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Image Viewer - Mac OS
May 29, 2018 15:37:11   #
rfahrens
 
My operating system is Mac and I have Adobe LR & PS subscription, which I like and have no desire to change. I shoot in raw with Sony E series cameras. However, I would like to quickly review and organize photos prior to uploading them into Lightroom for processing. Yes, I realize one can directly upload into Lightroom and then review and process; however that is not my preferred workflow. I had a recommendation to use Fast Stone and it seems like a perfect solution, but it doesn’t work with Mac OS. I need recommendations for a good and fast Mac OS photo viewer.

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May 29, 2018 15:47:03   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
I thought mac had a preview window. http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/11/open-all-images-into-single-window-preview-mac/
--Bob
rfahrens wrote:
My operating system is Mac and I have Adobe LR & PS subscription, which I like and have no desire to change. I shoot in raw with Sony E series cameras. However, I would like to quickly review and organize photos prior to uploading them into Lightroom for processing. Yes, I realize one can directly upload into Lightroom and then review and process; however that is not my preferred workflow. I had a recommendation to use Fast Stone and it seems like a perfect solution, but it doesn’t work with Mac OS. I need recommendations for a good and fast Mac OS photo viewer.
My operating system is Mac and I have Adobe LR &am... (show quote)

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May 29, 2018 17:04:31   #
artBob Loc: Near Chicago
 
Doesn't Bridge show you all the pix on your card?
Also, you could just open the card from the Desktop, select thumbnail view, and check things out. The size of the thumbnails can be adjusted by a slider at the bottom of the window. After doing that I go up to "Arrange" in the window menu bar, and click on "By Name" so that I don't have to use the horizontal scroll bar to see pix.

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May 29, 2018 17:10:04   #
blackest Loc: Ireland
 
rmalarz wrote:


pretty good chance you can open in finder just press the spacebar, if you need more there is a button defaults to preview but it can be changed.

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May 30, 2018 07:55:19   #
MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs
 
FastRawViewer is free and available on the Mac. I haven't used it much as I load directly into Lightroom, but it does work.

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May 30, 2018 09:26:05   #
magpix Loc: St. Michaels, MD
 
Consider a trial of Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits. It's a super fast browser used by many pros to rate and select what they import to LR. It's star and color ratings can be read by LR. There's an initial cost, but many photographers like myself find it is worth the money.

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May 30, 2018 09:34:46   #
via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP
 
rfahrens wrote:
My operating system is Mac and I have Adobe LR & PS subscription, which I like and have no desire to change. I shoot in raw with Sony E series cameras. However, I would like to quickly review and organize photos prior to uploading them into Lightroom for processing. Yes, I realize one can directly upload into Lightroom and then review and process; however that is not my preferred workflow. I had a recommendation to use Fast Stone and it seems like a perfect solution, but it doesn’t work with Mac OS. I need recommendations for a good and fast Mac OS photo viewer.
My operating system is Mac and I have Adobe LR &am... (show quote)


I think you would need to load Bridge, which is free with your subscription. But I cannot imagine why you would want to do this when you can use the fastest, easiest "viewer" on the market with LR. Simply load everything in, then mark anything you don't like with an X, then delete them all at one time with the command-delete keys, gone in an instant! Yes, if you do backup on import, the originals will be put on your backup disk but space is pretty cheap these days. Maybe you simply need to re-think your "preferred workflow" and see if that new workflow is an improvement before you have to learn another new program or spend money on something that your current program does even better. Just a thought!

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May 30, 2018 09:59:46   #
blackest Loc: Ireland
 
via the lens wrote:
I think you would need to load Bridge, which is free with your subscription. But I cannot imagine why you would want to do this when you can use the fastest, easiest "viewer" on the market with LR. Simply load everything in, then mark anything you don't like with an X, then delete them all at one time with the command-delete keys, gone in an instant! Yes, if you do backup on import, the originals will be put on your backup disk but space is pretty cheap these days. Maybe you simply need to re-think your "preferred workflow" and see if that new workflow is an improvement before you have to learn another new program or spend money on something that your current program does even better. Just a thought!
I think you would need to load Bridge, which is fr... (show quote)


Lightroom can be rather tedious with it's import as it opens each file records the exif and creates a preview.
I tend to let it start and either let it do its thing or pick something to work on or make a drink.

I can understand someone wanting to speed that process up. Once the photos are in lightroom in the library module you are looking at the previews created in import and its fast to switch between these compared with opening up the much larger raw files.

Personally I think its easiest to start the lightroom import and go do something else. Opening each file outside of lightroom and culling individually and then importing seems like a slower process.

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May 30, 2018 10:37:48   #
bfur396
 
A sort of brute force way and probably not as fast as you would like: Just create a folder on your Mac in a location that is convenient. Then simply highlight and drag your photos from your camera card (SD?) into the folder. Depending on how many photos you have, go have a cuppa something until all photos are copied. Then select them one at a time to judge/keep/trash them. OSX will show you the pic in a thumbnail as you select them. If your photos are in RAW format each pic will take probably too long for you to see, so an alternative is to select all of them, press the space bar and you will get all of the pics with a choice of format - single or catalog. Look at the upper left hand corner and you will see 5 checkboxes. 1st to close the pics, 2d to select a full screen slide show option, 3d to move back one pic, 4th to advance one pic and 5th to see all the pics in a catalog format. You can review the pics, note the ones you want to get rid of and then go back to the folder and trash the ones you don't want. And you can then reorganize your photos into other folders, etc.
Then go to Lightroom and import the pics from the folder(s) you have created.
Personally, I use LR to import directly and then reorganize, etc. through LR. Remember that the pics are not IN LR but in a folder that you selected on import. LR through its catalog system simply keeps track of what you want to do to the picture. And once you have the pics referred to in the LR catalog, you should only use the LR catalog to move/reorganize where your pics are.
Not sure if this answers your question, but this capability is part of the Mac OSX.
And by the way, I use the slide show function of OSX described above to quickly present selected pics. Not fancy but works great, is fast and free.

