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Re: Photo Editing Software

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(@tja)
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HI

Don't know if anybody can help but I want to get some photo editing software for my Mac. I only need to do a bit with lighting, red eye, cropping etc. nothing too taxing.

Will photo-shop elements be enough? I've seen it for about £50 online. Or is there a free or cheaper alternative?

Tony (2)

Play nice...... Play Naked!

 
Posted : June 21, 2014 11:20 pm
cherry and john
(@cherry-and-john)
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Tony, take a look at Apple Aperture. It's around the same price as Photoshop Elements but, whilst it doesn't do anything that Photoshop won't do, it feels more like a 'photography' app rather than an all-encompassing image editing app.

I've got both and I've used Photoshop for 20yrs. If I want to create an image with multiple layers, need adjustment layers, do a lot of intricate selecting, brushing, etc etc etc then Photoshop is a no brainer. But if I want to import a RAW file into the mac and do what you describe with the likes of Exposure, Vibrancy, Definition controls plus cropping and red eye stuff then my choice now is to use Aperture. Plus it can use your iPhoto Library.

Of course, iPhoto itself might just give you all you need anyway? Just click the Edit Tab. And it's free.

PS Photoshop Elements is more than up to the vast majority of things one might need to do with images.

 
Posted : June 22, 2014 8:34 am
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(@tja)
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Many thanks.

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Posted : June 23, 2014 3:42 pm
RodB
 RodB
(@rodb)
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Photo Shop is the best. Elements runs it a close second.

R.B.

 
Posted : June 23, 2014 6:48 pm
(@smash)
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I have Elements and Lightroom. For simple edits, Elements is OK, it also does a very good job at stitching photos together for panoramics. But Lightroom is designed for photographers and can make all sorts of changes to your pictures to correct colour/brightness/contrast levels, process raw files and correct CA for the lens you use.

There are many online editors like Google Plus which does a great job at enhancing and editing your photos for free. Definitely worth giving that a try before investing in software.

 
Posted : June 23, 2014 11:34 pm
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(@tja)
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Had a play on aperture in the Apple store today and I wasn't convinced. Great way to manage a large photo library more than edit them. The lass showed me what it can do and it's not quite for me. I was recommended a thing called pixelmator by a chap who was eavesdropping and he swears by it (and only £20 in the App Store)!
Anybody used pixelmator?

Play nice...... Play Naked!

 
Posted : June 27, 2014 7:45 pm
cherry and john
(@cherry-and-john)
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Don't give up on Aperture. I was in Apple store also a few weeks ago and they were 'pushing' Pixelmator as well ( for some strange reason) and angling Aperture more to library management. Believe me it's not, it has a huge range of edit functions ( which may not be immediately obvious) and probably comes quite a close second to Lightroom for 'photographers'.

 
Posted : June 28, 2014 8:41 am
pv
 pv
(@seabee)
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It is claimed that Gimp can do anything Photoshop can do and is Open Source and available for the Mac OS X but the learning curve is pretty steep however it is free. 

http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html

 
Posted : June 28, 2014 11:38 am
Simon1967
(@vimfuego)
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It is claimed that Gimp can do anything Photoshop can do and is Open Source and available for the Mac OS X but the learning curve is pretty steep however it is free. 

http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html

+1  😉

 
Posted : June 28, 2014 8:57 pm
No Longer a Member
(@no-longer-a-member)
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It is claimed that Gimp can do anything Photoshop can do and is Open Source and available for the Mac OS X but the learning curve is pretty steep however it is free. 

http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html

+1  😉

+1  😉

 
Posted : June 28, 2014 9:59 pm
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(@tja)
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Thanks!

Not bought anything yet as I've been converting all my DVD's to MP4 (and I have about 300) to make some space in the lounge. So far managed 146 using 2 windows laptops to decrypt and handbrake to convert on the more powerful Mac.

Tony (2)

Play nice...... Play Naked!

 
Posted : June 30, 2014 12:00 am
Davie
(@nakeddavie)
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I've used photscape for basic editing and its been very good.

BEWARE though that recent editions have included some malware which malwarebytes found and removed.

Davie  8)

 
Posted : June 30, 2014 10:21 am
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(@tja)
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I've used photscape for basic editing and its been very good.

BEWARE though that recent editions have included some malware which malwarebytes found and removed.

Davie  8)

Errrrrrrrr thanks?

Play nice...... Play Naked!

 
Posted : June 30, 2014 11:39 pm
(@smash)
Posts: 137
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Apple will no longer be making future enhancements to Aperture, so I would avoid that until they sort out a replacement.

 
Posted : July 1, 2014 12:19 am
cherry and john
(@cherry-and-john)
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Apple will no longer be making future enhancements to Aperture, so I would avoid that until they sort out a replacement.

The word on the Apple street is that iPhoto and Aperture will be combined into one 'photo' app (they almost are in reality), possibly in Spring 2015 but no more details are currently available. Aperture however will be updated this Autumn to run with OSX Yosemite and will still remain a strong contender to Lightroom in the serious photographer market, whether combined with iPhoto or not.

Of course an option would be to go straight to Lightroom, but with Adobe's past record of attempting to migrate everything to their subscription based cloud offering it's starting to feel a bit 'rock and hard place'. Ya pays ya money and takes ya chance.

 
Posted : July 1, 2014 7:31 am
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