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What Is Photo Mechanic?

Photo Mechanic is image management software that enables photographers to quickly import, view, cull, organize, add metadata, and export images from memory cards for an accelerated post-production workflow. Photo Mechanic provides fast image ingestion, side-by-side image comparison, tagging tools, watermarking, and simultaneous exporting to multiple locations to streamline the editing process.

Who Uses Photo Mechanic?

Professional photographers, photojournalists, wedding photographers, and portrait photographers.

Photo Mechanic Software - Photo Mechanic metadata management
Photo Mechanic Software - Photo Mechanic image ingesting
Photo Mechanic Software - Photo Mechanic gallery

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Reviews of Photo Mechanic

Average score

Overall
4.8
Ease of Use
4.8
Customer Service
4.9
Features
4.8
Value for Money
4.9

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001

Find reviews by score

5
76%
4
24%
Sam
Sam
Graphic Designer in UK
Verified LinkedIn User
Design, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Easily the best way to manage RAW files

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: I've loved using it. I work with a huge amount of RAW photos at a time and it's made the narrowing down process exceptionally easy. Saves me hours each week.

Pros:

I used to spend a significant amount of time trying to find a specific RAW photo file using the normal mac finder or Lightroom, but Photo Mechanic makes it very easy and loads the files so quickly it amazes me that they're actually RAW files! Hugely speeds up my work flow.

Cons:

The way the software updates is a little annoying, and it seems like every other time I open it there's a update! Which means downloading the new version, installing it, etc. Wish this was a simpler process that worked in the background and didnt require you to overwrite the old version... or that it was less frequent!

luis fernando
diretor in Brazil
Facilities Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Qualidade

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Edits very fast and easier for the app and its users

Pros:

Easy to use and very good for photo and video editing, among others.

Cons:

When paying at the end of the month with a debit or credit card

Alexander
photographer in Canada
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Photo Mechanic Review

4.0 3 years ago

Pros:

Photo Mechanic is good at working fast compared to lightroom.

Cons:

Several cons about Photo mechanic is that crop tool doesn't show case what would be cropped, and you can't select a specified thumbnail.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Photo Mechanic saves you days in your image editing!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Brilliant from the start. If culling is hard for you - this software will shave off so much time!

Pros:

I have used the software for more than 5 years and as soon as I installed it, it shaved off days of my image editing process. As a wedding photographer, you come home with thousands of images and the culling process was the one thing that made the whole thing unbearable - until I found Photo Mechanic. I can now open folders with 1000 images in them and cull them easily by keeping the finger on the keyboard for adding colour flags. Adobe Bridge cannot cope with so many photos and it would take ages (up to 20 minutes) to display all images in the folder - even though I have a powerful iMac! But Photo Mechanic breezes through the amount of data and the culling process now takes hours instead of days!

Cons:

Can't say anything negative about it. Just love it!

Sam
Digital Media Coordinator in UK
Hospitality, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Working with large amounts of photos? Best way to manage

5.0 3 years ago

Pros:

I use Photo Mechanic to speed up my workflow by helping me to narrow down large quantities of images, usually in RAW format. This software has shaved hours off of the time it used to take me to do this as it loads RAW photos in milliseconds and allows you to very quickly flag the ones you want to keep. I also love that it's a one off payment, so not another subscription to keep up with.

Cons:

I don't think it's that visually appealing compared to other software I use... has a very dated feeling, but honestly as the functionality is flawless I'm happy to overlook this.

Anna
Photographer in US
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Make your life as a photographer easier

5.0 3 years ago

Pros:

I used to create smart collections in lightroom and then cull within the software. As I upgraded camera bodies and went mirrorless, the files became larger and this took forever and a day. I got Photo Mechanic, and it has saved me hours on hours on culling! It is a photographer's best tool!

Cons:

I really don't have any complaints about it. It does look a little out dated, but who cares, it works great!

