I still love Photomator. The seamless desktop/mobile workflow is great. The auto-masking is fast. But I started becoming unimpressed with the overall results.
Apple acquired the app over a year ago and my dream of Aperture somehow being reincarnated has yet to materialize. So I started searching.
I landed on Capture One, signed up for a trial, and was impressed - until I realized it wasn’t for me about a week into a yearly subscription I’d already paid for.
As I daydream about the Hasselblad X2D II 100C, I’ve noticed a pattern: re-processing my entire catalog of “selects” every time I switch programs is becoming both a fun challenge and a pain in the ass, depending on the day. This realization, combined with the expense of a Capture One subscription I don’t use, made me focus on finding the right workflow.
I had previously disregarded solutions without some kind of file syncing. Capture One was my first step outside that requirement. With that parameter relaxed and a longstanding respect for DxO Labs, it was almost serendipitous when I started hearing buzz about DxO PhotoLab 9’s release.
I decided to give it a try.
Fast-forward to today: I’m using DxO PhotoLab 9 exclusively for photo processing.
The AI masking isn’t as fast as Photomator, but it works. What I really like are the fine-tuned camera profiles - DxO Modules. RAW processing is beautiful and the multi-export workflow is a nice touch as well.
Edits are stored in .dop sidecar files. Unlike Photomator storing them to a specific folder in iCloud (and not always reliably, in my experience), DxO stores them alongside the original RAW file. I’ve gotten into the habit of backing these up with the RAWs - hopefully to avoid having to work through the catalog again, despite it being enjoyable sometimes.
This year I also switched from Google Cloud to S3 Glacier Deep Archive for RAW archival. A little over $5/month for almost 6TB of backups.
I also used Claude Code to build a custom version of EXIF Photo Blog for my site at photo.banast.as.