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Photographers who use Mac, i need some help.

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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
So i've had my macbook for about a year and a half now, and my D60 for about 10 months and i've been using iPhoto to store all my pictures. iPhoto seemed to be fine for keeping all my pics and when i wanted do some serious editing i use Photoshop or Aperture. If i just want to do some really quick editing i usually just do it in iPhoto though. I started shooting in RAW only about 3 months ago and it wasn't until today when i realized that even if slide the contrast bar 1 spot the photo goes from being 8 or 9 MB to 3 or 4. The photo still says .NEF under it but it seems to be same size as all of the .jpg's i've taken.

Managing my pics through iPhoto is nice and easy, and because i'm a beginner thats what i chose to start out with. So I guess what i'm trying to ask is whats the best way to manage pictures on a mac when shooting in RAW? Aperture seems great and I wouldn't mind switching all my photos into it but from what i've read online it seems lots of people keep some photos in iPhoto and some in Aperture which i really don't want to do because i like to have all my pictures in 1 spot. Lightroom also seems like a pretty good option but i've heard transferring your iphoto library into Lightroom is a pain but I haven't really looked into it too much.


So NS, what is the best way to store/edit RAW and .jpg photos on a mac?

thanks,
cole
Apr 16 2010 12:54AM
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JRullo
Posts: 1794 - Karma: 265

I photo isnt the best for .RAW pics. i would sugest using photoshop on anything that you shoot in raw!

But if you ask me shooting in raw is kinda pointless unless you are planning on really editing the pictures you take.

Apr 16 2010 9:54AM
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michelle
Posts: 6290 - Karma: 428
lololol.

Anyways, definitely keep shooting in raw. You'll be much happier in the long run. It sucks so much to have a photo that you love and you can hardly touch it (editing/printing) because you made the mistake of shooting a JPEG.

Editing a raw picture will change the file size, yes. It happens.

Also, I'm not a fan of Aperture. I have Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop CS4. I use Lightroom 99% of the time. I don't bring a picture into Photoshop unless I have to fix a detail or something really huge. That being said, I don't have the new Aperture, and it looks pretty sweet. BUT, you said you have a Macbook, not a Macbook Pro correct? You will not be able to run Aperture correctly on a Macbook, sorry. Just not going to happen.

If you're serious about photography and everything, and want to do some solid editing, I would say wait and get CS5, and possibly Lightroom 3 whenever that is coming out. But I mean, you could always just download CS4 and Lightroom 2 somewhere for free for right now.
Apr 16 2010 10:20AM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
thanks. yeah i have the macbook5,1 with an intel core 2 duo and 2gb of memory. why won't i be able to run aperture? my friend does it on his much older macbook and says it works fine. and yeah i have CS4 right now and i'll probably get CS5 when it comes out.

but as for lightroom, do you store all you're photos in it? do you use iphoto at all? it seems like a great program so i'll probably download it and give it a try.

and one more question. from my understanding people shoot in .RAW because it's easier to edit and mess with the colors and it's bigger. so does lightroom let you edit you're .RAW photo without turning it in to a .jpg like iphoto?


Apr 16 2010 10:53AM
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michelle
Posts: 6290 - Karma: 428
I was looking into getting a Macbook and running Aperture on it, and the people at the store said no way it will run correctly. It may run, yeah, but not well. I even went in there recently asking about the last generation Macbooks and putting those programs on it and they were still like, no way.

I don't store my pictures on my computer, I use external hard drives and keep my Lightroom catalog on the hard drive. So I plug it in, and open Lightroom through that. The program is downloaded on my computer, but none of my pictures are there unless I go through my hard drive. And yeah, Lightroom lets you edit raw without turning it into a jpeg
Apr 16 2010 11:04AM
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Blandct
Posts: 1858 - Karma: 37
the iphoto RAW workflow is kind of weird. Read this, it might help you understand what is going on to the files and such.

