What photo viewing application do you use?

Garbz · Apr 13, 2008

Hmmm also looks nice but again it's only source space aware. I need the other end of colour management. An application which will correct the colour to look right on my screen which does not use the sRGB gamut.

Chris Stegner · Apr 15, 2008

Wow, not a Bridge user in the group? Actually quick, down and dirty stuff I use iPhoto, but mainly bridge. I like that I can group images within Bridge. I do a lot of Panoramas so I go though my shots and "group" them together in final panorama image folders.

Are any of the packages mentioned Macintosh compatible? I do think Bridge is slow so I'd like to find a small "footprint" package.

lifeafter2am · Apr 15, 2008

Lightroom. Organizes everything, makes life easy, backs up to NAS easily.

Jim H · Apr 15, 2008

Primarily Bridge. Lightroom when I know I need to set a white balance across a ton of images from the same shoot.

Parago · Apr 15, 2008

Lightroom. Love it, love it, love it. Don't know how I've ever lived without it.

mrodgers · Apr 15, 2008

Lightroom as a simple viewer?

I think the thread is about something that acts like windows explorer would, with better image viewing features. You can see your directory of images, click on one and view it full screen. Use scroll wheel, arrow key, spacebar, whatever to move from image to image.

Lightroom isn't all that simple to be used as just a viewer.

S2K1 · Apr 15, 2008

I use Adobe Bridge to view, but would also like something with a smaller footprint on my Mac.

Parago · Apr 15, 2008

mrodgers said:
Lightroom as a simple viewer?

I think the thread is about something that acts like windows explorer would, with better image viewing features. You can see your directory of images, click on one and view it full screen. Use scroll wheel, arrow key, spacebar, whatever to move from image to image.

Lightroom isn't all that simple to be used as just a viewer.

Why not?

I pop the card in, Lightroom opens automatically, app. 3 mins import (we're talking about RAW files) and I can view my images beautifully, heck, I can even make a stunning slideshow with 2 mouse clicks. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

Now if I had JPEGS on my card, I'd prolly go with something different, but Lightroom is the prettiest, most intuitive and most flawless RAW software I've come across so far..

Garbz · Apr 16, 2008

Crack open my folder of images. Double click on them, lightroom import dialogue? No I'm after a viewer. Lightroom is not the type of application this thread is about.

If it takes more than 1 second to load, takes up more than 15mb of ram and doesn't open the image full screen and allow me to scroll between images with the mouse or keyboard it is not as far as I am concerned an image viewer that I would want to use.

Windows picture and fax viewer would fit the bill except that as I mentioned in the original post I need colour management to display images correctly on my screen. So far I've been playing with ACDSee Pro2 but it's a bit on the slow and clunky side. I like Irfanview and use it on other computers now that it was recommended but again colour management is lacking.

Parago · Apr 16, 2008

Garbz said:
Lightroom is not the type of application this thread is about.

Oh I guess then I misunderstood. I thought this thread was about what other people ARE indeed using as viewers. No?

mrodgers · Apr 16, 2008

Tis why you should always read a thread rather than just view the title/subject and respond.

He specifically states he is looking for a viewer that is light (lightroom, not), views full screen (lightroom, not AFAIK), scrolls with mouse wheel (Lighroom does this), and is color managed (Lightroom does this).

Thus, the "light program" meaning light in resource usage and full screen viewing cancels out a suggestion of Lightroom.

Can you get all of those wanted in a simple viewer, I don't know. But people posted quite a few suggested programs as a simple viewer, which Lightroom is not simple.

Garbz · Apr 17, 2008

Yep, but it's ok. I don't read the full thread myself at times. Don't get me wrong I use lightroom all the time. It's just not a viewer to me. It's a full blown digital photo editing package. And I would personally be happier if they kept all that photo sorting stuff out of it and kept it more like bridge, but that's just my opinion.

vladiator · Apr 23, 2008

I also like FastStone Image Viewer. It's the fastest image viewer I have been using...and it's FREE. I've been using it for about two year now. I've tried Picasa many times and I have uninstalled it everytime...I hate the virtual folders and labels it creates.

I love the keyboard shortcuts that FastStone has...makes it very fast. They have added color management in the later two versions I believe. Color management is somewhat rudimentary but it's adequate for me. I believe it's worth a look.

bhop · Apr 23, 2008

Bridge.

Chris Stegner said:
Are any of the packages mentioned Macintosh compatible? I do think Bridge is slow so I'd like to find a small "footprint" package.

Which version of Bridge are you using? The CS3 version is a million times better than the older versions and is much better as far as speed goes.

D-50 · Apr 23, 2008

Bridge for CS2 works fine for me. It is a bit large but if I just run that and photoshop I have no problems at all. Bridge is great because it will open a file directly into Photoshop.