Which is the best photo editing softwares for 13' MacBook Pro Retina(late 2013)?

asian1980nl · Nov 17, 2013

hi guys,
I am a Apple newbie and i just bought my very first Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch with Retina display(late 2013). I would like to know which is the best photo editing softwares fully support retina display?
I am a beginner photographer and I only shoot in JPEG.
I am looking for a good and easy to use photo editing software for basic photo editing. Any suggestion are welcome.
Many thanks in advance and sorry for my poor english

Apple fanboy · Nov 17, 2013

asian1980nl said:
hi guys,
I am a Apple newbie and i just bought my very first Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch with Retina display(late 2013). I would like to know which is the best photo editing softwares fully support retina display?
I am a beginner photographer and I only shoot in JPEG.
I am looking for a good and easy to use photo editing software for basic photo editing. Any suggestion are welcome.
Many thanks in advance and sorry for my poor english

For basic photo editing iPhoto that ships with your Mac is a good start. Other apps to try are Pixelmater on the App Store. If you want a more pro set up later try either Aperture or Lightroom.
And shoot RAW!

MCAsan · Nov 17, 2013

and I only shoot in JPEG.

A habit you need to unlearn early. Telling the camera to generate a 8 bit JPG file is like buying a sports car and running on half the cylinders.

Unless you are a sports or news journalist, or similar professional, who needs to delivery a viewable JPG right NOW!!! to a client (such as a wire service).....stick to saving the native raw format of the images. Then post process the raw images and generate all the JPG, TIF, PSD formattted files from them that you want.

iPhoto is not a bad place to learn the basics. But soon step up to Aperture or Adobe Lightroom as your main photo library manager and post processing environment. You can purchase plugins for Aperture or Lightroom later as your knowledge and skills increase.

twitch31 · Nov 17, 2013

We don't know which camera the OP'er is using and so whether it is capable of shooting RAW.

If it's an iphone or P&S images I'd suggest iPhoto. If it's a more advanced camera like one that has interchangeable lenses, then I'd suggest using Lightroom and shooting RAW.

mofunk · Nov 17, 2013

I would start with iPhoto. or Photoshop Elements. Both have basic editing tools. Also your Mac comes with Preview which edits photos too.

When you find that it doesn't fit your needs then download Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop trials. After 30 days go with the one that you like best. :apple:

ocabj · Nov 18, 2013

LR will do basic edits and probably handle everything that most people need as far as a photo editing tool.

LR is an incredible processing tool for a RAW shooter.

In my opinion, it's *the* application to use, especially when you want to expand your toolset to include Photoshop for more advanced editing, since you will still manage photos and do the RAW processing in LR, but then "Edit In Photoshop" from LR, and roundtrip the resulting PSD back into LR for final export.

MiniD3 · Nov 18, 2013

My Suggestions,

Make sure you have OSX
Go for Aperture

Macshroomer · Nov 19, 2013

iPhoto should work for editing through photos but I use a combo of Photo Mechanic and Capture One Media Pro for editing and archiving large shoots.

As for post processing of photos, most use a form of Photoshop or Aperture. But since we are just taking about editing, any of the two I use are very fast.

About that raw vs jpeg comment, I shoot about 1/3rd raw as I really nail the shot in camera...and I do this for a living BTW....

gdeusthewhizkid · Nov 19, 2013

I use Aperture as a photo management tool and clear my cards with it and the pictures I like or that stand out to me. I drag into lightroom 5 for further editing. Really a great system for me...

ChrisA · Nov 19, 2013

asian1980nl said:
hi guys,
I am a Apple newbie and i just bought my very first Apple MacBook Pro 13 inch with Retina display(late 2013). I would like to know which is the best photo editing softwares fully support retina display?
I am a beginner photographer and I only shoot in JPEG.
I am looking for a good and easy to use photo editing software for basic photo editing. Any suggestion are welcome.
Many thanks in advance and sorry for my poor english

What you you mean by "edit". Are you doing crops and some adjustments for exposure and color bancance? Or are you editing out objects like utility poles from a landscape photo?

iPhoto is the best place to start. Let it import your work into it's library. Later you might want to upgrade to Aperture for better organization and some improved adjustment amity.

