PhotoSweeper from Overmacs is an essential space saver and photo tidy-up utility for both professionals and home users alike. PhotoSweeper examines your photos to find similar images, allowing you quickly sort through and choose the best. You end up with a leaner and more compact Photo Library, with only your choice of best shots left. It’s a single function app, and it’s good at what it does.

This week, we’re giving away 25 copies of PhotoSweeper for OS X, valued at $250. Read more to explore the app and join the giveaway.

Integration

PhotoSweeper has full support for Apple’s iPhoto or Aperture, and Adobe Lightroom – as well as being able to work natively with any set of photos or folders directly from your hard drive. This makes it suitable for all levels of users, regardless of the particular photo management application you favor.

Finding Similar Images

Once you’ve taken your photos, you can drag the files or folders directly into the main interface of PhotoSweeper; or you can use the standard OSX media browser dialog by pointing it in the direction of your iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom library. One thing you can’t do however is to directly drag files from iPhoto to PhotoSweeper – you must go via the media browser. This is a limitation of iPhoto though because of the way it stores photographs in a database rather than flat filing system, so I can’t fault Overmacs for this.

After adding your source photos, you can adjust the comparison algorithm on the left. By default, the app will compare both time of the shot and a histogram colour profile. You can adjust exactness of match too; drag the slider left to accept more partial matches and therefore find more “similar” images. The defaults work well for me.

Comparing Images

With your source photos added, click Compare to begin analysing and finding duplicates. There are two ways to view the results, the first being Face-to-Face. In this mode, two photos are presented, and you quickly scan through other pairs with the left and right keys. Some text in the center displays pairs you are comparing, such as “3 and 4 of 4″.

Personally, I prefer the Group List. This view groups duplicates and shows them all at once – if you have more than two photos in each duplicate group, this is much easier to identify which ones to keep.

In either mode, you select which images to discard by highlighting the image and pressing the enter key. This places them into “the box”. The number of images and space that will be saved is shown.

Cleaning Up

Double click on the box to view everything you’ve chosen to discard. From here you can take the appropriate action.

Most likely, you’ll want to just nuke the duplicates. Hit Command-A to select all, then trash them. If you were using the media browser to import images from iPhoto or other apps, PhotoSweeper will then interface with the app and delete the images for you; if the app has a built-in trash folder like iPhoto does, you’ll need to manually empty that afterwards yourself. The other options means you can theoretically reverse the function of the app – by using it to choose only the best shots, which you then copy or move to your archive directory.

PhotoSweeper won’t be useful for everyone, but if you tend to take lots of visually similar images then it’ll certainly come in handy: even a single iPhone image nowadays weighs in at 2-3MB, so the space saved can be immense.

Try PhotoSweeper our for free by downloading the demo version from their website. PhotoSweeper is available for $9.99 from the Mac App Store. A Lite version is also available, and that will set you back $3.99.

We’re giving away 25 free copies of the full version and here’s how to grab one.

How do I win a copy of PhotoSweeper for OS X?

It’s simple, just follow the instructions. You may exchange your MakeUseOf points for an entry into the competition. It’s really simple: create a MakeUseOf account, earn points and exchange your points for an entry! Learn more about our Game system and Rewards program.

Alternative entry method – Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form

Please fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner. Click here if you can’t view the form.

The giveaway code required to activate the form is available from our Facebook page, our Twitter stream and Google+ page.

Step 2: Share!

You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post! Use the social sharing buttons below the post to share this giveaway with your friends!

This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, July 13th. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.

Spread the word to your friends and have fun!

Interested in sponsoring a giveaway? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via the form at the bottom of this page.