It has finally happened. I found a digital photo management program I am not qualified to review. It was bound to happen, but I don’t think it was me. (Well, possibly it was me. I probably shouldn’t have put Photo Mechanic on my list of potential consumer digital photo management programs.)
A very large digital photo management survey, however, put Camera Bits (maker of Photo Mechanic) on the list of solutions for photo management.
I’ve known about Photo Mechanic (for renaming and editing metadata of a photo) for a long time. I even tried it out about six or seven years ago and didn’t care for it, preferring to use Adobe Bridge.
But, with my work these past few months reviewing digital photo management programs, I thought I’d take another try at using it. And, I was excited to see that Photo Mechanic offered Photo Mechanic Plus, a version that also now incorporates organizing options for your photos.
So. . . a couple of things before I tell you about my experience with Photo Mechanic.
Keep In Mind These Two Points
- You Need One Digital Home for All of Your Photos – This means choosing a digital photo management program. It’s just easier this way. See this article for more background.
- Work With Your Photos Routinely – I highly recommend spending time with your digital photo management program frequently. This way you can remember where you left off, keep up with your current photos taken and recall the tips and tricks of using the program.
Key Requirements for a Photo Management Program
As I’ve been evaluating programs on YouTube, I give programs a score of between 0 and 4. Factors include how well the program meets the following criteria:
- Ability to organize photos by albums or folders
- Features to change metadata (photo date, tags, description, etc.)
- Ease of auto backing up your collection
- How much I like using the program
Of course there are other features that might be important (editing the photos, facial recognition, sharing, etc.) But, the above four I consider essential features.
Trying Out Photo Mechanic
My first mistake was thinking that this survey of digital photo management programs was designed for consumers. I quickly learned that it was directed at professional photographers. But, when I saw Photo Mechanic had added organization to its software, I assumed it would be good. Many of my photo organizing colleagues use it.
I could see that Photo Mechanic Plus did meet some of my essential feature criteria. However, it was a complicated endeavor to figure out how it met the criteria and how to teach someone else.
Photo Mechanic Plus uses words like “ingest, catalogue, collections” that are just not intuitive to me. When I saw the ability to open a “contact sheet,” I realized this was one program I was never going to have the patience to figure out.
Plus, I definitely did not like the very technical interface of Photo Mechanic.
With that being said, I know there are many, many users of Photo Mechanic. It’s been available in some form since 1996 when founder Dave Walker launched it. It was revolutionary for professional photographers who were looking for workflow options to manage their photography. If you have the technical know-how and the need for a very advanced program, I think Photo Mechanic could be a good option to consider. I appreciated that there was a free trial period and you could try it out and see what you think.
An alternative to Photo Mechanic is Mylio and you can watch my review of Mylio here.
The Moral of the Story
As you consider where your digital photo home is going to be, there are a lot of photo management options out there. Look at several and see what you absolutely love using. You want to enjoy the experience of working with your photos. You definitely don’t want to be frustrated by a program that has too many features.
Remember, you have got to take care of your memories. As Bob Dylan once sang, “You cannot relive them.”
To see the other options for digital photo management, here’s our playlist from YouTube:
