgo2]

ON1 does not let you backup your catalog. It recommend you store everything in sidecar files, but it's not clear to me if that is sufficient to restore everything or not. This seems a bit of a biggie.

Anyone who who is serious about file management should be backing up his entire photo collection to a separate drive on a regular basis, like at least once per day. This makes your hesitation about ON1 irrelevant.

IMO, ON1 is a very good all-in-one photo editor with decent DAM capabilities. I sometimes find the browser to be slow on the uptake, but otherwise, I am quite satisfied with the workflow and the results.