Ayup! In a recent post, I discussed using Apple Photos as a Lightroom replacement. When I shared it on Mastodon, fellow photographer, Ewen Bell, kindly mentioned that Photomator might be a better option.
This was primarily for those working with RAW files, but as a JPG shooter, I’ve also found heaps of benefits. As a result, this is now my main editing and file management solution.
Photomator is an editing app that sits somewhere in-between Lightroom and Apple Photos. Additionally, it was purchased by Apple in late 2024. This means we might eventually see some (or all) of its features merged with the Photos app. Fingers crossed, as it seems a bit daft having two separate apps that essentially do the same thing.
Either way, I spent the last couple of weeks editing my images with Photomator rather than Photos. Pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. While Apple Photos covered most of what I needed, it lacked essential tools such as selections, gradients and auto-straighten.
Photomator is an absolute pleasure to use, the sliders are nicely calibrated, with a bias towards realism (compared to certain other editing packages). It’s a breeze to produce tastefully edited images that look very good if you’re minded to pixel peep.
Photomator as a Lightroom alternative
So, here’s the thing. Lightroom is Lightroom. There’s no denying that it’s one of the most popular photo editing apps for good reason. That said, more and more folks have had enough with Adobe. I know I have.
Thankfully, we’ve finally reached an era where solid, viable alternatives are gaining traction. Affinity has fully replaced Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for both my work and personal projects. Then we have the likes of Darktable, RAW Therapee, Capture One Pro, Luminar Neo and, of course, Photomator as respectable Lightroom alternatives.
If you’re already in the Apple ecosystem, Photomator will be one of your best options due to its seamless integration with the Photos app. Again, hopefully it will all blend into one eventually. We’ll see.
For my own personal requirements, Photomator covers everything that I previously used in Lightroom. Plus, in comparison to Apple Photos, you’ve also got additional control and precision, masking, selections, upscaling (super resolution), auto-straighten and a whole lot more.
The best thing to do, if you want to test it out for yourself, is to take out the free trial. I believe it was 7 days, before you have to pay anything. This is plenty of time to figure out if it’s the solution you’re looking for.
Edits in Photomator are non-destructive, like in Adobe Lightroom. Photomator archives this similarly Lightroom mobile does. First, it creates a copy of the photo over the original version, just like Photo App does when you edit a photo.
Then the edits are applied and saved in a so-called “sidecar” file. This sidecar file is stored in iCloud in a folder called “Photomator”. Thus, these sidecar files are also accessible from an iPad and even from Photomator on the Mac. So you get your edits from iPhone, iPad and your Mac synced, and you can start to edit a photo on one device and continue on another.
Photomator reviews
Reviews for Photomator are generally positive. Overall, folks seem to appreciate the ease of transition from Lightroom. It doesn’t suit everyone, of course, but the overall score on the App Store is 4.5 out of 5 based on 452 ratings.
Across the rest of the internet, reviews and tutorials on blogs and websites are also promising. An interesting YouTube tutorial from photographer, Anthony Morganti covers pretty much everything that you can do with Photomator. Anthony’s conclusion was that it’s a perfectly solid Lightroom alternative, but not something that he was personally planning on using.
Photomator plans & pricing
Ok, let’s talk pricing. Keeping in mind that most folks leaving Adobe are kinda sick of subscriptions. With Photomator, you have three options.
- Pay Monthly – £7.99
- Pay Yearly – £29.99
- Buy Outright – £???
Hmmmm? When I set my payment up, there was definitely an option to buy the app outright. I think it was just over £100. Having just checked my options on the App Store, however, it’s only showing the monthly and yearly options.
This is hopefully a sign that everything will become merged with Apple Photos, but who knows. For now, at least, you can’t really complain with £29.99 per year. A grand total of £2.49 per month. Bargain!
Even for those of us looking to minimise or quit subscription models, this is a vast improvement on Adobe’s offering.
The editing stack
Photomator and Affinity are now my go-to choices for everything that I’d previously have edited in Lightroom or Photoshop. While I initially planned on just using Affinity, a photographer still needs a file management system.
With Photomator integrating seamlessly with Apple Photos, the organisation of your images is instantly ticked off. When you get the added bonus of pretty much all of the editing tools that you had in Lightroom, it becomes infinitely more powerful.
When we can edit most images without switching apps, your workflow will only benefit. Happy days! One thing that is lacking, however, is a right click, edit with option. From Apple Photos, you can easily do this when you need to open the file in Affinity.
All in all, though, extremely happy with this set up. Huge thanks once again to Ewen, for pointing me in the right direction here.