This is almost certainly a new topic, but I am sadly convinced that Photos is irredeemable. No need to detail all the whys, but really, it is a total pain to find something that you know exists but you can’t identify except by rough date, for instance. What is the best Photos replacement (that isn’t Adobe) that will deal with geotagging and, ideally, work on IOS and MacOS? If anyone can help with this, it is you folks. Thanks.
Take a look at Nitro Photo that interfaces perfectly with the Photo Library and can be used as an alternative front-end for the Photo Library. Not expensive and evaluation options are available in the Mac App Store. When you buy it you get iOS and iPad OS versions. Developed by Nik Bhatt who was formerly the manager of the Aperture software. (I also can work with images in the file system.). A very capable editor.
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I use Mylio. Unfortunately, it has gotten pricey to go beyond the free (one device) version, but with multiple devices it syncs locally over WiFi. It intelligently (with total, selective manual control if desired) optimizes photos so that you can have smaller versions on your iPhone with originals remaining on the Mac, for example. It supports geotagging. It has extensive auto-recognition and searching abilities. It’s the first photo manager I’ve liked since iPhoto.
Thanks very much for the rec. I’ll check it out
Thank you very much. Sounds like a possible!
Kevin
Not a replacement, but I use HoudahGeo for geotagging my photos from my Canon camera before importing them into Apple Photos (or another DAM). HoudahGeo allows me to import a track log (I’m using Open GPX Tracker on my iPhone to generate the track logs during a hike), then it modifies the EXIF metadata in the files.
And then in the ALL TOO COMMON instance where I forgot to reset / check the current date/time in the camera (or the DST setting, or the timezone if I’m traveling), I use the superb ExifTool by Phil Harvey to modify the EXIF inside the files directly.
For today, I needed to do this:
exiftool '-AllDates+=0:57:49' '-TimeZone=-4:00' '-EXIF:OffsetTime*=-4:00' Hiking_Upload
exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate" Hiking_Upload
The camera was 57:49 off and the timezone was still set to UTC-5 (EST) rather than UTC-4 (EDT).
So I first correct the time and zone within the files (ALWAYS make a copy first, and work off of the copy), then I use HoudahGeo to apply the missing GPS information, and then I import them into Apple Photos (and upload them to Flickr if appropriate).
See below for links to the programs:
I downloaded, tried out and then bought Nitro yesterday. The Adobe photo plan has nearly doubled in price and I find the amount of AI in Lightroom a pain - I much preferred it when I could select and apply a local brush easily in older versions. I have Affinity Photo and the Nik collection for more complex edits, and the masking for local adjustments in Nitro seems to work easily (at least for an amateur like me). One more subscription I can dump!
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thank you very much
Kevin
Thanks. This is helpful. Though I wish my SONY had a SIM so it could geotag.
Kevin
My canon has the ability to work with their app to provide geotagging. Unfortunately, they changed it so that you must log in with your “Canon ID” (because all of these businesses want to collect data), and it’s hard to log in when you’re out on a mountain with no cell service. It was truly irritating, and I was glad that I had a workable alternative.
A trick to use when geotagging on the camera is unavailable is to take a picture with your phone at each location where geotagging is unavailable on the camera. Load the phone pictures into your photo program and copy their location to the appropriate photos from your preferred camera. Then delete the phone photos.
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GraphicConverter by Thorsten Lemke. It’s absolutely indispensable, and that’s not an exaggeration. Here is its GPS menu.
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HoudahGeo will do this as well - you can provide reference photos and it will update the tags on non-tagged photos based on the reference photos.
I’ll have to look at Thorsten’s app - it looks like a different interface for doing many of the things that HoudahGeo does. I’ve figured out it can also do what I was using ExifTool for. It’s always interesting to play with different tools that have feature overlap to see what works best for my use cases!
ACDsee does geotagging, and has lots of other features.
Even though it include editing, I settled on it after a fruitless search for a image database application that does NOT including editing.
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Yes, it’s organization that is the problem. Nitro looks great for editing, but naming, keyword-making, sorting, all that, is SO chaotic yet so rigid on Photos. If you find an organizing tool, let us know!