Photo Mechanic: Difference between revisions

Photo Mechanic
Developer(s)	Camera Bits, Inc
Stable release	6.0 / March 25, 2019; 5 years ago
Operating system	Mac OS X, Windows
Type	image browser
Website	www.camerabits.com

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Photo Mechanic is a front-end photo ingesting, tagging, and browsing tool by Portland, Oregon-based company Camera Bits.

Photo Mechanic supports the initial capture of photos from the camera, previewing and making selections, and tagging each photo with various types of IPTC metadata such as captions, keywords, and copyright notices.^[2]^[3]

While Photo Mechanic has basic support for simple image edits, such as crops, it is meant to be used in concert with a dedicated photo editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.^{[citation needed]} In contrast to competing products such as iView Media Pro, Adobe Bridge, or Extensis Portfolio, Photo Mechanic does not include photo cataloging or asset management features.^[3]

Photo Mechanic uses the Metadata (IPTC) Template to label its photos.^[4]

References

^ "Version 6.0 Camera Bits, Inc". home.camerabits.com.
^ Kelby, Scott. "My Sports Photography Workflow (so far)". Scott Kelby Photoshop Insider. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
^ ^a ^b Luminous Landscape review of Photo Mechanic
^ "Where is the IPTC Stationery Pad in Phot..." Camera Bits.

External links

Official website

[1] "Version 6.0 Camera Bits, Inc". home.camerabits.com.

[2] Kelby, Scott. "My Sports Photography Workflow (so far)". Scott Kelby Photoshop Insider. Retrieved 18 January 2014.

