Practical Photoshop Alternatives for Mac Users

[Dave_J_E]

It's about using much higher display peak brightness capability (1000-1600 nit eg) to extend the highlights of the displayed image by several stops.

See this article by Adobe's Eric Chan .

Dave

I find it to be sufficiently explained in this shorter article:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/74522...rightness-maps-high-dynamic-range-photography

Good articles.

What is SADR?

Shorter article, do read

LOL, that's a new one. Maybe it's better to use acronyms that people are familiar with.

Or not post articles as reading suggestions that are excessively verbose and hyperbolic.

I posted the Adobe article because it comes from someone who’s been directly involved in the development of the technology and knows his stuff. Eric Chan hyperbolic? I don’t think so.

And do you also think that a gazillion is an actual numerical value?

He’s referring to the luminance of the sun. It’s very high and it’s precise value is not relevant.

As is most of that article to the question of whether a gain map is a profile, which you objected to and then posted that lengthy article as supposed proof that you were right. None of what we're discussing is more than a bunch of tone curves.

I was making the distinction between multiple exposure blended images and image files set up for use with an hdr display. These don’t need to contain a gain map. They can though and the gain map is provided with an sdr version of the image to allow conversion by the viewing software to an hdr image. This allows the image to be viewed on an sdr display. I’d probably describe the gain map as a luminance map (usually consisting of a quarter resolution array of pixel value adjustments).

 

[Glen Barrington]

I recently bought Nitro Photo and am quite happy with it. The developer was also involved in Aperture.

Switched from Windows 10 /LR 6.14 to Macbook /Nitro Photo

Isn't that more of a Lightroom alternative?

 

[teph]

It probably is, and I have to admit to doing basic processing: highlights, levels, BW, shadows, colour correction. Nitro offers the tools I need, but Photoshop can do a lot more of course.

 

[Night Pixel]

I recently bought Nitro Photo and am quite happy with it. The developer was also involved in Aperture.

Switched from Windows 10 /LR 6.14 to Macbook /Nitro Photo

Isn't that more of a Lightroom alternative?

Nitro is produced by Gentleman Coders which "was founded in 2016 by Nik Bhatt, an 18 year veteran of Apple. His roles in the Photo Apps group included Senior Director of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer. Among other roles, he led the Aperture, iPhoto, RAW Camera and Core Image engineering teams, as well as the imaging team for the Mac version of Photos.
Mr. Bhatt holds over 55 patents in a wide range of disciplines including image processing, audio processing, geotagging, wireless networking, and user interface design."

Besides the Mac app there are apps for iPhone OS and iPad OS.

This an upgrade from the original app RAW Power.

Nik is great about supporting new RAW formats and cameras. Much faster than Adobe.

Here is Nik's intro to editing video:



As for the distinction between Pixelmator Pro and Photomator from Apple:

• Pixelmator Pro is a full-fledged image editing suite designed for macOS. It is, at least, a partial Photoshop alternative that supports layer-based editing, graphic design, retouching, and non-destructive adjustments. It supports RAW files, vector editing, and has tools for layout work and even machine learning (ML)-based enhancements.
• Photomator (formerly Pixelmator Photo) is more focused on RAW development and color correction. It works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and is optimized for touch and mobile workflows. It has AI-powered tools, fast batch editing and masking like Lightroom.

None of these apps is a one for one replacement for Photoshop and Lightroom, but depending on you realistic needs they can certainly get the job done. If you add the Affinity suite of Photo 2, Publisher 2 and Designer 2, which can be purchased subscription free for less than a year of Adobe Photo Plan, and you certainly can ditch Adobe and have 99% of the tools you need.

You can see a full description of both apps here .



Because Pixelmator Pro and Photomator are tightly integrated with MacOS, you can speed up your workflow using MacOS Automations:



--
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[Breakfastographer]

I recently bought Nitro Photo and am quite happy with it. The developer was also involved in Aperture.

