Photography Software Options?

[UnluckyXIII]

Hi all,

I’ve been very fortunate in having the opportunity to be involved in a media project taking place later this autumn. As part of the process I have been provided with a small budget to acquire a new laptop and camera (bought a MacBook Pro and Nikon D850 body to go with my already existing range of Nikkor lenses). I haven’t edited on a Mac for over 10 years and the last time I did I was a user of Apples Aperture so to my horror I have found this was discontinued some time ago and Apple haven’t introduced a direct successor. What other options do I have with a Mac or will I be looking at the usual Adobe offerings that I’ve used on my Windows systems??

Any advice/help would be appreciated

Thanks,

 

[robgendreau]

That subject has been discussed frequently here. See this for example: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-photos-v-lightroom-cc-v-other.2124041/#post-26183912

 

[deep diver]

Hi all,

I’ve been very fortunate in having the opportunity to be involved in a media project taking place later this autumn. As part of the process I have been provided with a small budget to acquire a new laptop and camera (bought a MacBook Pro and Nikon D850 body to go with my already existing range of Nikkor lenses). I haven’t edited on a Mac for over 10 years and the last time I did I was a user of Apples Aperture so to my horror I have found this was discontinued some time ago and Apple haven’t introduced a direct successor. What other options do I have with a Mac or will I be looking at the usual Adobe offerings that I’ve used on my Windows systems??

Any advice/help would be appreciated

Thanks,

There are several programs out there and everyone has their favorite. I suggest you go with what you already know how to use.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi all,

I’ve been very fortunate in having the opportunity to be involved in a media project taking place later this autumn. As part of the process I have been provided with a small budget to acquire a new laptop and camera (bought a MacBook Pro and Nikon D850 body to go with my already existing range of Nikkor lenses). I haven’t edited on a Mac for over 10 years and the last time I did I was a user of Apples Aperture so to my horror I have found this was discontinued some time ago and Apple haven’t introduced a direct successor. What other options do I have with a Mac or will I be looking at the usual Adobe offerings that I’ve used on my Windows systems??

Any advice/help would be appreciated

Thanks,

If your familiar with Adobe on Windows, why wouldn't you just go with that on your Mac. There are no Mac specific software options for pros anymore.

 

[UnluckyXIII]

If your familiar with Adobe on Windows, why wouldn't you just go with that on your Mac. There are no Mac specific software options for pros anymore.

Just wanted to know what (if any) were out their, just like Final Cut Pro X > everything else when it comes to Video editing on the go I was curious to see if there was something of a similar level available for photo editing.

 

[maflynn]

Apple haven’t introduced a direct successor

They did, Apple's photo's app. Less powerful, less features but apple did technically rollout a successor.

What other options do I have with a Mac

See this thread for options:

See this for example: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-photos-v-lightroom-cc-v-other.2124041/#post-26183912

 

[r.harris1]

All of the usual Adobe software should be considered. It is used by most people and if you like one-size-fits-all it's arguably the best. Adobe sells their Photography plan for $10/mth and is a pretty good deal. So this is the path of least resistance and certainly if your project involves a ton of images (events, weddings, etc), it's a great path forward.

That said, the good thing is that there is a wealth of software now that you can bring in to fit how you want to work, especially compared to 10 years ago. I don't do tons of images on any one shoot (birds/wildlife, landscape). Personally, I broadly split things up into:

(1) image management (DAM): rating, culling, backup, key-wording, metadata, filesystem management, sending to third party sites like smugmug, etc.
(2) image editing/processing

For (1), I've not found a better tool than Photo Mechanic. Hideous early 2000s interface, but wickedly fast and the most flexible tool I've used by a very long shot.

For (2), the world is your oyster. Lightroom, Photoshop of course, but Pixelmator Pro, Affinity Photo, Luminar, Capture One, DxO and honestly, Apple Photos. I actually use Photos quite a bit because while the application itself has basic functionality (wickedly fast, by the way), it has great extensions functionality that gives me best of breed capabilities by folks that do lens corrections well (DxO), noise reduction (Luminar, etc), Black/White (Luminar), local edits (Luminar, Pixelmator) and in addition to the extensions functionality, they finally added "Edit in" capabilities so you can pop in to another editor of your choice to work and save back into the Photos library.

