Lap review: photo search, RAW previews and metadata limits

Lap is a free, open source photo asset manager for Mac, Windows and Linux. Andy Hutchinson reviews its library tools and on-device image search using a photography archive, with particular attention to whether it can fit into an existing editing workflow.

The interface includes configurable image layouts, a filmstrip and a map. Smart albums combine rules such as location and capture date. Hutchinson demonstrates searches for horses and people on a beach, and reports that the local AI search handles simple requests better than complex ones. Editing controls are limited to basic sliders and presets.

In his test, importing photos and generating previews reached 2.2 images per second from a fast external SSD on an M2 MacBook Pro. Thumbnail browsing felt responsive, but opening an unviewed RAW image took 3 to 5 seconds for Canon files and 20 seconds for Fuji files. Switching from default RAW rendering to embedded JPEG previews reduced that wait to roughly a second or less.

The main reservation concerns metadata. Hutchinson reports that existing ratings, keywords, tags and captions from other apps did not appear, whether stored in images or sidecar files. His recommendation therefore depends on whether a photographer needs to carry that work into Lap.