Can someone please do digital photos right?

C'mon smart tech people. What’s the problem? Managing large photo libraries and sharing discretely is way harder than it should be. My friend even wrote a book about it. It’s a great book with some good tips. But the fact that someone has to write a book about this subject is clear indication that there’s a problem. There should be one killer app that’s easy enough for my mom to use but is powerful enough to handle large libraries with all the features photographers would appreciate. Here’s what I want.

1. I want to compile every picture from my phone, my wife’s phone and my RX1R to one library. From there, I want my wife and I to be able to see all the pictures from all the cameras on any of our computers or iOS devices.

2. I want to be able to easily share one or one thousand pictures with my mostly non-tech-savvy family.

3. I want the servers that are storing my pictures to be secure. Yes, I realize there is always the inherent risk of a breach when storing your stuff in the cloud. I’m just asking that the company storing my pictures not accidentally share them with someone else or sell ads against them.

4. I want to be able to store, look at and share my photos in full resolution.

5. I want to be able to view EXIF data.

6. I want to be able to view RAW shots.

7. I want to be able to view my stored videos.

8. I want AT LEAST a terabyte of space. Do I need it? No. But I want it. Humans are taking photos at an alarming rate. Couple that with ever-growing file sizes and we’ll be trying to manage multi-terabyte libraries before you know it.

9. I want robust search. What good is having 50,000+ pictures when you can’t find the shots you took from that random October trip to the beach?

10. I want some kind of file structure. I’m looking at you, iPhoto and Aperture. I don’t want a single 100 GB+ file that contains all my pictures in some weird mashup. I want my pictures to be stored locally as individual files with some kind of basic organization structure.

That’s about it. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Most of those are the bare minimum for a photo library manager. Like I mentioned in number eight, there has been an explosion in the number of pictures we’re taking. And nobody, nobody, has a solution that lets you store, share, organize and search elegantly. Right now, my main manager is iPhoto (backed up by Backblaze). That’s a bummer because iPhoto is likely the worst piece of software Apple puts its name on. While it fulfills most of my needs but the interface is painfully outdated and it crashes constantly. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple has a dedicated server to manage all the crash logs I submit. The Verge published a great piece that compared the top cloud storage options. Since reading it, I’ve been experimenting with a few.

Everpix

So I actually signed up for Everpix about seven or eight months ago. I love it. Well, I loved it. It’s shutting down today. It had almost everything I was looking for except for numbers 6 and 7. The interface was clean and simple. The upload and sync process was seamless and painless. Either way, Everpix isn’t an option any longer.

SmugMug

I created an account but haven’t really done anything with it. It seems more like a showcase tool for photographers. I already use 500px for that anyway. Non-factor for me.

Flickr

I’ve had a Flickr account for years but never did anything with it. When they overhauled the interface, I took notice and started using it a lot more. I really love the groups and forums that are integrated. I’ve learned a lot just perusing the boards in the groups I’m a part of. It falls short in 6 and 10 and it doesn’t have a desktop sync tool but other than that, I really like and I’ve been using it as my go-to solution for sharing lots of hi-res shots with friends and family.

Loom

Loom has been billed as the Photo Stream Apple should have built. I think that’s a fair assessment. It works really well on my iOS devices but I had constant issues with the desktop updloader. It crashed on the regular. I really like the premise of Loom but it falls short in a few key areas. You can’t view EXIF data. I can store, but not view my videos. And the largest storage plan you can buy is 250 GB. I’ll be keeping an eye on Loom.

Dropbox

I use Dropbox every day for everything. But it sort of sucks for managing photos. If Dropbox ever goes away, I’ll likely move to a cabin the the woods. They’re making advancements and they could be a major player very soon but until then, I won’t be using them as my photo management solution.

Picturelife

Picturelife is where I put most of my chips. I have the Picturelife installed on my main machine and it’s keeping my photos backed up and synced. For me, Picturelife is the most complete solution. The web interface is a little clunky but it offers tons of benefits that far outweigh the little inconveniences. Right now, my only complaint is a weird artifact in that’s appearing on my photos.

I’m working with Picturelife tech support to get it taken care of but it’s an annoying bug, nonetheless.

This is 2013. And there’s not a silver bullet for managing a large digital photograph library in a way that everyday people can understand but power users can appreciate. I can’t wait until that changes. When it does, SUATMM!