Beginner Budget editing software for Mac

tonybassplayer

tonybassplayer

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Tony
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Hi, recently purchased a relatively modest Fuji bridge camera with a view to upgrading in a few months providing it's not sat in the wardrobe and at the moment it's looking like that will happen as I am really enjoying getting out taking the pictures.

I am loading the pictures on to my Apple MacBook pro and editing with the standard iPhoto software which I am finding a little limiting assuming of course that I am using it correctly :-)

Can anyone recommend something with a few more facilities etc that I could try out that won't cost me a fortune ?

Many thanks

Tony
 
Have a look at Lightroom, you can download a trial version to give it a go.
 
You could have a look at aperture 3 on the Mac App Store, I think it's in the £50 mark, It's what I use. But be aware that apple have kind off pulled the plug on it, they are looking at a multi platform "photos" app. I don't know how good it will be, time will tell.
 
Check out Pixelmator, from the app store, about £10.00
 
You probably know this but if you are using iPhoto to manage your files you an set an external editor (eg Piixelmator) as an external editor. Also, it is not immediately obvious but when a RAW file is selected additional editing choices are available in iPhoto.
 
If its cheap then the gimp is free it powerful, but it takes a bit of learning, youtube does have most of the answers though. Aperture is great IMHO shame apple won't support it anymore and then theres photoshop elements great for most things but get version 9 or above as layers are supported then
 
Many thanks for the feedback. I will check these out.

Might be tempted to hang on for the apple upgrade as I must admit I do like how it all synchs up smoothly at the moment but definitely worth me looking at the other options.
 
What do you want to do? Fix exposure/tonal range, saturation & a bit of noise reduction? Do you want to make major changes to the image?

For simple fixes (especially if you're using jpegs) have a look at Fotor - should be a free download from the app store, and it's very easy to use. GIMP as suggested above is very powerful, but isn't ideal for basic image fixes, so much as making bigger changes to images. Visit the Onone software site and download Perfect Effects free - this is very powerful, but also easy to use.

Lightroom has been suggested. I found LR to be very powerful for basic image development, but much more than that, it's good for cataloging images so you can find them later and has all kinds of output options - it's a 'must have' software tool for me.

You may still be able to get a free download of DXO Optics Pro 8: http://www.diyphotography.net/dxo-optics-pro-8-viewpoint-1-free-end-february/ DXOP is my alternative developer to lightroom for when I want a more subtle image, but it's slow and clunky, never the less also very powerful.

iPhoto = nasty. ;)
 
You know you can get free books for kindle/kindle reader for OSX too, don't you?
 
Another one to check out would be Darktable: http://www.darktable.org It's free and open source.

I haven't tried it on OSX yet, only Linux, but it seems pretty nice. I'd definitely give it a go just to see if you get on with it.
 
ill second pixelmator as a cheap option.
 
It really depends on what it is that you find lacking. There are quite a few features there, and not all of the more powerful ones are that obvious at first.

Photos is out as part of a developers review and will be released shortly by Apple.

Having been looking for potential replacements for Aperture, and I really don't like the way LR works, I found that capture one pro from phase one is actually rather nice as well and much more aligned with how Aperture does things opposed to how LR approaches it.
 
because Aperture has been killed by Apple, mainly. If you're going to buy, get lightroom. I really do think it's worth the money.
 
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