Switched from Windows 10 /LR 6.14 to Macbook /Nitro Photo

Isn't that more of a Lightroom alternative?

Nitro is produced by Gentleman Coders which "was founded in 2016 by Nik Bhatt, an 18 year veteran of Apple. His roles in the Photo Apps group included Senior Director of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer. Among other roles, he led the Aperture, iPhoto, RAW Camera and Core Image engineering teams, as well as the imaging team for the Mac version of Photos.
Mr. Bhatt holds over 55 patents in a wide range of disciplines including image processing, audio processing, geotagging, wireless networking, and user interface design."

Besides the Mac app there are apps for iPhone OS and iPad OS.

This an upgrade from the original app RAW Power.

Nik is great about supporting new RAW formats and cameras. Much faster than Adobe.

Here is Nik's intro to editing video:
As for the distinction between Pixelmator Pro and Photomator from Apple:

• Pixelmator Pro is a full-fledged image editing suite designed for macOS. It is, at least, a partial Photoshop alternative that supports layer-based editing, graphic design, retouching, and non-destructive adjustments. It supports RAW files, vector editing, and has tools for layout work and even machine learning (ML)-based enhancements.
• Photomator (formerly Pixelmator Photo) is more focused on RAW development and color correction. It works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and is optimized for touch and mobile workflows. It has AI-powered tools, fast batch editing and masking like Lightroom.

None of these apps is a one for one replacement for Photoshop and Lightroom, but depending on you realistic needs they can certainly get the job done. If you add the Affinity suite of Photo 2, Publisher 2 and Designer 2, which can be purchased subscription free for less than a year of Adobe Photo Plan, and you certain can ditch Adobe and have 99% of the tools you need.

It is worth stating clearly that Affinity Photo 2 also has a RAW import tool built in, so even having just that, you are some way to replacing ACR+Photoshop.

Outside of computer games and Soviet camera lenses, I've never heard of anything being an exact 1:1 replacement of anything else. I don't know why people expect this.

 

[Night Pixel]

Our friend Andy Hutchinson, in response to view questions has started to produce demo videos on using the Photomator RAW Editor...

This should give you an idea if this app is for you:

 

[CAcreeks]

Our friend Andy Hutchinson, in response to view questions has started to produce demo videos on using the Photomator RAW Editor...

This should give you an idea if this app is for you.

Getting back to HDR (not necessarily SADR) here is what documentation says about editing HDR content. Does the phrase "photos viewed in both SDR and HDR" imply gainmap?

https://support.pixelmator.com/faq-...kflows/working-with-hdr-content-in-photomator

HEIC images taken with iPhone, if Live mode is deactivated, will be HDR if the image has wide dynamic range. It's visible in Apple Photos but not so much in other applications I run.

There are several HDR/SDR gainmap implementations on Github. Hard to choose.

 

[Richard Frederick]

My post was a snarky suggestion to use a PC (Windows) computer with Photoshop. Windows has a much better track record with keeping operating systems updates compatible with Photoshop and with printer drivers, etc.

 

[Dave_J_E]

Our friend Andy Hutchinson, in response to view questions has started to produce demo videos on using the Photomator RAW Editor...

This should give you an idea if this app is for you.

Getting back to HDR (not necessarily SADR) here is what documentation says about editing HDR content. Does the phrase "photos viewed in both SDR and HDR" imply gainmap?

In my first post to this thread I said that Photomator doesn't do gain maps. I've just done a few test exports and found that for a HDR JPEG export it does produce an image with an SDR image plus gain map. It doesn't do that for AVIF or HEIC exports. Sorry to mislead you.

Dave

https://support.pixelmator.com/faq-...kflows/working-with-hdr-content-in-photomator

HEIC images taken with iPhone, if Live mode is deactivated, will be HDR if the image has wide dynamic range. It's visible in Apple Photos but not so much in other applications I run.

There are several HDR/SDR gainmap implementations on Github. Hard to choose.

 

[CAcreeks]

Getting back to HDR, here is what documentation says about editing HDR content. Does the phrase "photos viewed in both SDR and HDR" imply gainmap?

https://support.pixelmator.com/faq-...kflows/working-with-hdr-content-in-photomator

In my first post to this thread I said that Photomator doesn't do gain maps. I've just done a few test exports and found that for a HDR JPEG export it does produce an image with an SDR image plus gain map. It doesn't do that for AVIF or HEIC exports.

Thanks very much for checking, Dave! Time to install Photomator, even though my two pages of Launchpad are full. (Launchpad will be discontinued soon anyway.)

I don't believe it's possible to export gainmap HDR with Apple Photos on MacOS 15 Sequoia.

This morning I installed Microsoft Edge, which shows gainmap HDR on my Macbook 16 and external XV275K monitor (1500 nits). So does Chrome, but I'm curious about Edge.

 

[Night Pixel]

Joseph Slinker has produced a nice series of tutorials on using Photomator. If you are new to the app these provide a good foundation:

Photomator Master Class

These tutorials are free.

--
Mac user since 1984. Currently the Mac Studio M4 Max.
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[Breakfastographer]

Joseph Slinker has produced a nice series of tutorials on using Photomator. If you are new to the app these provide a good foundation:

Photomator Master Class

These tutorials are free.

Can we just stop with the adverts now?

 

[Night Pixel]

For Mac users leaving the Adobe world, there are many library options for organizing your photos. Photo Mechanic Plus is a good one that costs $129. But depending on your needs so is the free Apple Photo app that comes with every Mac.

Apple Photos organizes, searches, backs up, and shares for you. You can integrate it with Photomator for an advanced and more efficient workflow.

Photos drops every import into time-based “Years/Months/Days” views and auto-tags People & Pets, Memories, and Trips.

It uses on-device search + AI. Type “sunset dog beach” and Photos combines object, text, and location tags to surface anything with those attributes.

One-click de-duplication.

Non-destructive edits. Adjustments live in a database; “Revert to Original” is always available.

iCloud Photos backs-up every image, edit, and album and lives on all your Apple gear plus the web.

Photos with Photomator

• Photomator opens your existing Photos library wholesale; anything in Photos appears instantly in Photomator’s grid—albums, iCloud Shared Albums, the lot .
• Edits stay in sync (and revertible). Photomator—using its RAW engine. You can still hit “Revert to Original” inside Photos at any time .
• Automatic round-trip. Because Photomator writes straight into the same library, every change you make propagates via iCloud Photos to your iPhone, iPad, and other Macs—no extra exporting or version juggling .
• Extension convenience. On Mac and iOS, you can also stay inside Photos, click Edit ▸ … ▸ Photomator,
• Layered edits & ML tools. Photomator adds subject/sky/background masks, selective clarity, LUTs, and repair-brush magic while preserving Photos’ organization layer—think of it as “Photos Pro” rather than a whole new DAM (Digital Asset-Management) system.

You can still maintain a Folder based photo library if you want..

1. Mirror originals externally while keeping a “working” copy in Photos for daily use.
2. Redundant backups using Time Machine + icloud storage
3. Adopt a strict naming convention (YYYY-MM-DD_Event_###.jpg) so Spotlight and third-party tools can compensate for what Photos would have handled automatically.

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 $129 USD
• Photo Mechanic Plus $229 USD
• digiKam 8.3 FOSS
• Photo Supreme 2025 $129 USD
• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mac user since 1984. Currently the Mac Studio M4 Max.
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[ishwanu]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library for reading RAW files. (And it is nothing at all like a DAM, which would offer advanced tagging, organizing, and searching tools.)

 

[Night Pixel]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text, but I hope you're not copying and posting AI stuff, which is often wrong.

What is your obsession with AI? The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

Who appointed you the official "fact checker"? What are your credentials? How many years of professional "fact checking" do you have? Provide references. Where were you trained to be a "fact checker"? How do I know your "fact checking" is accurate and not AI generated?