Apple Photos also has pretty good smart albums capabilities that allows me to create from my rated items from Photo Mechanic, it has a nice "memories" function and does pretty well at machine learning on broad categories of images (e.g. it does a good job of finding my "eagle" photos or the like).

Capture One is a great tool too - I know some folks here moved over to that when Aperture was abandoned. But really, the point is, you have a lot more very high quality tools at your disposal now than in the past and you really can't go wrong.

Edit: I should add that I've liked the way Capture One renders the files from my Nikon bodies out of the box (d300s, d850). Rendering "look" is purely subjective of course. They also introduced functionality to handle some of the diffraction issues that some people care about, and on the d850 this can show up even at f8.

 

[CBlakeston]

I used aperture for many years after Apple shut it down. Just because it wasn’t updated didn’t mean it stopped working. I could never get my head around ‘Classic’ Lightroom but switched to the new cloud based Lightroom CC earlier this year and am really enjoying it. UI is similar to Aperture but with a modern feel.

 

[Clix Pix]

I'm one who has been very, very reluctant to let go of Aperture, and have been using it all this time, even though there is no longer support from Apple. It has worked just fine for quick-and-dirty edits, something relatively uncomplicated. I have been uneasily aware, though, that sooner or later I was going to HAVE to bite the bullet and find another editing program to use. In the past I've used Photoshop, tried out Lightroom and so on, but am not keen on the subscription model that Adobe has now adopted, since I don't shoot all that much or haven't for a while, anyway.

I've tried various freestanding, non-subscription photography apps and they're OK but I haven't really taken the time to learn them thoroughly and always found myself automatically running back to Aperture. A couple of days ago I took advantage of a special sale and purchased/downloaded Luminar 2018 and so far I have been very pleased with it. Different from Aperture, yes, but also surprisingly intuitive and easy to use right off the bat, with what I consider to be pretty decent results. I'm even more pleased with it this evening after I finally went into the settings on my new Sony RX100 M6 and switched it from jpg into RAW and shot a couple of photos with it and took them into Luminar 2018 to see if the program would convert them for me -- and it did, so now I'm very happy!

 

[Donka]

Luminar 2018 integrates nicely with Photos extensions. That combo could be a suitable replacement for Aperture. I know it works well for me with the occasional trip to Affinity Photo, Pixelmator or Nik Tools using the Edit in feature in Photos.

 

[Clix Pix]

When I first installed Luminar and used it for a couple of images, there were a couple of things I hadn't figured out yet, so took the jpeg image on into Aperture and finished up there, and that did work nicely. I also have Pixelmator and Affinity Photo but have never quite felt at ease with either those programs. In addition I have the NIK Collection that I downloaded while it was still free from Google, but have never actually installed it. I don't use Photos and don't intend to start doing so, as it really doesn't suit my way of working and handling my images afterward. So far I am really liking Luminar 2018 -- it's a keeper!

 

[Donka]

Are you still running Aperture as your DAM then or do you not use one? I know Luminar 2018 will have one built in soon.

 

[Clix Pix]

Back in the beginning, when Aperture and Lightroom were announced and came on the market, I trialed both of them and decided to stick with Aperture. At that point I was still learning my way around digital image processing, and didn't really twig to the value of DAM, so pretty much ignored that whole aspect of Aperture, just using it to process my images. Years later I rather regret that!!! A few months ago back in the spring I tackled a massive project with my archived images and as I was doing so realized how much, much better it would have been had back in 2006 or whenever it was I had the sense to simply use keyboarding and such right from the get-go!!! I still have not quite finished the project, but set it aside for the summer and will resume it in the fall or when the weather begins to get chilly.

So anyway, I have not used Aperture's DAM functions at all and more-or-less have simply used it as an image editor. Certainly it has served me well in that capacity since I don't usually do a lot of fancy stuff like utilizing layers, changing backgrounds and all that kind of thing in my images. Pretty much whatever it is that I've shot is what the viewer will see. I'm not big on major retouching, extensive use of filters for visual effects or using HDR.

In a way it is good that I haven't been relying on Aperture as my DAM and so don't have to worry about losing anything if and when there is absolutely no longer any option to use that program at all. I am thinking, though, that when Luminar 2018 does get around to releasing its DAM, I may actually jump into using it and seeing how well it works for me.