Apr 16 2010 11:54AM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
That doesn't make any sense at all, especially since up until this week the 13 inch Macbook Pro and the Macbook were exactly the same except for the aluminum casing, lit keyboard, and glass screen.  Last week (before they upgraded the base model MBP), you were paying an extra $200 for a shinier computer that had a smaller hard drive.

I wouldn't trust anyone in the store either, not many of them are "Geniuses" like they claim.  If I want basic product info, they have awesome service.  However, when it comes to in depth issues I have always been handed the "Well here's how much a new one cost...." answer.  I ended up cracking open my old iPod and fixing it myself after some internet research on the defect.
Apr 16 2010 12:31PM
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michelle
Posts: 6290 - Karma: 428
I don't know much about computers to be honest, and this is just what they told me. They even told me that the NEW 13 inch Macbook Pro won't run Aperture correctly either. I don't know, I'm just posting what I heard. May or not be true.
Apr 16 2010 12:37PM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
thank you, that helped, a lot.

and thanks Michelle and Smail too.

Now I'm just trying to decide if i want to move my whole iPhoto library to Lightroom. Is there any point in keeping pictures in iPhoto if i have Lightroom or Aperture? I enjoy editing photos and I want to keep them in RAW and not have both RAW and .jpg of the same photo, unless i need to.

I would like to move away from iPhoto, thats why I made this thread. What's the best program for managing/storing/editing .RAW photos on a Mac?
Apr 16 2010 12:58PM
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Elife
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 44
to the first reply... wtf? .RAW is what one should shoot in. period. Unless you like things to look crappy.
Honestly, I don't have lightroom, I don't have aperture, and I don't use iPhoto. I organize all my photos manually in shot date folders, navigate them in Adobe Bridge and use the .raw editor from photoshop to do manipulations. I like it, but I appear to be different in that regard and batch processing is a bit of a bitch. Assuming you already have all of CS4 then you can start working like this right away until you buy lightroom... which I, regardless of my previous comments, suggest you do.
Apr 16 2010 3:03PM
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Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
you can actually link bridge to your iphoto library. google it i dont remember how i did it
Apr 16 2010 5:35PM
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mmallender.
Posts: 5805 - Karma: 936
the previous 13' macbook pros only had a single gpu, whereas the 15/17' pros had two. the 13' pros still have a single gpu and now the 15' pros have intel hd graphics and another gpu with automatic graphics switching (on the previous larger macbook pro's you had to logout to change from the less powerful gpu to the more powerful one, kind of a pain, i dont even bother switching that often)
Apr 16 2010 8:05PM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
Exactly, it's not worth the money unless you go with the 15" or 17" (in my opinion at least).
Apr 16 2010 8:08PM
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Aenigma
Posts: 11256 - Karma: 424
For what it's worth, I keep the vast majority of my photos on an external hard drive, sort them in Bridge, and do all my editing in Photoshop. I can do batch processing and most of my initial corrections in camera RAW, and then it's all Photoshop.

And as far as what format to shoot in, RAW is definitely the way to go. All jpeg's are good for is sending to the printer, and half the time I don't even worry about that.
Apr 16 2010 8:24PM
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1080ski
Posts: 4424 - Karma: 191
Youll most likley be able to run aperture fine on any of the macs out right now... my little brother plays cod4 (in windows) on his macbook and it runs fine... photo editing doesnt take up too much of the computer's processing power.
Apr 17 2010 1:30PM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
to be honest i had never really read about or used Bridge. after using it for a bit today it seems to be what i've been looking for. I was able to open any picture in my iphoto library really easily and from Bridge it's really easy to get to Photoshop.

