Just returned to bird photography with D10, after 3 years absence and loss of Mac desktop software and previous advice from Ellen Anon. Now using a Mac laptop with only iPhoto and Photoshop Elements. Must be better way. Vaguely remember that EOS 10D software wasn't that great. The Art of Bird Photography II section on the subject is limited to PC software - Downloader PC and Breezebrowser. Seeking advice on alternative software from another Mac lover.
Lightroom 2.0 is coming out and it works on both platforms. pretty powerful database and editing program. I use it with PS CS 3, but I believe it will integrate with elements (the new one)
Michael: Thanks for the response. I'm studying up on Lightroom 2.0. and am a little confused. Is there a correlation between the functions performed by Lightroom 2.0 and iPhoto? iPhoto downloads and catalogues my images, and allows me to do elementary (not really satisfactory) editing. What I'm doing now is downloading into iPhoto, then passing the good images to Elements, one at a time, for editing. What would be the essential difference if I install Lightroom and uninstall iPhoto? My thanks for your patience, as I try to reorient my brain to the fundamentals (much as I admire Art as a teacher, I still have trouble getting through some of his step by step workflow syntax).
I use CS3 on my Mac desktop and laptop. I used Lightroom 1.0 and loved it. Just upgraded to 2.0, which has some compelling new features; it's a little buggy but very nice. I suspect that Lightroom is far more sophisticated than iPhoto, although I'm not certain.
I do it the other way around. I use Lightroom to ingest, sort, rate, process, export and print images. The new version has some significant new features that will reduce the need to go to Photoshop.
Then, one of the batches I export is to my iPhoto application. There I create slideshows, share images, create books, etc. Since it is integrated with the rest of the mac suite it seems to work very well. And I also use iWeb to create the family website.
I switched to a MAC Pro in January after years processing on a PC. I am happy with the results.
I use Lightroom to first import and sort, then it's on to Canon Digital Photo Professional for raw processing, and finally to CS3.
Occasionally I process raw in Lightroom with excellent results and bypass DPP on the way to CS3.
I also, on occasion once images are uploaded, import them into CS3 via Adobe Camera Raw, which also works very well.
I switched from PC to Mac in February, and for a while, didn't have Photoshop or Lightroom. I had had Photoshop Elements on my PC, but when I looked for it for Mac, there was some confusion about whether it was compatible with the OS, or something. I can't remember. After I bought the FULL version of CS3, I found out I could have gotten Elements (live and learn).
Meanwhile, I downloaded the trial for Lightroom, and I love it. I haven't even opened iPhoto since.
I had a hard time understanding what iPhoto could really do for me. Lightroom makes it obvious. I purchased Lightroom, and haven't looked back. Download the trial and see what you think. I checked my version of Lightroom. It's 1.4.1.
I can load images into lightroom, categorize them, etc, and do some general editing, cropping, and corrections. I can apply metadata (copyright, location, keywords, date, etc.) to individual photos, or groups of photos, and save the metadata set to a file to use over and over if I want to.
The slideshow feature is a little plain - but I can use iMovie to create a slideshow with transition effects and music if I want. It's pretty good. One of the things I had gotten with PS Elements on the PC was Adobe Premier, which does the same thing. Premier is only available for Mac in its full, stand-alone version, evidently.
Publishing to the Web is easy from Lightroom. It creates all of the files you need, and you can opt to include your copyright / metadata on any export. I had been using iWeb. Now I use iWeb to create my base page, and let Lightroom create the web galleries, and I link to them off my iWeb-created/published page. I have my site hosted on my .Mac (now Mobil Me) account. They just upgraded 20G of space if you're a subscriber.
I can also edit choose to edit a photo in PhotoShop from within Lightroom, and it pulls the resulting TIF or PSD image into my Lightroom collection, where all the appropriate metadata gets applied.
If I could re-do everything, I would have Photoshop Elements, and LightRoom, rather than having paid for the full version of Photoshop, for what my simple needs are. I think Adobe has a savings if you buy the two together (full version PS + LR).
I was using iView Media Pro before Microsoft bought the product and incorporated it into their "Expression" suite of software. iView has been around for ages and was one of the first image management software solutions out there. I find it excellent and although I have tried other image management software such as Lightroom and Bridge on my Mac, I keep coming back to iView. I like its speed, uncluttered screens and features. I don't use any of the image editing tools in iView and pass Raw images to Photoshop CS3 for processing in ACR and then Ps. BTW Microsoft renamed iView Media Pro "Expression Media" and produces a Mac version. Have a look here:
Not really Aperture is more like LR which does a lot of things. In the new incarnation of LR you can actually do local changes which before were all done in PS or elements. I think in the future the program will still evolve towards being the only thing you need !!! Will be a while !! .... maybe will actually be incorporated into PS? Feel that Aperture would be following closely but obviously would not merge with PS !!!
Seeking Mac advice
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