Mac or PC for editing photos?

[mollyc]

And how does photos do for editing? I use it from time to time to edit. But my work with photos is as a hobby and not as a professional. I can’t afford Photoshop but I can use photos. But I guess it depends on what I need done.

Will you please stop making the distinction of hobby vs professional???? It is the dumbest qualifier ever for a photographer. The only distinction is whether or not someone makes money. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone has talent or skill.

I must be color blind or something because I hardly notice. Yes I am color blind and probably no good for art.

You either are colorblind or not. If you can't tell by now, as a full grown adult, you aren't. I could tell my son was by the time he was three.

 

[MacNut]

Nobody here is against giving out helpful advice, but we need to know if you are serious about learning. Just asking random questions isn't helpful.

 

[deep diver]

Will you please stop making the distinction of hobby vs professional???? It is the dumbest qualifier ever for a photographer. The only distinction is whether or not someone makes money. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone has talent or skill.




You either are colorblind or not. If you can't tell by now, as a full grown adult, you aren't. I could tell my son was by the time he was three.

Nobody here is against giving out helpful advice, but we need to know if you are serious about learning. Just asking random questions isn't helpful.

I said to Mrs. Diver yesterday that OP's posts are like that car crash. You know you should move on but you just can't help but to stare.

I wonder what would happen if OP posted a new thread and nobody came.

 

[MBAir2010]

I wonder what would happen if OP posted a new thread and nobody came.

that is the beauty of forums.
seems to me that a thread like this will get more attention than one where the member really needs help in fixing thier MacBook, and those replies are mostly "i told you so" or "just but a news one"!

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I'd disagree that Photos is not a good editor. I've used it quite a bit (most of the content I shared last year was jpegs edited in Photos), on both Mac and iPad. The sliders aren't too aggressive, and the algorithms seem pretty solid. It's not Lightroom, but it's also free with every Mac or iPad. IMO, it's not at all a bad place to start, and as you grow into it, consider something else. Granted, if you just click magic wand (auto) or apply filters, you're not going to learn a whole lot about post processing.

 

[kallisti]

Since this is a Mac site I suppose most will use the Mac but there are many companies out there that prefer Windows for design tasks even though the Mac is better. For my job I use excel and business applications allot. At home I prefer Numbers for various reasons over excel. So for you do you use Windows at work and Mac at home for your design or photography duties?

Why did you create this thread? What question were you hoping to answer? What relevance does this thread have to photography enthusiasts? Why are you wasting our time?

 

[Erehy Dobon]

And how does photos do for editing? I use it from time to time to edit. But my work with photos is as a hobby and not as a professional. I can’t afford Photoshop but I can use photos. But I guess it depends on what I need done.

A lot of people with your usage case edit their photos on their PHONES these days.

Same with video.

This is not new, this has been going on for years. This includes YouTube and Instagram influencers (as well as professional photographers and cinematographers).

Unless you spent nearly a thousand bucks on a computer monitor, your iPhone's screen is probably the best screen at your disposal (at least from an image fidelity perspective).

The old paradigm of pulling out some compact flash media from your phone, sneakernetting images to your computer and editing them on a computer is DEAD (except for an increasingly smaller subset of photographers).

 

[deep diver]

Why did you create this thread? What question were you hoping to answer? What relevance does this thread have to photography enthusiasts? Why are you wasting our time?

I did s quick search. OP does the same thing on other subforums. It's people like that that keep my therapy practice going but my photography is not work snd I don't want it to be.

 

[Apple fanboy]

A lot of people with your usage case edit their photos on their PHONES these days.

Same with video.

This is not new, this has been going on for years. This includes YouTube and Instagram influencers (as well as professional photographers and cinematographers).

Unless you spent nearly a thousand bucks on a computer monitor, your iPhone's screen is probably the best screen at your disposal (at least from an image fidelity perspective).

