I’ve talked about Presenting your work on the LightSource Podcast (available at StudioLighting.net). Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m a geek. And I’m ok with that. So, It’s probably no surprise that I love software. Now, finding the ideal software that fits my workflow is the “fun” part.

I’ve been a HUGE fan of the Adobe Bridge/Photoshop combination. Dr.Brown’s Image Processor (not simply called Image Processor) was my “ace in the hole” for getting stuff online. It’s still a fabulous tool, but I’m wanting something more.

I tried Lightroom, but I’m not sold on it. I’m not sure that it handles all the aspects of what I do. I feel like it’s a great tool for a portrait photographer or event photographer, but I’m not sure it’s the best option for a stock photographer.

I’d been a loyal fan of iView Media and was an affiliate of iView for a number of years. Now I’m not so wild about the developments of this software now that it’s under the Microsoft Label. I’ve grappled with frequent crashes while doing simple tasks. So, I continue to feel like I’m in a sort of limbo.

I tried using ACDSee Pro 2.0 (which I use as my browser… and it’s fantastic for that). I’m a little disappointed in it’s ability to do offline cataloging though. I tried to import photos from my external disk (cause my laptop has little HD space) and figured I’d just work on Keywords in the DB portion of the application and found I couldn’t do it. What a huge limitation for a cataloging application to require the images to be available to manage them.

Well, I guess for the time being, I will continue to use Microsoft Expression Media and give an update as things change.