[Luminous_Landscape-3] Luminous Landscape review of Photo Mechanic

[4] "Where is the IPTC Stationery Pad in Phot..." Camera Bits.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Advert|article|date=December 2010}}
 {{Infobox software
 | name = Photo Mechanic
+| logo =
-| logo = <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Photo Mechanic.png|48px|Photo Mechanic icon]] -->
 | screenshot =
 | caption =
-| developer = [http://www.camerabits.com/site/about.html Camera Bits, Inc]
+| developer = Camera Bits, Inc
-| latest_release_version = [http://camerabits.com/downloads/ 5.0]
+| latest_release_version = 6.0<ref>{{cite web |title=Version 6.0 Camera Bits, Inc. |url=https://home.camerabits.com/downloads/ |website=home.camerabits.com |language=en}}</ref>
-| latest_release_date = 2013-11-11
+| latest_release_date = {{Start date and age|2019|03|25}}
 | latest_preview_version =
 | latest_preview_date =
@@ Line 14: / Line 13: @@
 | genre = [[image browser]]
 | license =
-| website = [http://www.camerabits.com www.camerabits.com]
+| website = {{URL|www.camerabits.com}}
+}}{{More citations needed|date=February 2023}}
-}}
 '''Photo Mechanic''' is a front-end photo ingesting, tagging, and browsing tool by Portland, Oregon-based company [[Camera Bits]].
+Photo Mechanic supports the initial capture of photos from the camera, previewing and making selections, and tagging each photo with various types of [[International Press Telecommunications Council#Photo_metadata|IPTC metadata]] such as captions, keywords, and copyright notices.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kelby|first=Scott|title=My Sports Photography Workflow (so far)|url=http://scottkelby.com/2012/my-sports-photography-workflow-so-far/|work=Scott Kelby Photoshop Insider|accessdate=18 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="Luminous Landscape">[http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/asset-management.shtml Luminous Landscape review of Photo Mechanic]</ref>
-Photo Mechanic allows the photographer to accomplish the initial capture of photos from the camera, to categorize photos into winners and losers, and to tag each photo with [[IPTC]] [[metadata]]; using [[IPTC Information Interchange Model]], IPTC Core, IPTC Extension or all three types of [[metadata]] (the latter two are stored using the [[Extensible Metadata Platform]] or XMP).
+While Photo Mechanic has basic support for simple image edits, such as [[image cropping|crops]], it is meant to be used in concert with a dedicated photo editing program, such as [[Adobe Photoshop]] or [[Adobe Photoshop Lightroom]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} In contrast to competing products such as [[iView Media Pro]], [[Adobe Bridge]], or [[Extensis Portfolio]], Photo Mechanic does not include photo cataloging or asset management features.<ref name="Luminous Landscape" />
-Retailing at approximately [[USD]] $150 (updates to an existing license $90), it is targeted for the professional photographer market, particularly photojournalism and stock photography. According to noted photography educator [[Scott Kelby]], "Every pro sports shooter at an NFL game (or otherwise) uses a program called Photo Mechanic (by a company called Camera Bits). If there are 40 photographers in the photo work room, you see 40 copies of Photo Mechanic open on their laptops."<ref>{{cite web|last=Kelby|first=Scott|title=My Sports Photography Workflow (so far)|url=http://scottkelby.com/2012/my-sports-photography-workflow-so-far/|work=Scott Kelby Photoshop Insider|accessdate=18 January 2014}}</ref>
+Photo Mechanic uses the Metadata (IPTC) Template to label its photos.<ref>{{cite web |title=Where is the IPTC Stationery Pad in Phot... |url=http://docs.camerabits.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2972056-where-is-the-iptc-stationery-pad-in-photo-mechanic-6- |website=Camera Bits}}</ref>
-While Photo Mechanic has basic support for simple image edits, such as [[image cropping|crops]], it is meant to be used in concert with a dedicated photo editing program, such as [[Adobe Photoshop]] or [[Adobe Photoshop Lightroom]], and a back-end cataloging tool, such as [[iView Media Pro]] or [[Extensis Portfolio]].
-==Software features==
-===Browsing===
-Photo Mechanic supports fast photo browsing and full [[color management]].  It is widely accepted among professional photographers as being the fastest tool for browsing and sorting files.<ref>[http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/asset-management.shtml Luminous Landscape review of Photo Mechanic] - "More than anything else PM is the world champion for speed when it comes to viewing and sorting files, including virtually every type of raw file....There is almost a cult following of PM among photojournalists and stock photographers."</ref>
-===Categorizing===
-Photo Mechanic lets the photographer apply a "tag", "color class", or "star rating" to each photo with a single keystroke.  This can be used later to filter photos by quality or classification.
-===Metadata tagging===
-Photo Mechanic uses the concept of "IPTC Stationery."  The user sets up a piece of "stationery" with the tags common to a group of photos, and can then apply them to any arbitrary set of photos.  Many browsers and catalog tools allow users to apply metadata to photos; Photo Mechanic is distinguished by two attributes.  First, the user interface is designed to make applying tags to large numbers of photos at once very easy.  Secondly, Photo Mechanic can write IPTC metadata to many file formats.  This includes proprietary formats such as [[Canon Inc.|Canon]] CR2 or [[Nikon]] NEF.  Other keywording solutions typically cannot write keywords directly to the [[Raw image format|RAW file]], but instead create a "sidecar" [[Extensible Metadata Platform|XMP]] file.  Photo Mechanic actually embeds the keywords in the RAW file itself.  If preferred, Photo Mechanic can also create and maintain [[sidecar file]]s in addition to embedding IPTC and XMP into photos.
 ==References==
 {{Reflist}}
-{{note|controlledvocabulary}} [http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/photomechanic.html ControlledVocabulary review of Photo Mechanic] - "Walk into any newspaper photo department, or look over the shoulder of a photojournalist editing and transmitting images in the field, and Photo Mechanic is what you'll probably see on their screen. It's a workhorse browser / annotation software that photographers use to get their images out of their compact flash cards and on to their computer hard drive or network while adding IPTC metadata to the images as they are transferred, or immediately afterwards."
 ==External links==
-* [http://www.camerabits.com/pages/PM4.html Photo Mechanic website]
+* {{Official website|www.camerabits.com}}
-* [http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/help/cvkc-photomechanic.html ControlledVocabulary web site: how to install, modify and use the Structured Keyword feature in Photo Mechanic]
-* [http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/cv-photo-mechanic-code-replacement.html Using Photo Mechanic’s Code Replacement to Insert Keywords from a Text File]
-[[Category:OS X graphics software]]
+[[Category:MacOS graphics software]]
 [[Category:Windows graphics-related software]]
 [[Category:Digital photography]]