My work-around for the Photomator lack of chromatic abberation and ratings features

[Roger Harris]

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to share my method of getting around the lack of CA correction in Photomator that I stumbled upon. First, a bit of background; I'm a CGI professional running my own business, so I can justfy some expense on image editing software and in my recent quest to move away from Adobe like the rest of the world, I have been trying most of the other options. I have On1, all the DXO apps including photolab with the film packs etc and NIK collection, Affinity, an older version of Capture One Pro, RAW Power & Nitro and of course I still have LRC... I'm not boasting but rather I'm letting you know I've tried 'em all!

After much rumination and tons of time processing 100's of photos over and over again, I realised that I have fallen in love with Photomator and it's integration into good old Apple photos!! Especially as I like to have my pics on all devices and have shared albums etc. It's easily as good as the big boys.

The biggest niggle for me is the lack of CA in Photomator as one of my lenses is quite frankly awful! Easy fix in DXO or LrC but just not possible in Photomator (despite a slider implementation being the obvious fix with no need for a database of lenses).. Yesterday I found a work-around that works perfectly assuming you have either RAW Power or Nitro from Gentleman Coders. Much as I think they are great apps, I just don't like the workflow compared to Photomator, however they do have Chromatic Abberation sliders that work very well and wonder of magical wonders, they save their edits back to the RAW!! (NONE of the big boys can do that). So no massive exported tiffs or DNGs required

So, I have RAW Power open in the BG and when I need to sort some CA I jump over and fix it, save the file then jump back into Photomator for all the other editing. Works a treat!

I realise it's a bit of a faff but it does the job and of course you can also use this method for sorting a bunch of RAWs on input, just rate and sort in RAW Power, cull what you don't want and move back to Photomator. All the time keeping your Photos album updating automatically. Both super cheap apps too. Hopefull one day both these features will be in Photomator but I"m not holding my breath given the threads on this forum that go back years.

TL,DR: Use RAW Power or Nitro to fix CA and sorting, then edit in Photomator.

Hope this helps some of you. Many may already do this but it's new to me.

EDIT: SO, I REALISE I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT THIS. THE FILES WERE INDEED BEING SAVED BACK TO DNG/TIFF/PROPRIETARY FORMAT IN THE LINKED FOLDER, WHICH I'D NOT SEEn AS IT WAS IN ICLOUD DRIVE. NOT ONLY THAT BUT THE FILES ARE FLIPPIN' HUGE! SO. PLEASE STILL USE THE WORK-AROUND BUT IGNORE THE PART ABOUT SAVING BACK TO RAW. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE POST DE-MOSAICING ANYHOW.

[Nadeem]

I don't understand how this can work. The CA change you make in Raw Power or Nitro can only be read by those apps. Photomator would not be able to read the change and translate that.

[Roger Harris]

I don't understand how this can work. The CA change you make in Raw Power or Nitro can only be read by those apps. Photomator would not be able to read the change and translate that.

I know, that's what I thought but it seems to be working. I even tried big changes, like massively changing the hue in photomator, save and lo and behold, both Photos and Raw Power see the edits to the RAW...! Amazing.
I assume it's due to the deep integration into Photos that both these apps have. It's working for me. Give it a go and see if you get the same results.

[Martin Chalifoux]

Does this require importing the RAW in Apple Photos in the first place or can this be done in a Folder, since both Nitro and Photomator support folders ? In my flow I do not import RAW in Apple Photos. I do all my edits in folders and and only import the final JPEG images (the keepers) that I am happy with in Apple Photos.

[Roger Harris]

Does this require importing the RAW in Apple Photos in the first place or can this be done in a Folder, since both Nitro and Photomator support folders ? In my flow I do not import RAW in Apple Photos. I do all my edits in folders and and only import the final JPEG images (the keepers) that I am happy with in Apple Photos.

I’ve only tried with raw images as I want to be able to do away with lightroom in my workflow. I also do copy all my files into photos.
Might be worth a try though. I definitely don’t save over the masters so it must be writing to a sidecar or more likely a database within the photos package.

[Nadeem]

I’ve only tried with raw images as I want to be able to do away with lightroom in my workflow. I also do copy all my files into photos.
Might be worth a try though. I definitely don’t save over the masters so it must be writing to a sidecar or more likely a database within the photos package.

RAWs are read only, so it's likely writing to the Apple Photos database. I doubt it will work via folders, but I'm going to test this out as well.

[Nadeem]

This is really interesting. I've just tested this out with two images. Imported the RAWs only from external SSD into Photos.

Made an edit in Nitro on desktop (massive color change just to exaggerate), confirmed it was applied in Photos. Then opened Photomator and wouldn't ya know, the edited image is there. In the Photomator edit panel the corresponding change isn't there but I expect that. Then I made another exaggerated change in Photomator. The change was applied in Photos. Going back to Nitro, while the edited image opens, the original change to the sliders no longer appears in the edit panel. It's like you're working with a new RAW.

I also did the same to the second image on my iPad with both apps. Same results. I even went back and forth between desktop and iPad and it all syncs up.

Great job finding this workaround Roger! I'm still not sure if this workflow will make me leave Lightroom as there are still some features there that I prefer like having soft-proofing and IMHO better masking for local edits. It's pretty close though!