Then for larger edits like removing the power pole or trash can from that scenic photo look a Adobe Photoshop Elements. It can seamlessly integrate into either iPhoto or Aperture. (both have a preferences setting where you specify the "default editor".)

Note that Aperture can directly use an iPhoto library so the upgrade is painless. But start with iPhoto and only move up what you can identify and clearly stet a good reason.

----------

gdeusthewhizkid said:
I use Aperture as a photo management tool and clear my cards with it and the pictures I like or that stand out to me. I drag into lightroom 5 for further editing. Really a great system for me...

Lightroom is so much like Aperture is hardly seem like you'd want both. I'd think a better setup is to keep the images in Aperture like you do now. Then move them over the PS Elements to heavy duty edits.

Aperture make this really easy. Simply double click from within Aperture and the image moves to Elements. Then you click save and it moves back into the Aperture library. It is seamless with no "dragging" The Adobe Elements seems to work as if it were a plug-in.

What happens is in the batckgouds Aperture create a TIFF version of the files and then launches Elements in a way that makesElements "think" it was launched from the dock by dropping a TIFF file on it. Then later Aperture snags the TIFF file in the library. (You can do this with any image editing app, you just have to tell Aperture which one to use.)

Schtumple · Nov 22, 2013

The RAW editor is one of the most underrated tools I see people ignore, I find it far more powerful than most basic editing suites.

nburwell · Nov 22, 2013

If you're casually just editing photos, then you would probably want to look at Aperture or Lightroom. Although, like other suggested before me, it really is best if you shoot in RAW rather that JPEG. However, if you are just starting out in photography are still learning the in's and out's, including post process workflow, then shooting JPEG might suit you.

JonLa · Dec 12, 2013

I'm gonna thread hijack....

I've always shot in RAW but done laborious editing in an photoshop. Then I found all the tools in work's Adobe Photoshop CS6 - I've taken some plain images today and made the colours really pop!

Given that for my home photos all I really need is to optimise a still in this way, which is the Mac app that is closest to CS6's RAW image editor?

swordio777 · Dec 12, 2013

JonLa said:
I'm gonna thread hijack....

I've always shot in RAW but done laborious editing in an photoshop. Then I found all the tools in work's Adobe Photoshop CS6 - I've taken some plain images today and made the colours really pop!

Given that for my home photos all I really need is to optimise a still in this way, which is the Mac app that is closest to CS6's RAW image editor?

Photoshop and Lightroom both use exactly the same raw converter - it's called Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Lightroom is essentially ACR, plus photo management, plus a few other editing tools (such as brushable localised editing) in one sleek package. If you like the results you get from using Photoshop's raw engine then it sounds like Lightroom would be perfect for you.

Cheers

phrehdd · Dec 12, 2013

As you can see there are many options available and many advocates for each. I'll throw in my two cents ...

Skip iPhoto entirely. It really doesn't help anyone learn how to handle either jpeg or RAW files in a way that is fully understandable. I say this because it was meant to be easy and in that, a bit too easy taking real control out of the end users hands and placed in "controls" that are over generalized.

For typical organizing and "adjustments" good options remain with Aperture and Lightroom. For advance alterations of images, you can look into options like Pixelmator or climb into the Adobe Photoshop camp.

The nice thing about Lightroom and Aperture is not only do they start you with more logical and practical understanding of how to handle your image files but they take 3rd party plug ins that add extra options to what you can do with your images. Companies such as NIK and OnOne provide superb plug ins (and they also work with Photoshop).

In my situation - I work with scanned images and thus Photoshop is my tool of choice for this type of work (restoration and retouch).

