PictureSync (free/$15) is a neat little application from Holocore.
Its aim is to help you upload your photos to online services. As such it supports a number of the main stream picture repositories e.g. Flickr, SmugMug, , and Fotki (full list is available here). It also allows for FTP and local folder export. It’s an ongoing development and there is more services planned.
When you first run the application you are greeted with a wizard that allows you quickly configure the application for online or offline use. Offline can be used to simply export and convert your images to specified settings like resolution, format etc. Online use, steps you through configuring your existing account on one of the many photo repositories it supports. After typing in your account info you are presented with main application window and a help screen. This is particularly helpful since the main window is very very simple with only two buttons: Open Pictures and Upload pictures.
PictureSync works with popular Macintosh image management applications, like iPhoto, Aperture, iView, Adobe Bridge and Lightroom, Extensis Portfolio and of course Finder. With specific pictures selected it allows for adding or changing all the information you need, like title, caption keywords before the picture is uploaded to the online service. One very nice feature is the Sync part. PictureSync remembers which picture was uploaded and if there are any changes in the info of that picture (title, keywords) it will only update these without actually uploading the photo again, a great time saver.
Once you have the pictures selected you can upload/sync them to your picture repository or export them to local folder that you specify. In the Preferences you can specify JPEG quality, correct image orientation, and how to handle the extra info you added to the picture, nothing too complex!
“I found that PictureSync works great, albeit a little slow. Even on a Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM.”* It seems that it cannot read the pictures with out opening the specified application first. So if you choose to import picture from iPhoto it will open iPhoto for you and select all of your pictures. if you want only upload specified pictures you have to go to iPhoto and select the pictures or albums yourself then go back to PictureSync and tell the application to open them. Support for Aperture* is a little bit better, since PictureSync actually shows the dialog for the projects and albums you have setup in Aperture. It still does not allow selecting individual pictures though. Just like in iPhoto, you have to go in and manually select your photos.
The licensing is very simple as well. You can use the application for free as long as you have only one online service configured. Also if more than 24 pictures are being uploaded you will see a licensing reminder pop up, and captions of the pictures changed. You can also pay $15 US for a full license which gives you unlimited service configuration and no changes to captions when uploading lots of pictures.
Overall it’s a great little gem of an application with a ton of features, without being overly complicated in usability. As a little note, according to the developer a Windows version is also in development. I encourage you to check it out and see if it fits into your workflow. It does for me.
* Before you ask, no I have not bought a Mac Pro (I wish!) and nor have I bought Aperture! I was finding it all a little slow on the Mac mini so I asked a friend (Mac) to give me his comments as I knew he was already using PictureSync. Just one of the many things that I love about this Mac Community.