 

[0970373]

Are you still running Aperture as your DAM then or do you not use one? I know Luminar 2018 will have one built in soon.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Clix Pix]

I'm not particularly concerned one way or the other about Luminar providing a DAM system, but I know that a lot of users have been waiting and waiting for this, and that the developers have been assuring them that it's coming, it's coming......

 

[RichardWaine]

If your familiar with Adobe on Windows, why wouldn't you just go with that on your Mac. There are no Mac specific software options for pros anymore.

I shoot tethered, from my D850 into either my desktop or laptop. While you could use Adobe Lightroom to capture and do minor editing, I happen to like Capture One Pro by Phase One. The software is super robust and the processing engine is second to none. it is literally the gold standard in tethered capture. While you are somewhat limited when it comes to retouching an image, C1 does play nicely with Adobe Photoshop.

Hope that helps!

 

[Clix Pix]

I'm not particularly concerned one way or the other about Luminar providing a DAM system, but I know that a lot of users have been waiting and waiting for this, and that the developers have been assuring them that it's coming, it's coming......

Quoting myself here to add: "famous last words!" LOL..... Not long after I wrote this I shot a lot of photos on a weekend at the beach and when it came time for culling and processing I immediately wished that Luminar at least had some sort of cataloguing system! This business of being able to only pull up one image at a time doesn't work so well when you've got over 1000 images to review, cull and then edit!

That set me on a journey of exploring new software and also finding something which would also be able to open the RAW images from my new RX100 M VI, which is so new that a lot of software programs don't yet have a codex for the RAW conversion.

I'm in the process of trialing Capture One Pro 11 for Sony and while I appreciate its robustness and flexibility, I am thinking it may be overkill for my usual post-processing workflow, and it is not all that intuitive so I've been struggling with it quite a bit.

Hurry up, Luminar, let's get that DAM in place sooner rather than later!!!

 

[deeddawg]

This business of being able to only pull up one image at a time doesn't work so well when you've got over 1000 images to review, cull and then edit!

When it comes to reviewing, culling, tagging, and rating/categorizing a LOT of images quickly, it's tough to beat PhotoMechanic. PM is also not in any way inexpensive either.

Hurry up, Luminar, let's get that DAM in place sooner rather than later!!!

I have high hopes for Luminar's DAM -- but to be honest I'd also probably give it a few months after GA to "ripen" a bit before putting much time/effort into it.

 

[Clix Pix]

I used to have PM years ago, and yes, it is really fast! It is definitely expensive, though......

 

[stillcrazyman]

I also had Aperture back in the good old days....
Then Lightroom, until I knew they were going to a subscription.
I had ON1 Photo / Photo Raw - nope, not stable enough for me.
Nik Collection was nice to use.

I used PhotoMechanic - expensive for what it is. Very Good at what it does. Note that it has not yet been updated to a 64bit program.

I had Capture One for Sony, great program but a bit cumbersome. I don't have a Sony anymore, so on I went to DxO PhotoLab . Love this program - for me, more intuitive than C1P.

As for a DAM / Management app - I have continued to try other programs, but keep coming back to Graphic Converter. Robust and stable for all 30000 photos I have. It even has a built in editor for quick fixes. I set it up to "Open With" several other editors, and it works flawlessly. The program has been around since the '90s.

I like Photos for what it is - I just use it to manage my iOS photos. I keep copies in with all the other photos.

 

[anotherscotsman]

Previously an Aperture user but for what it’s worth I now use Capture One. Although not a Photoshop replacement, I can do the vast majority of what I need within CO and only resort to Affinity Photo (also a worthwhile contender) for panorama or other stacking activities. Personal taste but I find the CO interface and workflow quite intuitive. It’s also fast even on my 2011 iMac.

For DAM I tend to use the CO Sessions since that works for me. I’ve also used Photos as a DAM

 

[v3rlon]

When it comes to reviewing, culling, tagging, and rating/categorizing a LOT of images quickly, it's tough to beat PhotoMechanic. PM is also not in any way inexpensive either.


I have high hopes for Luminar's DAM -- but to be honest I'd also probably give it a few months after GA to "ripen" a bit before putting much time/effort into it.

I also had high hopes for Luminar. They couldn't even make their release date for a blog post about how their system will work. Now I am so disappointed with them that it will have to be truly amazing to get me to even look at it.