Light Crafts has developed Aurora, an easy to use photo editing application that also helps you manage, organize, backup, and publish your photos to the web. Developed originally for PC users, they've ported Aurora to Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard. While it includes editing tools even more basic than iPhoto, I doubt it will take its place because of some of its interface oddities.

Aurora Pictures Window

Upon launch, Aurora automatically loads the contents of your Pictures folder. While this may be convenient for most users, I have only review screen shots in my folder, which does not make for a nice display, so I chose a more palatable folder for your viewing pleasure.

The left side of the screen includes a Folders list with an Action pop-up menu. Below that are Web Sharing, Online Backup, and your Pictures folders. The Web Sharing option prompts you to choose from a few photo sites where you can publish your photos, such as Flickr, Picasa, or Twentythree, and Facebook. Aurora synchronizes with these sites, so you can manage your online photo gallery from within the application. It also lets you edit, upload, and tag your shots.



Aurora 1.1 Main Window
Online Backup accesses a service in which you backup your files to a server maintained by Amazon.com. This cooperative agreement between Amazon and Aurora costs $4.95 per month, for up to 20GB of storage space, or roughly 7000 to 10000 photos. As you can see Aurora believes I have only 2.3GB of pictures, so it thinks I can back up my whole photo library. What Aurora doesn't know is that I have a second drive, not presently mounted, with 200 GB of photos and this service doesn't offer me anywhere near the storage space I need, so I'll pass on this offer.



Your Pictures folder displays below the Online Backup folder. If you control-click that folder (or right-click with a 2-button mouse), options to create a new folder, backup your photos, show the folder in the Finder or change your Pictures folder appear. These convenient options are handy for those of us that maintain our pictures on an external drive or inside other folders.



Folder Options

The search command is your last option in the sidebar. Search options include by name or tags, star ratings you've applied to your photos, or by date. If you find no items that meet your search criteria, you must click the X to return to your previous photo display; one of many interface oddities.

Features

Once you choose your photo, simply click the Edit command to move to the editing window. The commands across the top of the display duplicate options found in the menu bar. The Edit command resides in its own menu item, while the Email, Print, and Publish commands reside in the File menu. The rest of the icons across the top deal with how you view your photos; commands also available in the View menu. If you're not a grid fan, you can choose to display the photos in a film strip or slide show view.



Film Strip View

Two other convenient commands show you useful photo information. The first appears as an Options menu when you run your mouse along the bottom of any picture. It offers cut, copy, past, edit, rotate, delete duplicate, email, info, or show original in the Finder. I found this drop down handy for the many photos I have at the wrong orientation. I used those commands to duplicate an image that has some color problems.



Photo Options Menu

The second, Image Info, available from the Options popup menu or Command-I, shows a bit more information than the Finder's Info. In addition to the file name, location, date, and size, it displays camera type, lens, exposure, and date shot. You can edit the photo's star rating, title, description, and add tags right in this window.



Image Info