Recommended Application for Scanned Photos

[SDvideoguy]

New to the forum and switching from PC to Mac.

I have hundreds of photos I scanned into my Mac Pro and am trying to do several things with them in one software application but am having minimal success at best.

One of the main things I am trying to do is rotate photos in minor increments (i.e. 1 degree, 10 degrees, 45 degrees, any number degree). Every other application I have tried so far has only 90 degree rotating increments. I'm surprised iPhoto doesn't have a more advanced rotating feature and what it does have is kind of pathetic.

I am also trying to take a page of images that have been scanned all at one time, crop each image individually, and then do a "save as" so that the cropped image becomes a new file, but the original remains untouched.

The one thing I did enjoy when I was tinkering around in iPhoto with cropping, was the default picture sizes that you could crop with (i.e. 4X6, 5X7, 8X10, etc.) I don't want to do the math and crop by pixel count, I want the actual image size, so that when I take it to a photo print center, I don't have to spend so much time cropping images on their machines. So this would be my third requirement: include actual picture sizes when cropping.

I have not tried Aperture. Would that be the answer to all three of my requirements? I have downloaded GIMP and found it to be more than I want to work with and would like something that is as simple as iPhoto, but has the features I listed above.

I don't want to switch between multiple applications as that would be counterintuitive and Macs are not supposed to be like that.

 

[sahnert]

You can use the "straighten" feature of iPhoto to rotate by small increments and see the results in real time.

 

[SDvideoguy]

Yes, I did try that feature, but didn't like the fact that you can only move the photo a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right. Rotating 45 degrees would be impossible. Plus, for whatever reason, that feature zooms into the photo the more you rotate, thus reducing the clarity of the original image ever so slightly.

 

[ipodtoucher]

Adobe Camera Raw gives the best control over everything IMO. I have the new version that comes with CS5 and it even will recognize your lens and fix the picture based on the distortion in the lens. But that's another story. At my school we use an expensive software to scan, but you can use camera raw if you save your scan as a TIF. Just a suggestion, I know not everyone has the access to Photoshop but that's what I use.

 

[snberk103]

Photoshop. You can download a 30 day trial for free, to see if you like it. You can a rotate by 'dragging' a corner. You can rotate by typing a number for the degrees (decimal points as well, so 3.7 degrees for eg). If you are close to straight you can draw a line on the photo that is supposed to be exactly horizontal or vertical, and PS will rotate the image until it is.

re: cropping several images from one. I think you are going about it from the wrong end of the stick. Don't think of it as 'cropping' out the larger unwanted image, but copying the smaller wanted image. So, draw a selection around the part you want, and 'Copy' it. I can't check, but I believe if you open a Preview window there is a 'New from Clipboard' option. Repeat as necessary.

Don't save as JPGs.

Good Luck.

 

[Pomeroy]

Pixelmator, Acorn and GraphicConverter will all do what you want easy. I prefer Pixelmator, but they all have a free trial. As snberk103 said select the part you want and copy it then use "New from Clipboard" or "New" under the File menu. All 3 apps will let you rotate by any degree you want, either by dragging or typing into the angle box.

 

[SDvideoguy]

Thanks all for your thoughtful suggestions! I will try Acorn, Pixelmator, and GraphicConverter over the next couple of days here and see how they are.

Pixelmator seems like a lot of fun.

Thanks again!