Photo Editing and data management in one Program or separate Programs

[EdFladung]

Back in the early 2000's I used Photoshop on my PC as my main editing tool and I used a separate asset management tool the name of which I can't remember. In 2008, I was considering a move to the MAC and found that Aperture had all the features I wanted, so I made the move to Aperture and the very painful process of moving my photos to the MAC. Now photo editing and photo management were all under one roof.

Then Apple using it's "screw the customer" business model decided to cut the chord with Aperture necessitating a move to Lightroom and another move of all my photos to Lightroom and an even greater painful process of replicating my organizational system (I use hierarchical keywords) in Lightroom.

I have never really liked Lightroom and find that it really has not kept up with the competition in terms of editing capabilities, so now I contemplate another move. 

So if I have to move from Lightroom, do I find a really excellent asset management tool, that has a large enough user base so that I can count on the fact that I never have to do this again? And just concentrate of the best photo editing software I can find and keep the asset management as a separate tool? 

My daughter who is a professional photographer always keeps editing and management separate, might this be the most painless way to go?

What do you think?

 

[Zababo]

I lived the same evolution and it necessitated a long reflexion to me. My choice is to use a specific photo management tool, created specifically for this job and to choose a photo editor as good as possible for my RAF files. 
For one year now I use PhotoMechanics and Capture one Pro. 
PhotoMechanics is powerful and very very fast to show large files of images, JPEG as RAF. 
Capture one pro is a wonderful editing software, and much more since v20. 
You can try both of them free for sometime. 
Good chance for your choice. 

[jlmphotos]

If you keep your catalog in a hierarchical structure you can move, or even use simultaneously multiple programs.  Example:  I've been a LR user since BETA 1A back in 2007 I think.  If you think it sucks now, you should have been there in '07!! HA!   I also hav access to the SAME structure in C1Pro, AND Luminar!  They both ready my file structure and it just works  --- and I'm on a Mac BTW. I too for a very short time moved to Apple Aperture. I loved the loupe view feature most of all -- which capture one Pro has BTW.

Something you may want to look at is Adobe Bridge. It's FREE.  When I first switched to digital back in 2002 that was one app I used.  Still free today.

Now use LR to import, sort and catalog, but do any post-editing in Capture One Pro.  Since my family wants to see the family photos, I have Luminar installed on our three 27" iMacs, two laptops.  These all access 8TB external HD so they can get to any of the family images via APPLE photos app or Luminar.