Penisoara
photographer in Romania
Photography, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

is a very good tool for sorting photos

4.0 8 months ago

Comments: As a wedding photographer, I use this tool exclusively for sorting photos, I like that it is very fast, both for import and export. Metadata is very helpful.
The interface is a bit old, and some new things should be introduced, maybe something with AI. Sources of inspiration are enough

Pros:

- offline workflow -intuitive interface -selectable colors for star rating -very complex search and sorting filters

Cons:

-the look a bit old -it could be improved to keep up with what's new in photography

Spencer
Director in UK
Media Production, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Culling at the Speed of Light! ⚡️

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It's been a fantastic revelation to the company. It allows us to increase our work capacity and efficiency.

Pros:

Photo Mechanic allows my team to cull at the speed of light which is a much quicker and effective way to work through large numbers of files quicker than we could in Lightroom which we use to edit them.

Cons:

There are regular glitches in the software that sometimes mean quitting and reopening.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Hospital & Health Care, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Photo Mechanic is the king of metadata and lots of images!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It is the BEST software for photojournalists to prep they take for transmission, and works wonderfully with Photoshelter, FTP, etc. for sending jobs to archives or to clients.

Pros:

If you are working with lots of EXIF metadata for archive purposes, you want this software. It's been the industry standard for the past twenty years and it is very actively maintained. With the ability to cull and work with thousands of images quickly, it pays for itself in no time.

Cons:

Asset management. For many years, this was a missing spot from the software. Now they have another version of the software that accomplishes this. They were smart in keeping them separate as users have different needs.

Samantha
Samantha
Owner/Photographer in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Photo mechanic is my new favorite for culling photos!

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Photo mechanic is my new go-to for photo culling. I can go through about a hundred photos in about 4 minutes, rating them for easy export into LR with ratings in place.

Pros:

I love how fast photo mechanic renders a photo in focus compared to Lightroom. It also allows me to rate photos easily and then export into Lightroom for easy edits after.

Cons:

There was a small learning curve, but that really isn't a big deal. The software has a lot of great functions.

Salman
Technical in United Arab Emirates
Animation, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

I am Personally using this app

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: This app for Entertainment only

Pros:

Fusions of This App Is very Good For Everyone

Cons:

There is nothing defecult in this app easy to used

Valéria
Photographer in Brazil
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

If you are a photographer, you need to use this

5.0 2 years ago

Pros:

How quickly I can choose and transfer photos to my editing program

Cons:

It could have features such as "metadata" to view camera model info. It shows only the lens model info.

Camera Bits Response

2 years ago

Note that you can customize the Metadata that is shown. To show the camera model in the Preview Window, consult this documentation: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001144384-the-preview-window

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Services, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

This is best software for photo editing

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Best experience in all time use

Pros:

This is best software for photo editing &pricing to very low

Cons:

Yes ,its very helpfull software in this site So you can download hai excess all images in this software

Allison
Owner in US
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Can now cull galleries in minutes!

5.0 4 years ago

Pros:

I love this software so much! I can cull through a whole session so fast! My images load instantly and it makes my workflow so much better and faster. Couldn't live without it!

Cons:

What I like least about this software is I feel like every time I open it, it tells me an update is available. I feel like I have to update it every single time!

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Photo mechanic is a must for photographers

5.0 4 years ago

Pros:

This is a wonderful program that I don't know how I functioned without it! It makes my culling and importing process SO much quicker and seamless.

Cons:

Sometimes my photos have a line or two in them that only shows up in photo mechanic and not in post processing.

Eliud
Freelancer in Kenya
Photography, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Photo Mechanic Review

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Photo Mechanic is an amazing software that enables me to save time through its fast rendering capabilities compared to the previous software I have been using in the past.

Pros:

The software renders previews immediately and makes it easy to go through an entire batch of images super fast. The 1:1 previews are also rendered instantly so it's easy to analyze sharpness and focus.

Cons:

The user interface looks outed and is not quite as intuitive.

Vanderlei
Vanderlei
Estudante de Pós Graduação MBA in Brazil
Verified LinkedIn User
Research, Self Employed
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

Fotos integras

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: redimensionar,
renomear,
copiar,
apagar,
pré-visualizar
extyensão de arquivos compactados.

Pros:

Ediçoes rápidas arquivos avulsos Lotes de fotos em único envio

Cons:

imcompatibilidade com um ou alguns programas de fotoshop