But i cannot decide to move my entire photo library to Bridge or just keep it in iPhoto and just do what i did today.
Apr 17 2010 3:06PM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
THIS!!!!!!

and LOLOLOLOLOL about that above RAW comment.
Apr 17 2010 3:09PM
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Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
unless you have a card reader, its easier to just keep it in iphoto since thats what the mac honestly does. i rarely have my card reader with me so i just link bridge to my iphoto library
Apr 17 2010 3:09PM
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Blandct
Posts: 1858 - Karma: 37
this doesn't make any since you don't move and library to bridge....you just simply tell bridge where to look...
Apr 17 2010 7:20PM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
yeah after playing around a bit more i just realized that you cannot move your library into bridge. i really wish i could though because that would make things even easier.

when i was using bridge though i couldn't figure out how to edit the RAW images. every time Bridge opened up iPhoto it would only open the .jpg version of the photo or something.
Apr 17 2010 7:51PM
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chipkalback
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Just throwing in my 2 cents here..

ALWAYS shoot in RAW. That way you've got the highest quality option to choose from when it comes to exporting it as a .tiff or .jpg. Just remember you can always step down in quality from a RAW image, you can't step up in quality from a JPEG. Memory cards aren't too expensive anymore; you can get a SanDisk 16GB Extreme III CF card off of B&H for $100 shipped last time I bought one, and that's going to hold a shit load of RAW images. That size of card holds about 560 RAW images on my Canon 5D MkII, which is a full frame 21 megapixel camera, for some capacity comparison.

If you're going to be doing any semblance of detailed cataloging and editing, just step up to Aperture or Lightroom right off the bat. I've used both programs (aside from the new Aperture that was just released) and I think they're both great. There's always the Photoshop option obviously but in terms of cataloging, editing, and having everything cleanly organized into one convenient place to do all of this, Lightroom or Aperture accomplishes this task better than Photoshop in my opinion.
Apr 17 2010 9:59PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,272
i hated aperture. i thought it was awesome until i got lightroom...now i use lightroom to store and edit all my pictures and photoshop when i need to pixel push or do serious editing. the features on aperture are totally limited compared to lightroom, it's like a glorified iphoto. lightroom has really good RAW processing and i didn't even bother transferring my iphoto library over because i never use those photos anymore but i transferred from aperture and it was really straightforward

bottom line, lightroom is god
Apr 17 2010 10:05PM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
thank you, thats the answer i've been looking for. thanks to chipkalback as well. both really helpful answers. yeah chip i always shoot in raw now, but when i first started i didn't because i didn't know much about it.

since i want to be able to store my library, and edit pictures in the same place lightroom seems like the way to go.

thanks to everyone who helped.
Apr 17 2010 10:18PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,272
also since they're both adobe, lightroom makes it super easy to export to photoshop and edit without copying the files, ps is basically an accessory with lightroom, not a completely different program. it's awesome
Apr 17 2010 10:19PM
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Octopus
Posts: 1175 - Karma: 55
Hey Cole,
Before you go out buying anything, I would demo them both. Aperture has a free 30 day demo, and the new Lightroom Beta is out for free until it comes out.
Everybody in this thread makes good points,
But I think its really personal preference. SOme people swear by aperture, others swear by lightroom.
I personally, after trying them both, prefer Aperture.
Of course, I could make a whole long list of the reasons why I prefer Aperture to Lightroom,
But as long as you can try them both out for free, you should choose for yourself.

Good Luck,
Kyle
Apr 18 2010 12:05PM
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zahava
Posts: 7791 - Karma: 12,039
adobe lightroom, same idea as iphoto but a lot better. got to www.torrentz.com and torrent it for free, thats what i did.
Apr 18 2010 2:45PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,272
or you could just steal them both

download the lightroom trial, download a crack, voila...just don't ever update it or register
Apr 18 2010 7:34PM
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mmallender.
Posts: 5805 - Karma: 936
i may or may not be able to help you out with getting the cs4 master collection.

pm me
Apr 18 2010 8:53PM
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cool.
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 1,724
im good man, but thanks.

im good with photoshop and im in the process of downloading lightroom so i'll be set.
Apr 18 2010 10:03PM
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