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Software advice.

S

slight32

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2014
58
1
I have a lot of photos of my son, many of which were taken during a period when he had teeth problems which caused discolouration. I'd like to se if I can edit them to produce a more natural colour but have no idea where to start in terms of software.

If anyone can give me some advice I'd be very grateful.

2014 Macbook Air / 4gb Ram / i5
 
I'd personally go with Pixelmator. It's cost effective and is a great investment going forward if you ever need it again.

As for what to do when you get it, just import your photographs and create a brand new layer, and brush some white or very light color on that new layer over the area you wish to correct. After that simply adjust the blending modes and opacity and you should be good to go.
 
I'll second Pixelmator. Very similar to Photoshop, but much cheaper. It will do what you want. I would personally duplicate the photos that you want to fix. This way if something goes wrong, you still have the original. Bit of a learning curve, with some practice though, it become second nature.

Plus there are plugins and extensions available to simplify your work.
 
Agree that Pixelmator is great and offers very decent features for the price, what about Photoshop Elements? I know it's more expensive however it integrates better with Lightroom in case you decide to go that route in the future when it comes to cataloguing your pictures. Or what about Lightroom itself? It has decent adjustment features as well?
 
tomnavratil said:
Agree that Pixelmator is great and offers very decent features for the price, what about Photoshop Elements? I know it's more expensive however it integrates better with Lightroom in case you decide to go that route in the future when it comes to cataloguing your pictures. Or what about Lightroom itself? It has decent adjustment features as well?
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If he is just looking for quick fixes cost is really a factor. Elements is over $100 when all is said and done, and Lightroom can be just as expensive or is subscription based.

Are they more robust and have more features? You bet. No denying that, but for someone looking to make some quick adjustments, especially for what the poster wants, those programs might be a bit .. excessive.
 
slight32 said:
I have a lot of photos of my son, many of which were taken during a period when he had teeth problems which caused discolouration. I'd like to se if I can edit them to produce a more natural colour but have no idea where to start in terms of software.

If anyone can give me some advice I'd be very grateful.

2014 Macbook Air / 4gb Ram / i5
Click to expand...

I third or forth Pixelmator, been using it since PS went to cloud and haven't looked back.

You may want to check out Affinity Photo first. Currently in Beta and has a free download with registration. I have the Beta but haven't played with it enough to know if it is the best thing for you. For the Beta price of free, you might want to give it a spin and let us know how it goes.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/
 
slight32 said:
I have a lot of photos of my son, many of which were taken during a period when he had teeth problems which caused discolouration. I'd like to se if I can edit them to produce a more natural colour but have no idea where to start in terms of software.

If anyone can give me some advice I'd be very grateful.

2014 Macbook Air / 4gb Ram / i5
Click to expand...

So many people say "Pixelmator". Not a bad option but also look at "Adobe Photoshop elements."

In any case the classic method to correct teeth color is to make a "correction layer" where the teach are pure white then use layer mixing to combine the two layers so you can decide exactly how much of the correct ion is applied. You can do the same with skin problems or whatever.

Using layers allowed you to make reversible corrections where you can change the amount of the correction later or go 100% back be turning off all but the original layer. Look for a photo editor that has god support for combining layers.

Adobe does this and I think now Pixelmatr has it too.
 
Thanks all. I think I'll give pixelmator a shot. I looked at Adobe products but I think it's probably overkill for my needs. One more thing, and excuse my ignorance, but am I right in assuming I can remove objects using pixelmator?
 
It may also be worth considering Affinity Photo. Serif is developing the Mac-only Affinity suite as a serious challenger to the Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator combo from Adobe and Affinity Designer —the furthest into development at present— is a strong challenger to Illustrator.

Affinity Photo is their Photoshop competitor — it's in free Beta at the moment and you can download it here. The Beta I'm running is stable and very impressive. I believe pricing will match Designer when it comes out as a full product, at a very competitive $50.

Cheers

Jim
 
slight32 said:
Thanks all. I think I'll give pixelmator a shot. I looked at Adobe products but I think it's probably overkill for my needs. One more thing, and excuse my ignorance, but am I right in assuming I can remove objects using pixelmator?
Click to expand...
You can indeed. Now, it's not like a one click sort of thing, you will need to apply some skill based upon the complexity of the object and other factors but it can be done.
 
I'm a bit out of touch with all of this, but what about Gimp? It's free, so that's a plus. Not as slick as Pixelmater, but perfectly usable, especially if you're not going to be using it much and don't want to spend any cash.
 
Attonine said:
I'm a bit out of touch with all of this, but what about Gimp? It's free, so that's a plus. Not as slick as Pixelmater, but perfectly usable, especially if you're not going to be using it much and don't want to spend any cash.
Click to expand...
GIMP! Totally forgot about that one! I haven't used it in several years. But definitely should be a choice.
 
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