For photography, due to the type of RAW files I have, I find that Capture One is a better fit (Fuji RAF files don't do as well with the typical post processing/management software).

I have worked with Lightroom, Aperture, and DXO. I think anyone starting out would be wise to get one, stick to it for at least 6 months before sampling another. They all provide good understanding of what can be done and how to manage - catalogue. I added DXO as it too has some excellent tools though the first two have the ability for the plug ins. There is no need to get Photoshop to start with but if you think you might want to experiment then go with Pixelmator. (Unless things have changed, Adobe PS Elements does not provide end product files in 16bit but rather 8bit.)

Most of all - enjoy learning and experimenting.

JonLa · Dec 13, 2013

Thanks guys. Am just looking at the trial version of Photoshop Elements - it seems to have a basic version of the raw editor (less panels), and it offers (in the RAW editor) a depth option of 16bits/channel - is that what you meant phredd?

gdeusthewhizkid · Dec 13, 2013

ChrisA said:
What you you mean by "edit". Are you doing crops and some adjustments for exposure and color bancance? Or are you editing out objects like utility poles from a landscape photo?

iPhoto is the best place to start. Let it import your work into it's library. Later you might want to upgrade to Aperture for better organization and some improved adjustment amity.

Then for larger edits like removing the power pole or trash can from that scenic photo look a Adobe Photoshop Elements. It can seamlessly integrate into either iPhoto or Aperture. (both have a preferences setting where you specify the "default editor".)

Note that Aperture can directly use an iPhoto library so the upgrade is painless. But start with iPhoto and only move up what you can identify and clearly stet a good reason.

----------

Lightroom is so much like Aperture is hardly seem like you'd want both. I'd think a better setup is to keep the images in Aperture like you do now. Then move them over the PS Elements to heavy duty edits.

Aperture make this really easy. Simply double click from within Aperture and the image moves to Elements. Then you click save and it moves back into the Aperture library. It is seamless with no "dragging" The Adobe Elements seems to work as if it were a plug-in.

What happens is in the batckgouds Aperture create a TIFF version of the files and then launches Elements in a way that makesElements "think" it was launched from the dock by dropping a TIFF file on it. Then later Aperture snags the TIFF file in the library. (You can do this with any image editing app, you just have to tell Aperture which one to use.)

wow I never you could do this.. I have them going to photoshop cs6 now. seriously never knew this thank you...

gdeusthewhizkid · Dec 13, 2013

I seriously didn't know about the option of aperture into cs6. Im still not great with photoshop cs6 yet. I love editing in lightroom 5. I have aperture and cs6 on my laptop and on my desktop I have lightroom5 and pixelmator. I deleted iPhoto off my laptop and deleted aperture off my desktop. I just wanted to simplify things more. I do more of my major editing on desktop anyway and it's a older mac pro but it's def faster than my laptop. I really like the simplicity of lightroom 5 and I always thought it was a photo editor. I didn't know it was a photo management software till this forum. Pixelmator looks a bit complicated but I look forward to learning it also..

thanks guys...

CameraLumina · Sep 7, 2015

As many posters have said, first thing: shoot RAW. The "I'm just a beginner so I only shoot jpeg" thing is an anachronistic holdover from the days when editing a RAW file was a big deal. Now, even the easiest to use programs like Lightroom handle RAW files, and here's the crucial part - the interface you deal with is identical whether your bring in JPEGs or RAWs. The only different is the quality of your finished product. As an earlier poster said, the only reason to ever shoot JPEG in 2015 is when you need a small file sent straight from your camera *right this second.* You'll know if that's you.

ericgtr12 · Nov 23, 2015

Speaking to the raw vs jpg discussion, there's no reason you can't do both at the same time on DLSR cameras, the only exception is having the space to do it. This way you can reserve for power editing if needed and still have something to quickly touch up and get out if needed.

Which is the best photo editing softwares for 13' MacBook Pro Retina(late 2013)?

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