The old paradigm of pulling out some compact flash media from your phone, sneakernetting images to your computer and editing them on a computer is DEAD (except for an increasingly smaller subset of photographers).

Of which I will always be one. I have no interest in iPhone photography. It’s not enjoyable in the way photography is with a real camera for me. It’s the difference between convenience food and cooking IMO.
My iPhone screen is definitely not the best screen I own for photography. Just read the 1000 threads on MR about my latest iPhone screen is warmer than my last one of cooler than my iPad etc. Photo editing for me needs to be on a large screen with editing software.

 

[James_C]

If you are looking to edit photo's for pleasure rather than work, then Apple Photos is a start point, but as you want to learn and do more I would look at Affinity Photo or Pixelmator. I would consider myself a Prosumer Photo Editor (I have had a few images published, but its mainly just a hobby). I dumped Photoshop when it moved to subscription years ago and now use Affinity Photo, which is more Mac UI than Photoshop and I don't miss Photoshop at all. I do miss Aperture (Apple's version of Lightroom) though, a great shame Apple stopped development on that.

 

[kallisti]

This has been an all-Mac household since 2005 (well, I kept the old Windows machine around for about a year after I bought my first Mac but then one day finally wiped the thing and donated it to a charity shop as I hadn't touched it, didn't want or need to touch it, once I'd gotten the Mac and had familiarized myself with it).

I did use Windows at work when I was still working but once I completely retired that was the end of that for me.

I'm not into needing to create and work with design or graphics projects and by choice and skill set inclination stick strictly to photographic shooting and then editing the images I shoot, and for that I do use various software programs (listed here in MR in another thread about that topic). I didn't use iPhoto and I don't use the current version, Photos, either, as I prefer managing and editing my images more extensively and differently than that program offers.

I will add that I am still a work in process when it comes to editing and all that -- for a long time I resisted as much as I could but eventually began to explore the previously-ignored possibilities inherent in some editing programs that I found, wow, DO make a difference in the appearance of the finished edit! There are still many retouching/editing skills that many people have which I probably never will acquire unless I take the time and develop the patience and discipline to learn them......

I know you shoot with a Sony. Camera firmware updates for Sony cameras currently don’t seem to work on a Mac running Big Sur. I had to pull out a now unused Windows gaming machine to do a firmware update on my A7RIII. Was counting my lucky stars that I happened to still have a Windows machine in the house.

Sony needs to get their act together for supporting firmware updates for Mac users. Until they do, it can be helpful to have a Windows machine available....

 

[Clix Pix]

I know you shoot with a Sony. Camera firmware updates for Sony cameras currently don’t seem to work on a Mac running Big Sur. I had to pull out a now unused Windows gaming machine to do a firmware update on my A7RIII. Was counting my lucky stars that I happened to still have a Windows machine in the house.

Sony needs to get their act together for supporting firmware updates for Mac users. Until they do, it can be helpful to have a Windows machine available....

Yes!!!!!! That Sony firmware issue has been the bane of my existence -- SO frustrating! For earlier versions of the OS there was a sort of workaround but I was always hesitant to take chances -- didn't want to mess up either the RX10 IV or in particular my A7R IV, so have never done the updates. One time when I was in the camera shop for something I inquired if they would do the update for me on the A7R IV but that was when things were still pretty rough with the pandemic and they had limited hours, limited staff time and so said no, which I understood. Their online business had escalated rapidly during the pandemic, especially when the store was still closed during the main shutdown/stay-at-home phase of this, and now trying to handle both in-store and online business was keeping them hopping.

So, yes, I've been tempted to just go out and buy some cheap Windows machine in order to get the updates, but that seems like a waste of money. My friends are Mac users, too, so no Windows machine available from one of them to do the deed. I can't understand why the heck Sony doesn't do their updates like Nikon and everyone else, where you just put the update on a memory card, then stick that into the computer and do the update.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Does Sony not offer the ability to update from the memory card? You just download the file, copy it to the card, and start the camera. I know other brands offer this option. It's honestly my preferred route, as it's one less machine involved in performing the task.