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May 30, 2018 10:45:20   #
magpix Loc: St. Michaels, MD
 
blackest wrote:
Lightroom can be rather tedious with it's import as it opens each file records the exif and creates a preview.
I tend to let it start and either let it do its thing or pick something to work on or make a drink.

I can understand someone wanting to speed that process up. Once the photos are in lightroom in the library module you are looking at the previews created in import and its fast to switch between these compared with opening up the much larger raw files.

Personally I think its easiest to start the lightroom import and go do something else. Opening each file outside of lightroom and culling individually and then importing seems like a slower process.
Lightroom can be rather tedious with it's import a... (show quote)


While it would seem that using another program to cull images before importing into LR is a slower process, using Photo Mechanic actually speeds up the process. That's why the majority of AP photographers use Photo Mechanic to preview and select thousands of images they might shoot in one session. There are preferences that can be set that make selecting "keepers" incredibly fast. As a photojournalist, I also like using it because my LR catalog is not clogged with thousands of images that I will never use. I'm not advocating Photo Mechanic for everyone, just mentioning that it is actually a fast and easy way to cull before importing hundreds and thousands of images and that pre-selecting before importing reduces the clutter of rejected images. It works very well for me who sometimes shoots 1000 or more images for a magazine assignment with a deadly deadline. But I appreciate that most photographers don't need to use this workflow and wouldn't want the added expense of buying the program.

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May 30, 2018 10:48:18   #
blackest Loc: Ireland
 
bfur396 wrote:
A sort of brute force way and probably not as fast as you would like: Just create a folder on your Mac in a location that is convenient. Then simply highlight and drag your photos from your camera card (SD?) into the folder. Depending on how many photos you have, go have a cuppa something until all photos are copied. Then select them one at a time to judge/keep/trash them. OSX will show you the pic in a thumbnail as you select them. If your photos are in RAW format each pic will take probably too long for you to see, so an alternative is to select all of them, press the space bar and you will get all of the pics with a choice of format - single or catalog. Look at the upper left hand corner and you will see 5 checkboxes. 1st to close the pics, 2d to select a full screen slide show option, 3d to move back one pic, 4th to advance one pic and 5th to see all the pics in a catalog format. You can review the pics, note the ones you want to get rid of and then go back to the folder and trash the ones you don't want. And you can then reorganize your photos into other folders, etc.
Then go to Lightroom and import the pics from the folder(s) you have created.
Personally, I use LR to import directly and then reorganize, etc. through LR. Remember that the pics are not IN LR but in a folder that you selected on import. LR through its catalog system simply keeps track of what you want to do to the picture. And once you have the pics referred to in the LR catalog, you should only use the LR catalog to move/reorganize where your pics are.
Not sure if this answers your question, but this capability is part of the Mac OSX.
And by the way, I use the slide show function of OSX described above to quickly present selected pics. Not fancy but works great, is fast and free.
A sort of brute force way and probably not as fast... (show quote)


Thank You,
I knew you could open individually with spacebar in finder but never realised how much more it can do, thats very useful.

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May 30, 2018 11:00:43   #
via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP
 
blackest wrote:
Lightroom can be rather tedious with it's import as it opens each file records the exif and creates a preview.
I tend to let it start and either let it do its thing or pick something to work on or make a drink.

I can understand someone wanting to speed that process up. Once the photos are in lightroom in the library module you are looking at the previews created in import and its fast to switch between these compared with opening up the much larger raw files.

Personally I think its easiest to start the lightroom import and go do something else. Opening each file outside of lightroom and culling individually and then importing seems like a slower process.
Lightroom can be rather tedious with it's import a... (show quote)


Hi, you answered me but I think you meant to answer the original poster; we both agree that LR is the best way, apparently!

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May 30, 2018 11:55:41   #
blackest Loc: Ireland
 
via the lens wrote:
Hi, you answered me but I think you meant to answer the original poster; we both agree that LR is the best way, apparently!


Yes lightroom is slow to import but, most other ways mean spending even more time...

Best to do something else while it imports once they are imported culling can be very quick.

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May 30, 2018 16:45:45   #
rfahrens
 
Thank you all for your input. I learned a lot. Almost every solution works however speed is an issue for me. I have downloaded a free copy of Fast Raw Viewer. It seems to be exactly what I wanted. I will be using it more in the next several weeks and publish an evaluation then. Again thank you all.

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May 30, 2018 20:07:27   #
a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel
 
rfahrens wrote:
Thank you all for your input. I learned a lot. Almost every solution works however speed is an issue for me. I have downloaded a free copy of Fast Raw Viewer. It seems to be exactly what I wanted. I will be using it more in the next several weeks and publish an evaluation then. Again thank you all.

As a user of both Sony E, Mac OSX and Fast Raw Viewer I think you have it right. If you shoot raw then it's the best option even over Preview and it's faster than Preview by far for Sony raw images in the 20+MPX size range, let alone 42 MPX.

FRV can be used "backwards" easily. By that I mean that my throw-aways are much more than 50%, maybe more than 2/3. So I use the feature for moving to rejected to be the ones I want to work on.

Again, if you shoot raw, be sure to set up FRV to show you the raw version so that you can properly evaluate dynamic range and exposure. This is where the program out performs anything that I've heard about, even Photo Mechanic (which is, I think, more costly as well).

Have fun and let's hear what you think about it after a while.

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