FRW cost $17.99 USD. I bought a license years ago and forgot is was commercial. This was not an AI error just my bad memory. I thought it was FOSS but I remembered wrong.

--
Mac user since 1984. Currently the Mac Studio M4 Max.
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[ishwanu]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text, but I hope you're not copying and posting AI stuff, which is often wrong.

What is your obsession with AI? The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

Who appointed you the official "fact checker"? What are your credentials? How many years of professional "fact checking" do you have? Provide references. Where were you trained to be a "fact checker"? How do I know your "fact checking" is accurate and not AI generated?

Everyone should be a fact checker. Sometimes mistakes are made, and misinformation should be corrected.

However, I thought a little about my post and decided to revise it while you were typing, as you can see if you look. Your text had too many human characteristic to be AI generated,

 

[CAcreeks]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text...

That was my thought, Fast Raw Viewer (FRV) costs $18. I thought it used an open-source library to keep up with camera changes, and apparently it does.

The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

NightPixel, thanks for summarizing your research. Photomator looks interesting!

 

[Night Pixel]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text...

That was my thought, Fast Raw Viewer (FRV) costs $18. I thought it used an open-source library to keep up with camera changes, and apparently it does.

The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

NightPixel, thanks for summarizing your research. Photomator looks interesting!

I own and use Photomator and Pixelmator Pro because they are good app and do many things I want. They are also the most compliant with Mac interface standards. Yet, I still pay Adobe for the Photo Plan. I want to stop but it is kind of a phycological problem! I just cannot stop feeling I would be missing "something." What that something is I am not quite sure.

 

[Dave_J_E]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text...

That was my thought, Fast Raw Viewer (FRV) costs $18. I thought it used an open-source library to keep up with camera changes, and apparently it does.

The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

NightPixel, thanks for summarizing your research. Photomator looks interesting!

I own and use Photomator and Pixelmator Pro because they are good app and do many things I want. They are also the most compliant with Mac interface standards. Yet, I still pay Adobe for the Photo Plan. I want to stop but it is kind of a phycological problem! I just cannot stop feeling I would be missing "something." What that something is I am not quite sure.

 

[Night Pixel]

Other DAM apps that are available to Mac users:

• FastRawViewer FOSS Not really a full DAM but a great ingest-and-cull tool: for Photos.

Although FastRawViewer is inexpensive, it is not free and is not open source. It just uses the FOSS LibRaw library engine. I haven't fact checked the rest of your text...

That was my thought, Fast Raw Viewer (FRV) costs $18. I thought it used an open-source library to keep up with camera changes, and apparently it does.

The source of the post was my own research. For example this video from macmost.com Why You Should Stop Storing Photos as Files and Use Mac Photos Instead , Best digital asset management software for photographers , A Roundup of the Best Digital Asset Management Software , plus others.

NightPixel, thanks for summarizing your research. Photomator looks interesting!

I own and use Photomator and Pixelmator Pro because they are good app and do many things I want. They are also the most compliant with Mac interface standards. Yet, I still pay Adobe for the Photo Plan. I want to stop but it is kind of a phycological problem! I just cannot stop feeling I would be missing "something." What that something is I am not quite sure.

I've been using it for a while now. I like the way it integrates with Photos. One thing I haven't figured out yet is what happens if I edit an image in Photomator and the do a subsequent edit in Photos!

Dave

If you are using Photomator with the Photo Library and not Files, then any changes made in either Photos or Photomator will be seen by the other app. You are editing the exact same image in both apps so everything done in one. is seen by the other.

You can easily see this your self. Just open a Photos image in Photomator, go to the Curves tool and make some extreme change. Than close Photomator and open the image in Apple Photos. You will the change. Go to Edit and remove the Curves change and close the photo. Go back to Photomator and open the image again. You will see the change you made in Photos.

That is why Apple bought Pixelmator. Both Photomator and Pixelmator Pro are integrated with MacOS. and the latest version of Pixelmator Pro 3.7 supports Apple Intelligence and Image Playground and Writing Tools.