Nikon SLR Cameras

Which Photo Editing Software to Buy for Mac?

Guest
Guest

Looking for expert advice! My name is April and I'm very passionate about photography. I'm currently a beginner, but I'm actually quite talented and self-taught. I love to take lots of pictures and I'm working on starting my own business as lifestyle/portrait photographer. I've already created a business page on Facebook and Wix to showcase some of my work. I also bought my first DLSR camera (Nikon D3100) and the 200mm lens last year. I also just bought the Sunpak DigiFlash 3000 external flash, but I still don't have any kind of professional software to edit my pictures with so I've just been using programs like iPhoto, Picasa and PicMonkey, (etc… Lol)! I've been doing mostly all of my editing on my mac mini, but I recently bought a new iMac (iCore5/version10.9) so, now I just need the latest photo editing software. I want something professional, but fairly easy to learn.

***I've done some research and here's what I've narrowed it down to -

(What are the differences - pros and cons - how they compare - price - abilities - watermarking/tools - effects - organizing - batch edit - sharing - compatible w/all major still image formats including RAW, etc.)? Please Help, Thanks!

Adobe - Currently you can get Photoshop CC and Lightroom for 9.99/m

Adobe Elements - Apparently the watered down version of Photoshop and Lightroom

Aperture - Apple's version of Lightroom (Watched tutorials, seems to be pretty decent)?

Capture One?

Katie
Katie

Most of us use Adobe Lightroom 3.

If you are SURE that all the images need the same hue, saturation, exposure and colour balance, then you can do that using Lightroom 3, but frankly if your colour-balance and exposure is off, you are not using your camera properly. Hopefully you shot in RAW where you have more control making those kinds of changes.

There's NO freeware that can do this in any way close to Adobe Lightroom 3

You can try using GIMP, but that is more of a retouching tool, not a digital image work-flow tool

I guess what we all want to know is how a person that works a lot with photos, is not willing to spend $300 on Lightroom (or $89 from the student store if you are a student) to make all this processing simpler and colour management under control after all, you spent about two and a half times what it costs to buy a PC and now you are going cheap. That does not stand to reason.

fhotoace
fhotoace

You have spent most of your money on an Apple product.

Hopefully you have enough left over to subscribe to Adobe Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC

They are the gold standard of RAW processing and image retouching.

Capture One is the software used when shooting medium format digital cameras with PhaseOne digital backs.

Apple has NO version of Adobe Lightroom, sorry

Oh, and there's NO easy program. You must take the time to learn how to use whichever one you choose.

Jeremy
Jeremy

I would say sign up for adobe creative cloud
http://www.adobe.com/...emoverview

They charge a monthly fee then you get everything! My personal choice is photoshop as that is the mack daddy. But if you are looking for something a little easier maybe light room would be a good choice. Lightroom gives you all the same editing controls (exposure/levels/saturation) as photoshop minus the alterations.

The reason I use Adobe cc as it is cheaper paying their monthly fee then purchasing the software.

I would give the same recommendation for a mac or pc user.

kitty
kitty

I think some free software is good too! I'm using Fotor: http://www.fotor.com/mac/index.html
It is easy to use and I can make just simple adjustments and my pics would look amazing. It is totally worth trying! If you don't like it there's noting to lose for you since it's free! But I bet you will love it lol!

Stewart
Stewart

I was looking for the same thing and come across this website. If your looking for free Photography e-books and teaching videos try this site out.

http://freesoftwareenjoy.webs.com/