Photography workflow

A place to talk about anything else with other Pixelmator users.
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2021-02-22 21:47:17

Hi,
I am looking to collect some best practices.
After 20+ years of non-serious photography (read simple point and shoot/ iPhone}, I'd like to return to a more arty way of photography. Coming from a “real” darkroom time, I am a bit overwhelmed by the digital possibilities to handle my shots. How is your workflow, how do you handle the photos you took? Are you using apple’s photos app to manage your raw/ jpg files and edit solely in Pixelmator or do you use different software?
Thank you for sharing your insights.
Cheers,
Arne
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2021-02-24 00:51:07

I am too moving from Lightroom. The Pixelmator Pro is an excellent editor, but I need a library management app. I cannot be caught dead using the Photos app. Which Pixelmator app would be better at managing a desktop library, in folders?
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2021-02-25 15:29:01

by vicenac I am too moving from Lightroom. The Pixelmator Pro is an excellent editor, but I need a library management app. I cannot be caught dead using the Photos app. Which Pixelmator app would be better at managing a desktop library, in folders?
I guess you're asking about whether you should buy Pixelmator Classic or Pixelmator Pro? If so, Pixelmator Classic is no longer actively developed, so you really only have one choice. :smiley: Generally speaking, if you're keeping your images in folders and simply opening/editing them in Pixelmator Pro, the app itself shouldn't really affect your management.

P.S. We plan to create a Pixelmator Photo for macOS, which would build upon the native Photos library and frameworks, but might be able to offer some additional management features and, of course, a different UI. That might be something to look out for. :wink:
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2021-03-09 21:32:53

I'm trying to move from Lightroom CC to Pixelmator too and the biggest issue is file management for me. I like how my Lightroom catalog is separate from my iCloud Photo Library and how every aspect of file managing/syncing can be done in Lightroom, without having to deal with file/folder naming/structure.
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2021-03-10 13:14:21

I had similar challenges, except that I had no previous experience with Adobe LR. I watched a lot of videos describing different workflow approaches.
For me, the best way is:
1. Copies photos from the sd card to the external SSD drive (1. RAW folder)
2. I have prepared folders on the SSD (1. RAW; 2. RAW Selected 3. EDIT; 4. EXPORT)
3. Sorts photos in folder 1. RAW and those that he wants to leave are transferred to folder 2. RAW Selected
4. Automator :) copies all photos in the 2. RAW Selected folder to the 3. EDIT folder and applies ML Enhance. This allows me to have pre-edited photos and now I can review the photos and correct edits manually.
5. Automator :) exports all .pxd photos from 3. EDIT to 4. EXPORT as .jpg
6. Delete folder 1. RAW
7. I transfer everything to an external HDD, and the 3. Edit folder to my computer's hard drive

I sometimes do points 1-3 in the photos application because it's a little more convenient to browse the photos there and then I just delete the ones I don't want and copy what's left to the folder in the finder and do points 4-7. This solution requires the purchase of extra icloud space - for me 50GB is enough. I prefer One Drive cloud.

Do you know when Pixelmator Photo will be available for macOS?
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2021-03-13 10:49:19

by Aleksander 2021-03-10 12:14:21 4. Automator :) copies all photos in the 2. RAW Selected folder to the 3. EDIT folder and applies ML Enhance. This allows me to have pre-edited photos and now I can review the photos and correct edits manually.
Aleksander, I like your workflow, especially with the Automator inclusion. One question though: I have tried to rebuild #4, but I do not see the availability ML Enhancement in the Actions menue? I see Color Adjustments and Auto Enhance possibilities, but not to RAW, and do not see ML Enhancement.
This is on a MacMini M1 with Automator Version 2.10 (509) and Pixelmator Pro Version 2.0.6 Junipero.

Thank you for sharing!!

arne
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2021-03-23 16:30:14

Having be forced to move from Apple Aperture, I have been using Luminar for a couple of years, however the library within Luminar is very basic and in my view unstable. With Skylum having decided to shift their focus away from any development of a usable DAM, I very recently migrated my entire image library over to Apple’s Photos app to manage and I now edit solely in Pixelmator as a Photo's plugin. I haven't looked back and do wonder why I neglected using this workflow for so long.
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2021-03-23 16:35:46

by Andrius 2021-02-25 15:29:01
P.S. We plan to create a Pixelmator Photo for macOS, which would build upon the native Photos library and frameworks, but might be able to offer some additional management features and, of course, a different UI. That might be something to look out for. :wink:
Now this would be a very welcome addition - I'm not terribly enamoured by Apple Photos and just use it as an image library with all my edits being undertaken in Pixelmator Pro as a plugin to Photos.
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2021-03-29 16:56:32

by Arne 2021-03-13 09:49:19
Aleksander, I like your workflow, especially with the Automator inclusion. One question though: I have tried to rebuild #4, but I do not see the availability ML Enhancement in the Actions menue? I see Color Adjustments and Auto Enhance possibilities, but not to RAW, and do not see ML Enhancement.
This is on a MacMini M1 with Automator Version 2.10 (509) and Pixelmator Pro Version 2.0.6 Junipero.

Thank you for sharing!!

arne
Hi,

I didn't see a notification for more posts in this thread.
I downloaded ready-made automator scripts from here: https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/re ... mator-pro/
Called: Copy Finder Items > Change Type of Images (to PXD) > Auto Enhance Images / workflow

Enjoy!
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2021-03-29 17:01:01

by Christian Poulton 2021-03-23 15:30:14 Having be forced to move from Apple Aperture, I have been using Luminar for a couple of years, however the library within Luminar is very basic and in my view unstable. With Skylum having decided to shift their focus away from any development of a usable DAM, I very recently migrated my entire image library over to Apple’s Photos app to manage and I now edit solely in Pixelmator as a Photo's plugin. I haven't looked back and do wonder why I neglected using this workflow for so long.
And you use Apple Photos to store RAW and JPEG photos?
Does it work and no slowdowns in operation of Apple Photos?
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2023-03-18 06:50:30

Whilst this thread is an old thread I came across it whilst looking for a Pixelmator Pro workflow example. With respect to the queries re an image management solution for those that are still looking after Apeture I would highly recommend Photo Mechanic Plus. I use it as my front end for Pixelmator Pro. It is brilliant in my opinion! My high level workflow is Ingest images into Photo Mechanic Plus where I rate my images do basic metadata manipulation, catalog my images. From within Photo Mechanic I launch Pixelmator Pro undertake my editing and send the edited image to Photos. Once I have edited the image I label it in Photo Mechanic Plus and move on. You can get a free trial of Photo Mechanic. The cataloging feature of Photo Mechanic Plus is awesome.