Editing software

[steveh552]

So today I decided to buy myself a new DSLR, a Canon T5, not the best, but for my needs I think it will work perfectly fine. Its been awhile since I was into photography, I sold all of my gear in 2007 or so and this is my first real camera since. Back then I did mostly landscapes and some portrait work and used a full version of photoshop on my windows machine for editing.

Now its 2015 and I have a mackbook pro and I currently have iPhoto in it. I am curious if it would be worth buying something like PS elements or something. I cannot afford a full Photoshop suite of software at this point and really not sure I have such a need. I have really not played with iPhoto much, but I did import the few photos I took today with the camera into it and it lets me do the basics.

Just curious of everyones thoughts on software, again this is not going to be used for professional use by any means but maybe some portrait work and mostly outdoors stuff.

 

[Apple fanboy]

So today I decided to buy myself a new DSLR, a Canon T5, not the best, but for my needs I think it will work perfectly fine. Its been awhile since I was into photography, I sold all of my gear in 2007 or so and this is my first real camera since. Back then I did mostly landscapes and some portrait work and used a full version of photoshop on my windows machine for editing.

Now its 2015 and I have a mackbook pro and I currently have iPhoto in it. I am curious if it would be worth buying something like PS elements or something. I cannot afford a full Photoshop suite of software at this point and really not sure I have such a need. I have really not played with iPhoto much, but I did import the few photos I took today with the camera into it and it lets me do the basics.

Just curious of everyones thoughts on software, again this is not going to be used for professional use by any means but maybe some portrait work and mostly outdoors stuff.

Lightroom and Photoshop are available as a subscription model (creative cloud) for about £9 a month.

If you don't like the subscription method, you can pick up LR 5 as stand alone for around £80-£100.
Apples Aperture is dead, and their alternative was announced last year (Photos) but hasn't got a firm release date yet (but everyone is saying soon!)

Might be worth waiting a bit to see.

Other alternatives are Capture One and DXO Optics. I have DXO and you can get a 30 day trial.

On a budget Macphun is quite nice too. Tonality their B&W conversion being my favourite. Available on the App store.

 

[robgendreau]

I agree; go out there and download some demos.

Lately I've been getting a crush on the MacPhun pro versions. Way better than I expected; especially love the B&W Tonality Pro.

There's also the venerable Graphic Converter. Does photo organization via a browser, can convert, edit, resize and edit all sorts of metadata, and has a bunch of scripts for metadata that can't be replicated elsewhere. And geolocation.

Google's Nik stuff is awful nice; think they are available as stand alone applications.

There's also LightZone and DarkTable and Rawtherapee, all open source. And Capture1Pro, and Corel AfterShot, and Topaz, and OnOne's Perfect Photo Suite. And the already mentioned DxO. All have demos. And all are great; really. It's sort of a matter of personal prefs and how they make your camera's RAWs look. And what you need to do.

 

[someoldguy]

If don't want to spend a bunch of cash , PS Elements will get you by just fine , and is cheaper than Lightroom , at least here in the US.

 

[steveh552]

Some great replies. I did not realize there was so much software. It seems like just yesterday it was only PS and GIMP.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Some great replies. I did not realize there was so much software. It seems like just yesterday it was only PS and GIMP.

You can do a lot with PS Elements. Also, there is Lemke's Software Graphic Converter (around $35.00), and Pixelmator (even cheaper).

You can download a trial version of Graphic Converter and see how i works for you. It will seem quite cumbersome at the beginning, but soon enough you will appreciate its power. It's called "the poor man's Photoshop" for good reasons.

 

[steveh552]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I am going to look at every one of them and see what suits me.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I got the educators discount for Lightroom - stand alone ($79). onOne Software has Perfect Suite 9 now that is very easy to use and quite good at editing. For basic edits and organizing, I'd go with Lr5. I had been an Aperture user for a long time, but since that's dead, I had to find an alternative.

 

[Fishrrman]

There's also Picasa -- free and useful for viewing and -very- light editing.

There's "Phocus" by Hasselblad -- a free Mac download is available, and although it's primary intent is for owners of Hasselblad cameras, many of its features work with any photo. It's VERY nice as a quick-n-dirty viewer, it can open folders and view files anywhere you can go with the finder, just for viewing.

 

[ChrisA]

From a photographer's point of view PS Elements and the full PS are about the same thing. Both have the same. Full PS has many other features you don't need unless you are doing graphic arts. So if you liked PS and learned to use it PSE would be easy.

Look at Pixelmator also. It is low priced and full featured

iPhoto is not bad for organizing and it will be replaces "soon". It allows you to specify a "Default Editor" which can be PSE. Then you can transparently move between iPhoto and this default editor. So the pair of iPhoto and PSE work well together. I hope Apple's upcoming "Photos" app will allow the same, but no one knows.

 

[steveh552]

To update my own thread, I ended up buying PS Elements 13, now its a matter of relearning most of the basic PS functions.