Photomator

subscription

Update to an earlier review after which the developers of this app fixed just about everything I disliked, and added a dozen other features that are worth far more than the price of admission. I've only been exploring the updated Photomator for a few hours today and am already amazed at what it can do and how well it does it. Having turned my back on Adobe LR etc, I've tried ON1, Luminar Neo, Capture One, DXO Photolab and Mylio Photos (which has, by the way, the best photomanagement of any photos app, but very poor editing possibilities!) It turns out the solution is to allow Apple Photos to manage you photos and then, for a one-time price of €79, you get one of the very best RAW photo editors I've come across. Beautiful, clean, intuitive menus, far more power (layers, masks, brush tools etc) than I was expecting, and fabulous integration with Photos itself (Photomator auto saves its edited photos in an album in your Photos library, leaving your original as it was but ensuring you can find the edited version in seconds! Incredible.) I've yet to figure out how to work with multiple Photos libraries (which would be nice but is far from being a deal-breaker) and, of course, how to deal with the fact that for this one-time price you also get the iOS app, with almost all the same functionality, free. And, using iCloud, you can sync changes between Mac and iPhone/iPad, again all automatic once you set it up (and, first, figure it out). So much to admire about the way this app is put together. I've spent months going back and forth, desperately trying to find something that would give me the power of Lightroom without the ludicrously expensive subscription). It turns out a combination of Photos and Photomator can do all that and more, and doesn't tie you into a system you will later struggle to get out of. After all, Photos (still the core of the exchange) is free of Mac, well-maintained and as robust as most core Mac apps are. Well done, Photomator developers. Once I get the hang of this now, of course I'm going to have to see what exactly your intriguing-looking Pixelmator Pro is all about. There's life in the Mac ecosystem yet!

I find Photomator quite useful. It's like the Pro version of the built-in ApplePhotos app - well integrated within MacOS and iOS/iCloud and a very Apple-like UI. I'd recommend it as a tool for those who are enthusiatic about taking nice pic but don't need the uber-pro level features of the likes of Lightroom. I've opted for the lifetime license option on both Mac and iOS/iPadOS as I think I'll always use this app for minor photo tweaks.

It is so integrated that you might think it is the photos app! Very very powerfull and you can save all the editings to review them in pixelmator pro if you need / want to. Buying this app gives you the iOS app too.

This app lived on my iPad for a while before actually trying it. Simple yet doing touch very very well, the resolution feature is wonderful. Now the app is visited almost daily to fix last minute poor pictures received via WhatsApp. I wonder how good is the Mac application though.

Just a few more features to compete with LightRoom and a 5 star review Dehaze, panorama, noise reduction, HDR

Amazing! Worth the money! Extremely happy to leave Lightroom for this!

I have come to use many different programs in my creative endeavors but in terms of photo editing this app is becoming my favorite. The existing features are extremely useful when I need more ability than Apple Photos affords but not as much bloat as what comes with Affinity Photo or Pixelmator (love those apps too by the way). The features that the developers are working on are also highly useful to the professional photographer. The automated batch processing feature or “workflows” is perhaps the best feature about Photomator because of the incredible potential to save time. The results are extremely close and it does appear that the program is learning my editing style, though this could just be coincidence. This is a feature that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see fully developed and refined. THERE IS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT HOWEVER. It seems that there are some edits that cannot be automatically applied through this process. This makes the AI editing feature feel new and unrefined. It would be nice to be able to add any editing feature or tool in the program to an automated “Workflow” for automatic processing. ALSO More ability to control the decisions the AI is making on each photo would make the automatic workflows feature perfect. For example it would be useful to be able to tell the AI to pull shadows up a little more across jobs, or asking it to limit highlights to a certain level that may not be what the AI considers “technically perfect”. Making the aforementioned upgrades would likely make this app the premier photo editing app for America and maybe the world. Speaking solely for myself, If these changes were made this would become my primary photo editing program since every feature I would need would be in one program that actually saves me time. Any cons aside, this app is comparable to light room but actually has an ethical price model and is already wildly powerful for its price point. Thank you to the developers! Please keep Photomator going in the amazing direction it is going!

I appreciate that this app allows you to try it out before buying. However, what I wanted to try was the export functionalities, but that appears to be locked out without signing up for the “free” trial that I would have to cancel. I don’t care enough to do that: these kind of free/must cancel trials are annoying. Here’s a one star review for wasting my time.

Finally decided to give this a quick test and it’s pretty darn awesome, including the integration with iCloud so far. I’m ready to pull the trigger, but as someone who has learned to appreciate building adjustments with layers ( a la Capture One), not being able to copy and paste selective adjustments is the only thing keeping me back. Maybe I’m not thinking about my workflow in the right way and if so, happy to adjust (I think that might be the case) but that’s the only thing that’s giving me pause. If that changes OR if I realize I don’t really need to copy and paste layers/selective adjustments, then it’s a no brainer for me. I’m buying it that day. I’m going to keep testing with the free version to learn more; I’m on the edge of my seat to purchase though.