Calling all Mac users and Photographers.

[Frisp]

Mi Amigos
I know some of you out there are into image fiddling and graphics. Etc
Whats the consensus re photo editing suites. Im after something to run on my imac so I can fiddle with Raw Files and im getting keen on HDR. Most people just head for Photoshop as its the alleged market leader. I thought I would poll the Guru/ geek / Nerd / Techie opinion. Whats the best value application for photo-fiddling

 

[ni9e]

I use gimp its better than photoshop and its free :thumb:

 

[prodigal2]

Photoshop is the nuts, also if you don't need all the bells and whistles Photoshop elements is a very capable package... and a darn sight cheaper too.

Just downloading gimp for OSX to have a toy around the link is:
http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/Download.html

If you are into HDR you will fine photoshop will tick all the boxes, and comes with the price tag of a good lens too :hmm:

 

[Moley]

The best VALUE application for photo fiddling is probably this gimp thing, if it's free.

I work in design for print, on Macs (of course). There is only Photoshop, nothing else exists.

 

[prodigal2]

darn need to find my install disks to install X11. if you are running 10.5 it should be preinstaled.

Aperture is a very capable piece of software though not sure if it ticks the boxes for you.

P2

 

[Aleman]

There is Lightroom of course . . . Just started playing with it myself . . . not sure that its going to replace Photoshop CS though.

Gimp . . . I've used it . . . You need to be more nerdy than me I'm afraid :lol: it has a very quirky interface, and having got used to photoshop from Version 2 its so much quicker for me to use PS. Plus ther are a lot of examples of how to achieve stuff in CS . . . very little is done for the GIMP . . . although that is changing.

My issue with GIMP is finding a raw converter to handle my Minolta and Sony RAW files . . . CS Does it for me . . . although better raw conversion tools do exist Capture One 4.0 from Phase One is probably the best raw tool in the world . . . but again a gimicky UI and its only a rare poorly exposed image that really benefits from that degree of processing.

I'm not a fan of HDR, and I've seen some really good examples, but nuclear skies and metallic colours don't really do it for me . . .Although I have processed the same image for highlight and shadow detail and combined them . . . not really HDR with tone mapping though. . . where you want to take a 5 shot bracket with a 2 stop interval, and then combine the images and apply the tone map . . . I can do that fairly easily in PS . . . I wouldn't know how to do it in the GIMP or lightroom . . . . . Elements can't do HDR tone mapping.

If you have someone in full time education you can get a Education License of CS4 creative Suite for 165 Quid rather than 700 Quid.

 

[steve_flack]

You can get 30 day trials of Photoshop, Aperture and Lightroom so you can try them out yourself. Obviously Photoshop will do everything but I personally like Lightroom. It's a bit lighter on CPU than Aperture and has one thing Aperture lacks -editing history. Aperture however has a much cleaner layout and a nice easy to access full screen mode. In terms of RAW conversion they are pretty close - at least for my needs.

 

[MEB]

I use gimp its better than photoshop and its free :thumb:

Better than PS? I don't think so. It's difficult to use and doesn't support many RAW files. How is that better?

Photoshop is the Industry standard, rightly so. Just get PS CS whatever Frisp. Don't bother mucking about with other stuff cos you'll end up with PS anyway.