Image editing software

[Guest]

any Mac users care to share what image editing software they use. I've just gone Mac and need to get something to edit my images with

[ChrisLumix]

I use Photoshop, but it's quite heavyweight as a learning experience. However, you can currently download CS2 (Photoshop 9, and not really very much out of date) for free from Adobe's website, just Google "Adobe CS2" and just download the Photoshop app. Then there's Photoshop Elements, which is much cheaper than the full Photoshop but contains most of the full version.

 

For simple editing (i.e. exposure, Levels, sharpness, cropping, rotating, colour changes, etc), iPhoto comes free with a Mac and is very capable. But you can't do anything involving selection, layers, text, cloning, etc, so it's 'sophisticated basic' if you get my meaning.

 

Nearer to Photoshop, with a gorgeous interface, layers, text, etc, is Pixelmator which is quite cheap. Somewhere between £20 and £30 i think. About 2/3 of the capabilities of Photoshop, or 90% of what most people use Photoshop for.

 

There's a very heavyweight free app called The GIMP. But it is not pretty though it is very powerful. Too difficult to learn in my experience.

 

If you don't mind something quite quirky which does a lot well, but is missing something (some believe), there's another free app called Seashore. 

 

I've never used Acorn, or Picasa so can't comment on them. That's only an overview anyway. There's lots of software out there.

Edited March 29, 2013 by ChrisLumix

[Black Pearl]

Files are imported/sorted using Adobe Bridge - processed using Adobe Photoshop CS5 with a few Nik Software Plug-ins to speed up getting certain looks I like.

 

I use Aperture from time to time as I got it through the App Store for a great price and its basically Lightroom - actually Lightroom is Aperture as it came first.

[Guest]

I have photoshop on windows but its not the cheapest product and i'm not sure I want to buy it for the mac

[Black Pearl]

Check that the serial number isn't cross platform - many are.

[ChrisLumix]

I have photoshop on windows but its not the cheapest product and i'm not sure I want to buy it for the mac

 

Blimey Richard, you can't read! I already said you can get CS2 (the whole suite, or bits of it) free from the Adobe site!! Then Elements is very capable if you don't need batch editing or CMYK processing. And if you install Windows on your Mac - and buy Parallels - you can run Window apps within OS X, so you could port the Windows PS app across.

[Black Pearl]

CS2 won't work with new cameras as the latest ACR isn't backwards compatible.

Elements is fine but lacks the finesse of the CS suite.

Parallels is great but nothing like as slick as a native run app.

[ChrisLumix]

CS2 won't work with new cameras as the latest ACR isn't backwards compatible.

Elements is fine but lacks the finesse of the CS suite.

Parallels is great but nothing like as slick as a native run app.

 

I didn't realise Richard wanted to import RAW from his camera - he just mentioned 'image editing software' originally.

[Guest]

I can read thanks. but cs2 is very old. I also have parallels but the windows is very unstable and the photoshop cs5 menus are very small in the parallels and hard to read. I would also like to go totally Mac so I'm looking for alternatives or maybe I'll bite the bullet and buy photoshop 

[roicead]

i use lightroom for 95% of my photography work, the last 5% of an image is done in photoshop.  basically nik filters, resize, sharpen and watermark are photoshop duties for my workflow.  if i didn't do photomanips i'd probably skip the full photoshop kit and go with elements.