Best Software for image editing

[robert raess]

Got a new iMac to replace my very old imac.I take pic's of my wood turning, with my 35mm Canon digital camera.I used to use Canon's 'imagebrowser' to view and edit my pic's, with the intention of some day getting photoshop elements.I had iPhoto on my old mac but never used it very much.My ques. is,now that i have a new iMac with a much newer iPhoto,should i use iPhoto,imagebowser,or Elements?Do they do similar things? Is one a standout as far as user friendly,more features i.e.'stitching,cloning'?In your opinion is the Mountain Lion iPhoto comparable or better than Imagebrowser and Photoshop Elements? Look forward to your comments, Rob

[Matt Marsh]

Rob,

I don't have any experience with iMacs or Mountain Lion iPhoto, but I have used PS Elements for years, starting with version 2, and have upgraded with every two or three new upgrades since. I am currently using version 10. It is a very powerful editor program, and it does everything I need and more. If you polled this question on any of the Photo Forums, I'd bet the majority would recommend the Elements.

I shoot almost exclusively in Raw format, so I use the PSE Raw converter. I mostly just crop, tweak the lighting, color saturation, and sharpening. I then save a copy in 16-bit Tiff, and if I want to post it online or email it, I'll save another 8-bit, re-sized image in Jpeg. I also love the clone stamp for removing unwanted items from the picture.

I don't use the storage management portion of the software, but prefer to manage on my own using Windows Explorer. I create my own folders catagorized by date and file type. I shoot mainly bird and landscape shots. I also love playing with HDR, and use Photomatix Pro a lot. My DSLRs are most often left set to bracket 3-shot bursts at three different shutter speeds.

248699 248702

[John McClanahan]

Robert, I too own an iMac. I don't use iPhoto. I use a near new iMac at work with the latest photoshop on it. At home I have an old version of Photoshop since I use it at work, but I don't use most of what it offers. When the day comes that I upgrade, it will be to Photoshop Elements. The reason is that Photoshop Elements is geared for digital cameras and inkjet printers. Full blown Photoshop is geared for photo illustration, publishing and printing presses. It also costs way more $$$!!

John

[Scott Shepherd]

I have Photoshop, LightRoom, Aperture, and probably a couple more I don't recall at the moment. For managing photos and doing enhancements, I like Aperture or LightRoom. If you're talking about hard core editing, then I think Photoshop (Elements or full) will be where you end up.

One I tried some time ago and always meant to come back and get it, but didn't, is one called Pixelmator. It's always been quite robust and has gotten great reviews over the years. Here's their website....

http://www.pixelmator.com

It's only like $15 from the app store, so might be worth a try. You can also do the free trial directly off their website. I remember it being fairly easy to use and pretty darn powerful for $15.

[William Adams]

There is the opensource Seashore.app:

http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html

[David Cefai]

The GIMP is very good amd is opensource. The learning "curve" is however very steep inotially. GIMP runs on most systems so you can have the same program on Linux, Windows and Mac.

[paul cottingham]

Isn't the learning curve for any such app pretty steep? Might as well use an app you don't have to pay for to get a headache.

[Jim Koepke]

Robert,

This is one of those questions where the answer depends on to what extent you plan on editing.

For my needs, the software that comes with the Macintosh is usually sufficient. My needs are not great. The only time this has been a problem is with large image files that need to be cut down in size. For that the standard applications still allow a file to be saved to a different size. One application that filled my needs is GraphicConverter. It is a shareware program. Not much use for it since SMC changed the way images are uploaded. Now the software that comes with the machine work for my needs. My fall back is a very old Apple program called AppleWorks which is no longer available.

Most of the time using the Macs image capture feature, Shift-Command-4 for a file or Shift-Command-Control-4 to copy (and then paste) work for me.

For enlargements, Command-Option-=(same as the + key) and then the above key combination will capture the enlarged image. Then use Command-Option--(minus key) to get back to normal.

It has been so long since my Mac has been set up it may be that you need to turn these features on.

You may need to open your System Preferences. Under Hardware there is a selection for Keyboard & Mouse. There should be a selection for Keyboard Shortcuts. On my Mac it shows up under Keyboard Navigation. You may have to click on the arrow (carrot) to expand the list. The first one shows the choices. The box next to each selection needs to be checked for them to work. The ^ symbol is used to indicate the Control key. This allows you to turn of the F-key functions when every you want to. The most common one for me is to use Control-F3, then typing d i return brings up the dictionary. It is faster than reaching for the mouse.

Hope this helps, if you have more questions, send me a PM since most of the time this conference is only visited every few days or so.

jtk

[Charlie Velasquez]

GraphicConverter by Lemke -shareware, completely operational when you download, use as long as needed to determine if it is what you want before paying anything.
I have been using a version of it since '95.

[Jim Koepke]

GraphicConverter by Lemke -shareware, completely operational when you download, use as long as needed to determine if it is what you want before paying anything.
I have been using a version of it since '95.

The only draw back to GraphicConverter is after using it awhile without purchase, the time to open becomes longer, 30 seconds as I recall. This was only one reason for me to pay the shareware fee. That was long ago and my registration number was lost. Now it is used so seldom there really isn't a reason to pay to subscribe. About the only time it opens now is when an item saved in GC is opened and it launches. Usually the image is opened in some other application and GC is closed when it finally opens.

