Tethering Photo Mechanic's "Live Ingest" feature can be used to not only watch folders and immediately import anything that lands in said folder, but also as a tethering feature-direct from camera. In addition to still photos, Photo Mechanic can import videos in AVI, MOV, MPEG, and MPEG-4 formats. As with Aperture and Lightroom, the photo thumbnails started appearing in the program window before the import was complete, and I could view those in full screen mode immediately. I could even zoom to view images at 100 percent this way. Unless you're really pinched for time, these differences don't seem significant, especially when you consider that you have to take the time to load the images into another app to do real work on them.Īperture also displays all the imported images fastest, though you can view images on a card in Photo Mechanic without ingesting by double-clicking the card's folder entry in the left sidebar. Time to import 246 CR2 files (in seconds, lower is better) Time to Import 40 mixed raw files (in seconds, lower is better) Here's a table showing the import performance results: The first test consisted of 40 mixed raw images from different cameras, each about 20MB, and a larger import of 246. I tested using a Retina MacBook with a 2.3GHz Core i7 processor and 8GB RAM. I performed a couple of ingest speed tests, pitting Photo Mechanic against Aperture and Lightroom. I could, however choose a subfolder, for example, if multiple cameras had recorded to the card and created separate folders. This meant that if I had a huge SD card full of images, I could only import everything that Photo Mechanic hadn't previously imported. One thing that I didn't love was that I couldn't select thumbnails of the images for import beforehand, as I could in Lightroom. "Ingesting" Your Photos with Photo Mechanic The ingest process can open a contact sheet during import, erase source media after import, and automatically unmount the media when done. Not being able to see the actual result of a crop seems kind of pointless, though you can show the cropped out area darkened. The crop tool isn't as sophisticated as Lightroom's and doesn't actually even crop your view of the image it only takes effect (optionally) if you export the image. It also offers the single actual editing option in the program: cropping. This view shows a histogram for the image, with the ability to highlight blown out or lost dark areas, helpful for selecting images to keep. The preview interface lets you do side-by-side (or above and below) comparisons. As with other pro-level image apps, Photo Mechanic makes good use of keyboard shortcuts: You can use these to zoom, select, rate, and rotate images, as well as to upload them or send them to an external editor such as Photoshop.įour buttons appear in the corners of an image thumbnail when you hover the mouse over it: rotate left, rotate right, magnifying glass to open preview, and i for information in the form of a large IPTC sheet. Even CyberLink's $99.99 PhotoDirector has these color labels. ![]() ![]() Color-coding photos for different uses and subjects is now standard in high-end photo apps. A search bar to the right works well, and is surrounded by upload (to FTP, SmugMug, Flickr, and more), burn to disc, and color matching buttons.Īlong the bottom edge of the main interface, you'll see basic photo info at the left, and rating (the standard 1 to 5) and color-coding options to the right. ![]() ![]() Photo Mechanic uses the word "tag" in a non-standard way: other apps call this pick or flag, instead using the word tag to mean keyword descriptive tags. Thumbnail view in Photo Mechanic can be enlarged with a slider right at the top of the window, and I could sort images by capture time, modified time, filename, rating, and more.Ī view filter dropdown lets you restrict displayed thumbnails to tagged, untagged, or selected images. Nor does it let you group similar photos into "stacks" to help with selection the way those apps do. The interface doesn't support the two most recent Mac OS X versions' full-screen modes, as Lightroom and Aperture do. (Most other photo apps use the term "import," while "ingest" is more common in the pro video arena.) You can ingest only new photos or everything on the card. An optional "IPTC Stationery Pad" offers a wealth of description such as location, licensing, and even detailed information about any model shot. When you insert digital photo media, the app's "Ingest" dialog pops up with choices for source, destination, and whether to only import raw camera files. A left panel shows your computer's disk folder structure. Interface As you'd expect from a pro-level program, Photo Mechanic's interface is no-nonsense. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.
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