Moving to Mac - what processing software?

That's a really nice machine you have coming. Might be the best display every put on a computer. I like Lightroom, but not the subscription system...you might actually consider trying out OSX Photos as your main software. It comes with the OS and is not bad at all, and gradually improving.
 
I never liked the thought of subscribing to Adobe but went for it anyway the basic one £8.99 a month for cc and Lightroom, before that after moving to a Mac tried Lightroom but found it just too slow compared to photomechanic so went back to what I used on my pic before switching cc and photomechanic.
 
I use LR CC.

However I suggest you start with Pixelmator. It is inexpensive and powerful. I found it easy to learn. Pixelmator is in the App store.

Pixelmator uses the OS X's raw rendering tools. Apple is slower than Adobe at supporting raw files for new camera releases. Otherwise, the OS-X raw rendering engine is quite good.

I respectfully disagree with mabelsound, Apple's Photos App is barely useful as a raw rendering platform. However it is convenient for sharing photos if you use iCloud. You can even share Albums with non-Apple users. I use Photos to slap together photo books for family members. It's easy and reliable. I also use Photos to organize photos that other OS X Apps use natively such as the web-site builder Sandvox.
 
Photos might be enough for some people; I'm just suggesting he give it a try. But it isn't enough for me, ultimately. It is wonderful for sharing and syncing to a phone, though—it's great to have copies of all my pictures with me at all times.

Pixelmator is spectacular, as a Photoshop substitute. In fact, they have a new plugin for Photos, which I haven't tried yet; I'm sort of hoping that it will allow me to abandon Lightroom?
 
Bill Clark said:
When I upgrade to a new iMac I'll go with Elements. Just me, I'm not a big fan of subscription. I want to do my own thing without having to connect to the internet each time I want to work and I want to keep my files in house on USB external hard drives and not on some server farm in Oklahoma.
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Bill,

You're misinformed about how CC works. You don't connect to the internet each time you use the software and all your files remain local.
 
As you can tell I don't use the newest and latest.

Thanks for the correction.

From looking at the subscription I would need to log in initially to activiate, like in the past, and, with the subscription model, log in every 30 days to 99 days depending on subscription payment to make sure I'm a paying customer and receive updates. I imagine if you don't log in when it's time you get locked out. I don't need to do that with my current set up.

I think I'll stay with what I have as it works just fine for me.
 
The iMac will come with a program called Photos. Give that a try, it's not very professional but might be enough for your needs. Aperture is a splendid Apple program that they decided to orphan. Still it is reported that the RAW compatibility will continue as it uses the same code as the new Photos program. I got the stand alone version of Lightroom as I just feel there is a ripoff in the making with the rental program from Adobe.
 
Are you looking more for photo processing or photo management or both?

I have the pre-subscription version of Lightroom that does both. I also own Photoshop which I use for work things but almost never for post processing photos anymore as I like Lightroom's non-destructive edits.

There may well be better options for RAW conversion etc, but I find Lightroom is good enough for most things. Eventually I will cave and move to the Lightroom/Photoshop subscription, probably when I can't read client's Photoshop files anymore for whatever reason but for now the standalone Lightroom does everything I want.
 
More photo processing.

I think I'm going to give PSE a try - Adorama will include a copy for $39 with the iMac. (If I can get them to add it to my order, that is.) A question, though if anyone knows - does PSE 14 do Smart Sharpen?
 
You can continue using CS2 for Windows XP on your new iMac for now if you like. You'll need VMWare Fusion or Parallels installed to create a virtual machine. You load Windows XP with you key just like on a PC. You can then hot-swap Mac and PC OSs. Avoid Boot Camp. VMs work well for running heritage software.
 
Even if it does you might not want it with Fuji raw files. Adobe sharpening doesn't handle Fuji files all that well (compared to other options) and can create some odd artifacts on XTRANs.

Shawn
 
PSE does smart sharpening. I have it and rarely use it, 99% of what I do is done in Lightroom. I have V5 and it's doing just fine with my Fujis.
 
Saul said:
Bill,

You're misinformed about how CC works. You don't connect to the internet each time you use the software and all your files remain local.
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Exactly. I think you can be unconnected for 90 days before LR CC reverts to view-only mode.
 
View Range said:
You can continue using CS2 for Windows XP on your new iMac for now if you like. You'll need VMWare Fusion or Parallels installed to create a virtual machine. You load Windows XP with you key just like on a PC. You can then hot-swap Mac and PC OSs. Avoid Boot Camp. VMs work well for running heritage software.
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That's an interesting option - I'll check it out!

Darthfeeble said:
PSE does smart sharpening. I have it and rarely use it, 99% of what I do is done in Lightroom. I have V5 and it's doing just fine with my Fujis.
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Great, I'll definitely try PSE first. Thank you!
 
Bill Clark said:
I have CS4 on my iMacs but I do have Elements on a MacBook and it has all I need. Two important features of Photoshop for me are layers and blending. I use ACR to work on my RAW files and CS4 works for all of my digital cameras.

When I upgrade to a new iMac I'll go with Elements. Just me, I'm not a big fan of subscription. I want to do my own thing without having to connect to the internet each time I want to work and I want to keep my files in house on USB external hard drives and not on some server farm in Oklahoma.
Click to expand...

You do not need to connect to internet process, only to upgrade.
Nothing forces you to keep files in the cloud.

Once a month you need to turn on CC for a handshake with adobe.
I pay yearly, not monthly.

I don`t like subscription, but probably spent that much anyway. If they get too expensive, I will use something else.
 
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