Creative Software for MBP?

Hi there

I'm about to order a MBP - i'm a serious amateur photographer and will be using the laptop primarily for photo editing. Can you recommend software that I should purchase? Would CS3 cover me? Or are there other programs I should consider in addition to, or instead?

How useful is Aperture 2.0?

Thanks!

 

Photo editing....Adobe Photoshop IMHO is probably the best program around for such a task. Aperture 2 was just released as well..it's probably fine if your looking for something a bit cheaper.

 

Well, Aperture and Adobe Lightroom are great if you're looking for normal photo editing... if you want more creative photo editing, then photoshop is the way to go.

It really comes down to what type of editing you want to do. And there are demos for all those products available as well.

 

Well, Adobe Design CS3 is pretty much the standard in imaging software. That being said I have not used Aperture or Lightroom, so I don't know what they have to offer. CS3 has never failed me. I've done quite a bit of photo work on it and have never said to myself "man I wish CS3 could also do [fill in random element that is missing which i cannot think of]"

 

Well, with CS3, you need more than photoshop if you are going to work with and organize say, 2000+ photos. There is Adobe Bridge, but again, you have to use two programs.

With Lightroom and Aperture, it's a single program that helps organize and alter your images.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

But those two products are completely different than Photoshop. I'd compare them more to iPhoto than anything else.

Regardless, there is a solution on the Mac. I would suggest just downloading all 3 and trying them out. None of them are gimped demos either, so it's great. And I believe Lightroom and Photoshop are the most expensive out of the 3.
I've played with all 3, but not the new version of Aperture. I did prefer Lightroom over Aperture, but I was hardly stress testing or doing a whole lot in it.

 

Well when you buy Design CS3 Premium you get PS Extended, AI, ID, DW, and FL and Acrobat Pro, along with Bridge. Any modern Mac can have most of these programs open at the same time too, without slowing it down a noticable amount.

Buying JUST Photoshop by itself, on the other hand, is something that has not occurred to me. CS3 works best, from my experience, when PS, AI, and ID are all working together to get to your final product. But buying the Aperture or Lightroom is cheaper.... It's hard to say which is better, but I also suggest getting trials. You can get a full 30 day trial of the complete CS3 from Adobe. And like Hollownail said, the trials aren't limited, and have the same functions as the real copy.

 

Yeah, but it still comes down to what he wants to do. If he's looking at doing normal modfiications to his photos, most of PS will go to waste, as with the other adobe products. AI and ID aren't really needed at all for photo work.

It's not so much about being able to run more than one program, it's just less convenient if you have to use more than one program to do a task.

But yeah, it really comes down to what kind of work the OP is doing. Personally, I prefer the whole Adobe suite, but I'm generally not working straight from photos, or I'm really doing some crazy crap with photos.

 

Me loove photoshop. If you know how to use a program that you are more familiar with then go with that. As a graphics artist and someone who does manipulate photos PS is your best bet. I looove it.

 

Definitely Photoshop is the best you can get. Not only is it good for editing photos, its also great for creating graphics...like forum sigs and stuff. Lots of fun and a good thing to know. I love working with Photoshop .

Aperture and Lightroom is not bad as photo management + photo editing software. Its nice and powerful, but in the end, I'd say Photoshop has the most in terms of what you can do with the photo.

 

Photoshop is good for post processing single photos. Lightroom/Aperture is better at handling and managing multiple photos. Semi-professional photographers tend to have a combination of the two, although Lightroom/Aperture is used much more frequently than Photoshop.

You can view Lightroom/Aperture as the program for handling most of your photos, with Photoshop being there for the few that you think need more heavy editing.

 

photoshop is a pixel mover as well as a normal photo editing/adjustment tool.

that being said, if you can afford photoshop as well as Aperture, I would highly recommend it.

aperture is excellent for a photographer taking large amounts of photos, it will give you the ability to quickly edit large amounts of photos in a way that photoshop is just not capable of, in terms of how fast you can work with a large amount of photos.

definitely download the trial versions of photoshop and aperture, and get to know both, and make your decision.

like I have said though, I would recommend getting Aperture and Photoshop if possible.