[Roger Harris]

Glad you found it useful! For me it’s the CA and quick culling that I can do in Nitro. I doesn’t bother me that the sliders don’t carry over as, like you say, that’s to be expected. I just love working in Photomator and keeping my images in Apple Photos. Yes, DXO is way ahead when working with a supported body/lens combo, but it doesn’t support Apple Raw or DNGs or Movies, which photos does perfectly so it’s a good work-around for me.

Cheers

[Martin Chalifoux]

I think what you are doing is editing JPG that are saved in Apple Photos. That is why you do not see sliders. Now the drawback to this is you end up making multiple edits in jpeg. a true non-destructive workflow do not do that. As you should know JPEG is problematic in that each time you save you loose quality, and if you edit multiple times you keep degrading the quality of the image. With editors that bake the edits in a new JPEG file it is always advisable to get all the edits done in one go.

[Roger Harris]

I think what you are doing is editing JPG that are saved in Apple Photos. That is why you do not see sliders. Now the drawback to this is you end up making multiple edits in jpeg. a true non-destructive workflow do not do that. As you should know JPEG is problematic in that each time you save you loose quality, and if you edit multiple times you keep degrading the quality of the image. With editors that bake the edits in a new JPEG file it is always advisable to get all the edits done in one go.

Nope. I’m not editing jpegs at all. The edits are non-destructive and written into photos database. Same as if you edited a raw in Nitro then went back to photos. You don’t see the sliders but the edits are there. No degradation takes place as the original raw is never touched. It’s win win.

[Roger Harris]

EDIT: SO, I REALISE I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT THIS. THE FILES WERE INDEED BEING SAVED BACK TO DNG/TIFF/PROPRIETARY FORMAT IN THE LINKED FOLDER, WHICH I'D NOT SEEN AS IT WAS IN ICLOUD DRIVE. NOT ONLY THAT BUT THE FILES ARE FLIPPIN' HUGE! SO. PLEASE STILL USE THE WORK-AROUND BUT IGNORE THE PART ABOUT SAVING BACK TO RAW. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE POST DE-MOSAICING ANYHOW.

[RichardWatkins]

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to share my method of getting around the lack of CA correction in Photomator that I stumbled upon. First, a bit of background; I'm a CGI professional running my own business, so I can justfy some expense on image editing software and in my recent quest to move away from Adobe like the rest of the world, I have been trying most of the other options. I have On1, all the DXO apps including photolab with the film packs etc and NIK collection, Affinity, an older version of Capture One Pro, RAW Power & Nitro and of course I still have LRC... I'm not boasting but rather I'm letting you know I've tried 'em all!

After much rumination and tons of time processing 100's of photos over and over again, I realised that I have fallen in love with Photomator and it's integration into good old Apple photos!! Especially as I like to have my pics on all devices and have shared albums etc. It's easily as good as the big boys.

The biggest niggle for me is the lack of CA in Photomator as one of my lenses is quite frankly awful! Easy fix in DXO or LrC but just not possible in Photomator (despite a slider implementation being the obvious fix with no need for a database of lenses).. Yesterday I found a work-around that works perfectly assuming you have either RAW Power or Nitro from Gentleman Coders. Much as I think they are great apps, I just don't like the workflow compared to Photomator, however they do have Chromatic Abberation sliders that work very well and wonder of magical wonders, they save their edits back to the RAW!! (NONE of the big boys can do that). So no massive exported tiffs or DNGs required
Thanks for sharing your workflow! you've put a lot of thought into optimizing your editing process. Using RAW Power or Nitro alongside Photomator is a clever solution for dealing with chromatic aberration. It’s great that you’ve found a way to maintain your editing efficiency while enjoying the integration with Apple Photos. Your experience will surely help others looking for similar solutions! I was struggling with a difficult essay and didn’t know how to start, so I used academized.com/professional-essay-writers The writer I worked with was fantastic. They took my vague ideas and turned them into a cohesive, well-structured essay that addressed all the key points. The quality of the writing was excellent, and I was able to submit it confidently. I highly recommend their services for anyone needing essay writing help!
So, I have RAW Power open in the BG and when I need to sort some CA I jump over and fix it, save the file then jump back into Photomator for all the other editing. Works a treat!

I realise it's a bit of a faff but it does the job and of course you can also use this method for sorting a bunch of RAWs on input, just rate and sort in RAW Power, cull what you don't want and move back to Photomator. All the time keeping your Photos album updating automatically. Both super cheap apps too. Hopefull one day both these features will be in Photomator but I"m not holding my breath given the threads on this forum that go back years.

TL,DR: Use RAW Power or Nitro to fix CA and sorting, then edit in Photomator.

Hope this helps some of you. Many may already do this but it's new to me.

EDIT: SO, I REALISE I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT THIS. THE FILES WERE INDEED BEING SAVED BACK TO DNG/TIFF/PROPRIETARY FORMAT IN THE LINKED FOLDER, WHICH I'D NOT SEEn AS IT WAS IN ICLOUD DRIVE. NOT ONLY THAT BUT THE FILES ARE FLIPPIN' HUGE! SO. PLEASE STILL USE THE WORK-AROUND BUT IGNORE THE PART ABOUT SAVING BACK TO RAW. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE POST DE-MOSAICING ANYHOW.

Same here.