DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Could anyone here advise me on photo software options for a MacBook Pro please? I've never had a Mac before (always wanted one though) and finally got round to buying one yesterday evening. Only had time last night to get it out of box and go thru' set-up, but I love it already - may even take it out for a drink this evening to get to know it better...

I'm mainly going to use it for sorting/ playing with photos and burning DVDs from camcorder etc. It came with iLife 09, so has the latest iPhoto, but this I understand is pretty limited. I was thinking of getting Aperture, but are there better packages? They had Adobe Elements - is that any good? Sorry to be a bit vague, but I'd be grateful for any advice and I know a few people on here are pretty nifty on this, whereas I am a numpty!

I'll be at Goodwood Breakfast club this Sunday hoping for a bit of sunshine to get some good photos to start me off...

Thanks in advance!

Once you've tried Mac, you'll never go back.

Get the Photoshop package. It will allow you to be very creative.

These were edited in Photoshop.

Simon, the best two out there are Apples Aperture and Adobes LightRoom. Both have their fans, myself I prefer Aperture. I think both are available as a demo so give them a try and see what you prefer. These are great for cataloging a processing RAW images, adjusting colour and correcting images.

For image manipulation Adobe Photoshop is king and the industry standard, nothing else compares.

Good luck and enjoy your MacBook, it's okay to fall in love with it

sjm wrote:I'll be at Goodwood Breakfast club this Sunday hoping for a bit of sunshine to get some good photos to start me off...

I, for one, look forward to viewing your photos as I can't make the GBC this weekend. Maybe you'll be the new Ferryman? No pressure then Simon!

Have fun with the Mac!

I'd only get Photoshop if your're really serious as it isn't cheap if you just want to play.

There are equally as powerful but cheaper alternatives to Photoshop, not sure if they're available for Mac though. Been meaning to give GIMP a go for a while but its XP based, does Mac support that? Its FREE! and from what I've seen does the same stuff as Photoshop.

http://www.gimp.org/

Nige wrote:http://www.gimp.org/

Gimp is okay Nige, but it aint Photoshop and that's it's main problem. Because it is similar you want it to act the same but it's idiosyncrasies can be annoying as a Photoshop user. However... IT'S FREE and you can't knock that! I do use it under Ubuntu frequently.

Oh, and GIMP runs fine on Intel Macs but you need to install the X11 environment for it to run in, as it doesn't run natively in Mac OS X.

X11 is on the Mac installler discs if not already installed on your machine.

But are we talking Pro-user or Home-user? I reckon Photoshop is over priced (if you intend to buy ) for the later.

Its alot of cash to spill if you find out you haven't the skills to use it and get your monies worth. If however you want to sharpen up a few photos, edit the levels and retouch images then there are cheaper alternatives that perform equally well at those levels. Maybe even see if you can get a bit older version of Photoshop secondhand.

Otherwise torrent it. I didn't say that though.

if you're just looking to adjust levels, get rid of red-eye, fiddle with settings and things then iPhoto and the image viewer software is good enough for that.. if you want to do more specific work then photoshop is great but expensive as people have already said for a home user..

I think aperture is pretty pricey too? i looked at it when it first came out but it was nearly as expensive as photoshop..

I have photoshop LE on my computer, which is a stripped down version of photoshop, but more than capable of meeting most home user requirements. This is way cheaper (think £150?) than full-fat photoshop, and sometimes you can find it bundled with products (mine was 1 release out of date, but came free with my £100 digital camera)

Lightroom & Photoshop

Both are just 'on demo' *cough* as they say, but once tried there is no going back to anything more basic.

Aperture is £125 and Photoshop £500 (ish)

I think for £125 Aperture is a bargin, Photoshop however not quite so, especially for the home user.

Aperture and Lightroom don't have all the retouching abilities that Photoshop has, their main focus is as a digital darkroom and this is where they excel. Having features that are not present Photoshop. They are not to be perceived as cut down versions of Photoshop just because they do similar tasks. For pro use either one of Aperture or Lightroom and a copy of Photoshop is the way to go.

Simon, try out all the demos and see what fits for your needs. For the home user as others have suggested iPhoto is pretty good and Photoshop Elements is not to be sniffed at.

As a photo hobbyist and a professional graphic designer I found it difficult to use the cheaper programs as the features I'd always taken for granted in my work weren't available. Luckily work pays for software and Adobe are kind enough to allow you to install on a portable as well as a desktop. My portable that is