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Finally went with a DSLR, Nikon D5100 after deliberating for a few years. (Not that I was in a hurry – I don't particularly need a DLSR but really like to take photographs, so time wasn't an issue.)

However, I've run into a problem – sorting and tagging photos.

(I'm using a Mac)

I'm not sure which program I should use to sort and tag photos; all I know is that I want to sort and tag, and that the photos would likely reside on a portable hard drive. I'm not sure whether Aperture or Lightroom would be better for this job.

I just don't want the photos to remain 'flat files' in a folder, unsearchable.

Thanks in advance.

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closed as not a real question by dpollitt, whuber, mattdm, Itai, ahockley Dec 6 '11 at 15:17

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If tagging and sorting is all you want to do, stick to iPhoto that comes bundled with your Mac. Its free, easy-to-use, has built-in face recognition, geo-tagging and did I mention its already there on your Mac.

But now that you have purchased a DSLR, you are going to discover the amazing things you can do with RAW files. And that's when iPhoto is going to let you down.

Personally, I'm a fan of Lightroom. Primarily because I'm used to the Adobe way of things. A quick search for Aperture versus Lightroom yields a gazillion search results.

Since I haven't used too much of Aperture, I won't try to compare it with Lightroom, but both of them should take care of your tagging and sorting needs just fine. Based on experience, I know more pros that use Lightroom, but I could be wrong.

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Suggestion: beside choosing/using any photo management software that will organize your photo library logically (inside his own database format) please take into account the physical file organization across the folders and select a right file naming scheme.

The best way here is to use photo downloader softwares that will do it for you automatically during camera importation. There are many ones for Windows but I am not sure about Mac.

Lightroom has a simple built-in camera downloader and probably it will fit you needs.

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