as much as I want it, Photomator is not there yet

[PSS]

TIFF and raw files require a non destructive (sidecar) workflow, otherwise everything gets turned into jpegs.
sidecar files are huge, simply too big for anything more than casual shooting.
working with TIFFs I found out the hard way that working on a file repeatedly and doing heavy retouching along with repeated saving in between sessions actually influences color reproduction. I have no clue what is going on but the color gets more and more muted with every save. not really noticeable with one or 2 but over 7 or 8 it is a completely different file.
I am sure some bugs can be worked out but I felt the same way about Pixelmator when I first bought it years ago, loved it but in the end file handling was a let down and made it impossible for me to work with.
I love the interface, speed is great, features are great, I have been waiting for something like it to integrate with apple photos but it seems like it is made for a jpeg workflow, which should be fine for most people, I will install it for my wife and kids, they have no interest in huge files and PS and LR is too much outside apple photos for them, so this Photomator will be great.
looking forward to the next big update.

[Ali Boyacioglu]

I can’t agree more. The sidecar file issue is still the Achilles heel.

[Samanta]

Later this year, we're planning to bring changes that will significantly lower the sidecar file size, especially when editing RAW images. Hang in there for a bit!

[nigelw]

That's great news, thanks for sharing! Helps with planning how I'll use Photomator on an ongoing basis.

[Samanta]

That's great news, thanks for sharing! Helps with planning how I'll use Photomator on an ongoing basis.

Always happy to help!

[PSS]

I will definitely hang in and follow the progress, the side car file size issue must be a tough one to deal with, especially since much has to depend on how apple deals with and allows 3rd party integration. local storage and file system is great but I might as well keep working with C1 and PS because that works right now.
the color shift in TIFF files really concerns me and makes it a deal breaker for me for now.
I will keep using Photomator with my iPhone pics and apple photos library because working with jpegs is fast, great tools and seems to be perfectly integrated.

[Gaetano]

Hello community,
this is my first post so let me say hi to everybody.

I landed on this thread due to the huge sidecar file size issue. Few days ago I purchased Photomator for Mac as it looks very close to the kind of tool I was looking for but then I realised that I simply can't use for more than a casual retouch.
The RAW files of my Nikon D810 are about 40MB and each of the Photomator sidecar file is 400MB on average. Storage is filled up quickly and data connections are under heavy load to sync them when on the move.
I hope some improvement will come in the near future but, for the time being, I just can't use it.

Best regards
Gaetano

[Fred W]

The RAW files of my Nikon D810 are about 40MB and each of the Photomator sidecar file is 400MB on average. Storage is filled up quickly and data connections are under heavy load to sync them when on the move.
I hope some improvement will come in the near future but, for the time being, I just can't use it.

I also really and truly hope the pixelmator team can address this. I have one sidecar in Photomator and it's 150 megs based off of an original 18-meg capture. Just by way of comparison, DXO sidecar files are about 2 kb ("k") in size. At this rate I'll need a data center in Virginia to maintain all the Pixel/Photomator sidecar files. Auto-deleting after a set period of time is not really a viable professional option.

I was really close to jettisoning 'the other' software for Photo/Pixelmator; it's snappy and yields excellent results with reasonably little effort, but there simply wouldn't be enough storage space to do so.

Eagerly awaiting!

[Flick]

I think the Sidecar files might be a dealbreaker for me in the long run.

The files are much too big to leave in iCloud, it will eat all your space quick. So storing them locally is better. But then it's this giant folder you can't manage without extreme care. If I shoot a lot of photos, the sidecar files are gigantic and I can't move them off to archives with the masters so I will end up filling my system drive with these things.

Other apps (FCP, Photoshop etc) don't need to create gigantic sidecar files to preserve edits.

I don't like the "30 day" delete option because I would hate to have a client come back 31 days later for tweaks and now I'm locked in. And I don't want to spend hours deleting only specific sidecar files, or moving them around hoping they won't break if I put them back later.

If I have to do this much work under the hood to manage files, it's a problem and just a land mine for the future where I'll want to re-edit something but won't be able... or I'll have my drives all full of Sidecar files.

[Martin Chalifoux]

I just realized my Sidecar folder is now at 26GB and I only used the app a few weeks to edit RAW images. For many images it creates a sidecar file of 250-350MB, that is per photo. This way too big. Another issue related to this is that it these files get synced to iCloud separately, and I had mine sync on my cell phone because the Photos app setting (you prevent Photos database from syncing over cellular) do not apply to them. That was 18GB over cellular... not great. I will need to find a way to get the Sidecar to only sync over WiFi, for starter. But even that long term, it is not usable with such big files. This a a major disappointment because it renders the app not usable.

[Martin Chalifoux]

Later this year, we're planning to bring changes that will significantly lower the sidecar file size, especially when editing RAW images. Hang in there for a bit!

Samantha, is this coming soon The sidecar file size issue is a huge problem that kills the app for real world usage. Thanks

[denisbkk]

from what I can see there are a few processes that will make sidecar files very large.

For any "normal" edits in the edit panel, the sidecar file stays at aprox. the size of the original file.

But if you add a process such as denoise or super-resolution, or a lot of masks, then the file grows to several hundred MB. Strange is also, when I use denoise, the file grows from 30MB to 400MB for a RAW file of mine. When I reset denoise, the sidecar file size does not go back to the 30MB from before. It will be something like 150MB still. I have no idea how these files work, but it is not very space-efficient.

So let's see what the changes will bring when they are released!

[Martin Chalifoux]

To me that is the issue. The app in my view should only save te steps to redo/undo the edit. The produced jpeg already get save in the Photo library so no need for another copy. Should rely on reprocessing rather than save countless copies of the raw. I had sidecars over 800Mb. This is ridiculous. At least add a setting along the line of “Reprocess (less storage)”. I would much rather wait when I need to tweak edit rather than deal with the storage nightmare that this huge sidecars produce. The goal should be a sidecar of a few megs. Save the recipe not the baked cake. My view.

[BillyArgo]

Any update?

[Jonathan DeLeon]

So it's not just me. I'm eagerly awaiting a change as well. I love Photomator for a lot of reasons, but this is something that may prompt me to move on to another system.

[Al404it]

After Capture One license changes I was looking for an alternative software

Photomater looks good but sidecar files is not usable

1) the are too big

2) the need to be store alongside original file

I could overlook on first one but second one makes the software unusable
I own a MacBook with 512Gb and I need to store older photo on an external hard drive

With Capture One I work with sessions:
countryside_spring_2023, countryside_summer_2023....
Every session is a folder and when I finished working or at the end of the year I move them on an external HDD but sidecar needs to be along side original file otherwise the will still fill up my disk

[Martin Chalifoux]

I was hoping to see sidecar file size be addressed in release 3.2 but it does not look like so. Any update on that please, this is a real pain when processing RAW pictures. 300-700MB sidecar files are very common making this non-sustainable. Thanks.

[Shelton]

Has anybody from the team ever addressed the question why .xmp sidecar files weren't implemented?