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Thread: photo editing sw for iMac...???

  1. #1

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    photo editing sw for iMac...???

    I'm buying an Apple iMac and wondering about the software they offer as part of the order process. They offer Aperture 2 photo editing software at a discount if you bundle it at the time of purchase...

    Any opinions or feedback with this software? My needs are very modest - basically need to scan, crop and re-size....not really much else. Would be really cool to be able to easily....uhm, construct a color image from scans of color separation negs too but, I've never done that just sounds really interesting.

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    Joanna Carter's Avatar
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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by BradS View Post
    I'm buying an Apple iMac and wondering about the software they offer as part of the order process. They offer Aperture 2 photo editing software at a discount if you bundle it at the time of purchase...

    Any opinions or feedback with this software? My needs are very modest - basically need to scan, crop and re-size....not really much else. Would be really cool to be able to easily....uhm, construct a color image from scans of color separation negs too but, I've never done that just sounds really interesting.
    As far as I can tell, Aperture is designed primarily for digital camera workflow but I am open to correction. As far as compositing Tri-Colour images, I am fairly certain that you would really be better off getting Photoshop from the get-go.
    Joanna Carter
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  3. #3

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by BradS View Post
    I'm buying an Apple iMac and wondering about the software they offer as part of the order process. They offer Aperture 2 photo editing software at a discount if you bundle it at the time of purchase...

    Any opinions or feedback with this software? My needs are very modest - basically need to scan, crop and re-size....not really much else. Would be really cool to be able to easily....uhm, construct a color image from scans of color separation negs too but, I've never done that just sounds really interesting.
    Have a look at this link Brad .. the price is amazing

    Not certain if it is for you Mac.

    http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

    Steve

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Aperture is not built for intense image editing. It really shines when you give it a good RAW file to begin with, or a good scan, and only need to do color corrections and some minor spotting, but if you want to do anything more than that, you've got to work in Photoshop. In my opinion, Aperture would be the most ideal image editing application if it added only hr ability to make selections within the image, and work on those discreet selected areas. Perhaps in Aperture 3...

    But yes, go with Photoshop. You'll be happier.

    And, as a final note, Aperture beats the hell out of Lightroom for doing conversions to B&W. Hands down.

    That is all.

  5. #5

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Nicholls View Post
    Have a look at this link Brad .. the price is amazing

    Not certain if it is for you Mac.

    http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

    Steve
    Hi Steve,

    Thanks! I've use the Gimp a little bit. It is realy quite a package....takes some getting used to....is there an easy way to tri-color ....uh...how do you call it when you construct a color image from B&W color separation negs? I guess the trick to doing this is aligning the three (or four) images accurately.

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    Joanna Carter's Avatar
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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by BradS View Post
    Thanks! I've use the Gimp a little bit. It is realy quite a package....takes some getting used to....is there an easy way to tri-color ....uh...how do you call it when you construct a color image from B&W color separation negs? I guess the trick to doing this is aligning the three (or four) images accurately.
    In theory, Gimp should be able to do tri-colour images. I went to the trouble of downloading and having a play with it, read some of the docs and a couple of tutorials and, yes, it can do a lot of things but my feeling is that it is not as easy or intuitive as Photoshop. Of course, there is quite a price difference between Gimp and Photoshop and, from my experience, the difference is justified in terms of productivity.
    Joanna Carter
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    UKLFPG

  7. #7

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    I've used gimp quite a bit and now switched to PS.

    You get used to either interface but gimp doesn't do 16 bit files or adjustment layers which are pretty useful IMO.

    You can manually align on either package using overlay layers and adjusting opacity - so that you can move one layer over another.

  8. #8

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by Joanna Carter View Post
    In theory, Gimp should be able to do tri-colour images. I went to the trouble of downloading and having a play with it, read some of the docs and a couple of tutorials and, yes, it can do a lot of things but my feeling is that it is not as easy or intuitive as Photoshop. Of course, there is quite a price difference between Gimp and Photoshop and, from my experience, the difference is justified in terms of productivity.
    ...and here you've hit upon on the main point. The Gimp seems very capable but impossibly arcane. It took me nearly fifteen minutes just to figure out how to get it to scan a neg, crop the resulting image and save as a TIFF. I still haven't figured out how to fix dust and scratches with it. These activities are all relatively easy with the limited version of Photoshop that was bundled with the scanner.

  9. #9

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    Quote Originally Posted by BradS View Post
    I still haven't figured out how to fix dust and scratches with it.
    Use the clone tool which is pretty much identical to the PS one.

  10. #10

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    Re: photo editing sw for iMac...???

    I don't know about the tri-color sep thing but in addition to Photoshop, I also use Lightroom. At my college, we have our classrooms set up with iMacs for student use and they run PS (actually the entire CS4 suite) and Lightroom with zero problems. The machine is robust and powerful so I think any software you choose will work just fine.

    Best,
    Randy
    Last edited by Photojeep; 24-Jul-2009 at 09:53. Reason: clarification

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