 

[Clix Pix]

Unfortunately, NO!!!! That was an unpleasant surprise that I discovered one day when I learned that there was a firmware update to my RX10 (didn't have the A7R IV yet). Oh, no big deal, thought I, having been accustomed to doing the memory card method with my Nikons, and I went to the Sony site to retrieve and install the update.

Uh....well.... I read and re-read the instructions and realized that this was going to be a lot different and I hesitated at attempting it. As a result I never did, nor have I updated the firmware on my A7R IV, either. Windows users have no problem with this, it's just Mac users because there are obstacles in the way with the method that Sony offers for doing the firmware updates. It's frustrating!

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Yeah, for as big of a company as Sony is, they sure are weird with software sometimes. Surely they know there are more than just Windows users out there.

 

[deep diver]

Yeah, for as big of a company as Sony is, they sure are weird with software sometimes. Surely they know there are more than just Windows users out there.

Maybe there is some kind of war between Sony and Apple that nobody knows about.

 

[kallisti]

Unfortunately, NO!!!! That was an unpleasant surprise that I discovered one day when I learned that there was a firmware update to my RX10 (didn't have the A7R IV yet). Oh, no big deal, thought I, having been accustomed to doing the memory card method with my Nikons, and I went to the Sony site to retrieve and install the update.

Uh....well.... I read and re-read the instructions and realized that this was going to be a lot different and I hesitated at attempting it. As a result I never did, nor have I updated the firmware on my A7R IV, either. Windows users have no problem with this, it's just Mac users because there are obstacles in the way with the method that Sony offers for doing the firmware updates. It's frustrating!

This is something that I just have to say shame on Sony. Silly, stupid, and just unacceptable. My Nikons and Leicas allow a downloaded file from any computer to be copied onto a memory card and then a firmware update happens from the card.

Sony firmware updates require a program running on a PC connected to the camera. Currently they don’t support Macs. Annoying to the nth degree. Makes me want to scream.

But I am patiently awaiting my A1 from B&H and will hold my tongue....

 

[Buck987]

And how does photos do for editing? I use it from time to time to edit. But my work with photos is as a hobby and not as a professional. I can’t afford Photoshop but I can use photos. But I guess it depends on what I need done.

IMO its a fine, basic photo editing program. You can get more powerful photo editing programs at various cost ranges. Including some free ones. However you need the time to learn them and right now I am more interested in shooting better photos than editing them.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Maybe there is some kind of war between Sony and Apple that nobody knows about.

If I were to speculate, I'd say it's because Apple and Sony have a lot of overlap in the consumer space, and Sony probably doesn't want to make it easy for customers to embrace Apple. Sony makes a line of Android phones, for example, including one made to complement their new A1 flagship. There's a pretty thick wall between them and MS when it comes to gaming consoles, too.

 

[Clix Pix]

This is something that I just have to say shame on Sony. Silly, stupid, and just unacceptable. My Nikons and Leicas allow a downloaded file from any computer to be copied onto a memory card and then a firmware update happens from the card.

Sony firmware updates require a program running on a PC connected to the camera. Currently they don’t support Macs. Annoying to the nth degree. Makes me want to scream.

But I am patiently awaiting my A1 from B&H and will hold my tongue....

Agree wholeheartedly!

Oh, and I'm jealous -- you're getting the new A1 in the first round! It'll take me a bit longer to get mine, as I've got a few more pennies that'll need to be scratched together.....

 

[deep diver]

If I were to speculate, I'd say it's because Apple and Sony have a lot of overlap in the consumer space, and Sony probably doesn't want to make it easy for customers to embrace Apple. Sony makes a line of Android phones, for example, including one made to complement their new A1 flagship. There's a pretty thick wall between them and MS when it comes to gaming consoles, too.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective. This would make it hard for me to embrace Sony.