Shareware is nice, but my guilt overcomes me for not paying for something being used.

jtk

[Charlie Velasquez]

The only draw back to GraphicConverter is after using it awhile without purchase, the time to open becomes longer, 30 seconds as I recall. This was only one reason for me to pay the shareware fee. That was long ago and my registration number was lost. Now it is used so seldom there really isn't a reason to pay to subscribe.
Contact Lemke he will send you your registration code.

Shareware is nice, but my guilt overcomes me for not paying for something being used.
I understand. I used it for about a year before I sent him my money.

jtk

One other nice thing was it opens so many graphic and video files.
Adobe has gotten cute with it's PDF software. With adobe's newest release it will often times not open PDF files that were not made with their exact protocol. I had hundreds of PDFs I had archived for our school district. They needed one and ... No luck opening it with Adobe's newest software. With GraphicConverter I was able to open them and convert to a format that was universally easy to access.

[Jim Becker]

Robert, I continue to like using Adobe Photoshop Elements for general photo manipulation/retouching...used it under Windows before and use it on my Macs now. Reasonably priced.

IMHO, iPhoto really doesn't provide enough ability to do what's necessary and it's certainly not comparable to Elements! I only use iPhoto to import from my various devices and catalog the raw images. All editing gets done in Elements. FYI, I also own the full CS5 Photoshop, but rarely use it. Elements is quick, easy and has a lot of automation that I appreciate for preparing stuff for the web. Which is what I do the most when it comes to playing with photos.

[Shawn Pixley]

I use Aperture for my indexing and light editing (skew, crop, red-eye, color balance, etc...). Aperture is a more serious version of iPhoto. Its best features are the indexing and abilities to track several different edits. This is important when you have many thousand image files. For HDR type manipulation, some camera's software or photoshop will accommodate this. For more serious editing I go to photoshop.

[Myk Rian]

You actually used Image Browser? Ugh. :)

[robert raess]

I used imagebowser cuz i have a canon camera and i prefered it to iPhoto til i could afford Elements.

[David Cefai]

GIMP is free (opensource usually means free) but the learning curve is steep for the class.

[Greg Portland]

Got a new iMac to replace my very old imac.I take pic's of my wood turning, with my 35mm Canon digital camera.I used to use Canon's 'imagebrowser' to view and edit my pic's, with the intention of some day getting photoshop elements.I had iPhoto on my old mac but never used it very much.My ques. is,now that i have a new iMac with a much newer iPhoto,should i use iPhoto,imagebowser,or Elements?Do they do similar things? Is one a standout as far as user friendly,more features i.e.'stitching,cloning'?In your opinion is the Mountain Lion iPhoto comparable or better than Imagebrowser and Photoshop Elements? Look forward to your comments, Rob
What are you trying to do with your photos & what format are you shooting in (RAW, jpeg, etc.)?

Costco was selling Photoshop Elements 11 for $59 awhile ago... I'm not sure if it's still that price.

I'm far from an expert in this area but my problem has always been organizing my photos. The filters that are included with free programs has been enough for my basic needs. Adobe's Lightroom and Corel's AfterShotPro offer a lot of basic adjustments + excellent sorting and publishing capabilities. Cost is ~$100.

[Myk Rian]

I used imagebowser cuz i have a canon camera and i prefered it to iPhoto til i could afford Elements.
We have a few Canons, but I gave up on IB. JASC Paint Shop Pro has been my goto program for many years.

[David guetta]

I am agree with above post. I also have no experience but photoshop is awesome software for pic edit. I can do every thing with pic on this sofware. If you have no experience in photoshop then you can send me pic i 'll do work for you.

[Shirley Smith]

I use Aunsoft TransMXF to convert MXF file from my C100. it works well.

[Lornie McCullough]

Another vote for the free and opensource GNU Image Manipulation Program....... awkwardly known as GIMP.

Lornie

[paul cottingham]

The GIMP is terrific. And i understand the learning curve is not much steeper than any paid application. Try it, after all, it doesn't cost anything.

[Dan Hintz]

Paint.NET has a significantly smaller learning curve, and from what I can tell, it has all of the baubles of Photoshop. Oh, and it's free, too.

[Greg Portland]

Got a new iMac to replace my very old imac.I take pic's of my wood turning, with my 35mm Canon digital camera.I used to use Canon's 'imagebrowser' to view and edit my pic's, with the intention of some day getting photoshop elements.I had iPhoto on my old mac but never used it very much.My ques. is,now that i have a new iMac with a much newer iPhoto,should i use iPhoto,imagebowser,or Elements?Do they do similar things? Is one a standout as far as user friendly,more features i.e.'stitching,cloning'?In your opinion is the Mountain Lion iPhoto comparable or better than Imagebrowser and Photoshop Elements? Look forward to your comments, Rob
I find Adobe Lightroom to be a better program for the average amateur versus Photoshop Elements. If you're just trying to perform some basic image manipulation and want to organize everything then Lightroom is the best option. If you want to do some detailed edits (remove an object from a picture, etc.) then Elements is what you want. You can also buy these bundled for ~50% off one title (e.g. $99 for one, $150 for both).

Hmm, I got sucked into the Zombie-thread bump...