 

[Clix Pix]

I didn't know about this at the time I purchased the RX10 IV, but of course by the time I bought the A7R IV I was aware of it, but decided that it was not going to deter me from making the switch to Sony anyway, as all the merits that the system offers outweighed this one disadvantage. Also, it's not an insurmountable problem, it can be worked around one way or another. I just haven't really gotten into doing that.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I must be color blind or something because I hardly notice. Yes I am color blind and probably no good for art.

There are numerous apps you can use for photo editing, several of which are standalone applications and are relatively inexpensive. I don't use apps like the ones of Adobe CC where you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee, although I still have and use Adobe CS6 (standalone).

I should mention an app that has been available for quite a lot of years and designed for Apple computers. This app is Graphic Converter, which is already up to version 11x+. This app is the originally called, "the poor man's PhotoShop" for obvious reasons (it is quite powerful, and has all the options to edit photos, and then publish, including online or "web-ready"). You can download it from the App store, but I usually download the upgrades from the source,"Lemke Software in Germany. It costs around $35.00, and includes a "pdf" users manual that has over 500 pages of instructions.

By the way, I just launched Graphic converter to see if it would recognize Canon CR3 files from my Canon R6, and it opened it without any hitch.

Other apps I use are as follows: DXO Photo Lab 4 with the NIK software bundle, Affinity Photo with the NIK apps, and OneOne Photo Raw (only use the portraiture module now and then). CS6 works quite well along the NIK apps, but it does not recognize CR3 images. I can use DNG converter ahead of CS6, in which case CS6 will recognize the conversion from CR3 to DNG. Affinity Photo, Photo Lab 4, and Graphic Converter recognize CR3 files, however.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Agree wholeheartedly about Graphic Converter. Compared to other apps I use, the colour correction can be a bit cumbersome. However it has so many other handy features that make it well worth the price. It is my-go to app for slide presentations as well as for indexing and catalog sheets. Also it is true shareware meaning you can really give it a good workout before deciding whether or not to keep it.

Will also mention that I just gave Affinity Photo a try for stitching a panorama. Normally I stitch panoramas by hand as I don't like the straight line seams used with various apps. This morning I was facing the rather daunting prospect of putting together a 14 panel panorama and decided to give Affinity a try. Put it all together in a couple of minutes with only a couple of easily fixed flaws. The blue sky areas were perfect.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Agree wholeheartedly about Graphic Converter. Compared to other apps I use, the colour correction can be a bit cumbersome. However it has so many other handy features that make it well worth the price. It is my-go to app for slide presentations as well as for indexing and catalog sheets. Also it is true shareware meaning you can really give it a good workout before deciding whether or not to keep it.

Will also mention that I just gave Affinity Photo a try for stitching a panorama. Normally I stitch panoramas by hand as I don't like the straight line seams used with various apps. This morning I was facing the rather daunting prospect of putting together a 14 panel panorama and decided to give Affinity a try. Put it all together in a couple of minutes with only a couple of easily fixed flaws. The blue sky areas were perfect.

Which version of GC are you using? If you have version 11 and it needs an update, the new update also downloads the user's manual. I was surprised of how different GC 11x looks now. Its interface is very nice with sliders and all.

I have the newest version of Affinity Photo, but I have to take the time to learn how to edit photos with it once I am not so busy. I am trying to take as many photos as possible of the Auroras before April arrives. Anyway, I have already purchased the Affinity Photo Workbook. Sooner than later I have to remove CS6 from my iMac to upgrade the ODS to Big Sur. At this point I will have to start using Affinity Photo and PhotoLab 4, as well as GC.

The GC 11.4 Manual download is free, if you want to take a look:

Lemke Software: Manual

www.lemkesoft.de

By the way, I have not connections of any kind to Lemke Software. The reason why I always mention GC is because customer support from this software company is second to none, in addition to how powerful and reliable GC is.