Apeture 2 or Photoshop? for MAC

[stephaniekscott]

Hey folks,
New to the forum, and somewhat new to photography but wanting to get more serious.

I've moved from an Elan 7 to a Digital Rebel to now, a EOS 30D.

I'm still learning and would rather focus on honing my craft; I really don't want to spend a ton of money on software as I would rather get better at my composition and use of light than at manipulation in post. However, I'm finding there's some noise or digital haze in my photos that I can't get out with elements and I'm hearing that Apeture 2 is pretty awesome.

Also, had a pro look at a few of my shots, and she took 5 minutes and boosted the color in lightroom, which made me think that my "don't do anything in post, never manipulate shots" attitude might be a little short sighted. Especially in the digital age we are now in.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[bob_r]

Stephanie,

Welcome to the Forum!!

I can't offer any help with Aperture 2 or Lightroom, but I do manipulate my images with Photoshop. I shoot with a 30D also. I think digitial images normally need at least a little help to look their best. I'm not a Photoshop guru and actually do minimum touchups, but I think most photos need a few tweaks to look their best.

Even before the digital age, many photos had a least some manipulation during processing. I know I've burned some areas a little longer to bring out a little more contrast when I was processing and printing my own film (a long time ago).

If you're software can't perform some to the tasks that Photoshop can, you might change some of your camera settings to increase contrast, saturation, sharpening, etc. and take a few test shots to see if there is any improvement.

Bob R

[gldiana]

Also, had a pro look at a few of my shots, and she took 5 minutes and boosted the color in lightroom, which made me think that my "don't do anything in post, never manipulate shots" attitude might be a little short sighted. Especially in the digital age we are now in.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hi Stephanie,

welcome to the forum. First, the answer to your title question:
Both.

Photoshop and Aperture, same as Photoshop and Lightroom are programs designed to do separate tasks. Some are similar but for the most part they accomplish different things, so they are used in "synergy."

For the second part, in the quote... yes, believing that you "never manipulate" (I prefer Post-Process) photo is shortsighted because:
1) if you shoot RAW all you have is raw data without any processing, which means it's useless unless you do something with it.
2) if you shoot JPEG than you allow the processor and software in the camera to make all decision for you, so the idea that the image was never manipulated is wrong.
3) (My favorite rebuttal to people I met who told me they are "purist" of the image), if you don't retouch an image all you did was compose and get, for the most part, correct exposure. But it's really the mechanical thing you are holding in your hands that did all the job. If you take the same photo with the same exact settings on two (or three, four, etc.) cameras you will get different looking photos because the firmware inside the camera is different in each model/brand.
4) and finally, Ansel Adams became famous for applying smart retouch. If he was alive he'd probably be a spokesperson for Adobe.

By the way, people who say that they never needed retouching in the dark room are lying to themselves, just the simple fact of developing a negative is retouching because a negative can be developed in different ways. Also, if we chose a particular film (or digital camera) it's pre-processing, so why not post-processing?

Just remembered: if we print a photo, don't we do more post-processing to make sure colors match the paper we chose?

Hope this helps, look forward to answer more questions.

[Southern Wolf]

I use both lightroom and PS CS3... I import the DNG into lightroom do the basic tweaks (exposure, noise reduction, etc) then if needed I then open in CS3 for the more critical tweaks.

Im so glad I have them both... now if I could just figure out how to use them to their fullest.

[stephaniekscott]

You all have helped me to understand that some post-production is going to happen whether I do it, or allow the camera to do it for me.

So Apple's whole pitch for the new version of Apeture 2 is that it can compete with and do just about everything that Photoshop CS3 can do. As I'm new to the whole post production world, I'm not sure how accurate this is. Thoughts?

I need the easiest, most user friendly software that I can use to import my RAW data, get rid of the noise and do some very basic post-production. I don't do any of the fancy stuff. I do have a very old version of Elements, but that is not cutting it for me anymore, so I guess I do need something a little stronger, or at least a new version.

Plus, my MAC is a powerbook G4, not a new one with the Intel chip, so there's that.

[hw771230]

Welcome to the forum,

I do not know apeture, but I use Lightroom. The learning curve is quite steep, but it is very eaasy to use. It will do nearly all of my post processing. Only now and then I'll go to photoshop for things like strong noise reduction and spot removal, etc.

Your G4 is a good machine, and more than capable of running any of these programs. It is faster than the PC I currently use.

Caleb

[stephaniekscott]

Bob,
You mentioned tweaking settings on the 30D to increase saturation etc...are you talking just a basic change of f-stop or bump of ISO, or is there a place in the settings where I can be bumping up the color etc that I don't know about yet?

Remember...very new to the camera, very new photographer...


Thanks again

[gldiana]

So Apple's whole pitch for the new version of Apeture 2 is that it can compete with and do just about everything that Photoshop CS3 can do.

In their dreams. Apple has a long history of exaggerating about their products, personally I find it even more arrogant than Microsoft.
Photoshop has been around for nearly two decades now and it has steadily progressed.
You don't need to spend the $640 for Photoshop though, Photoshop Elements 6 costs $99 (or less) and performs all the beginner tasks of Photoshop CS3 (often in a easier way) and some of the more advanced. I think that for most people Elements is plenty.

With your 30D you can change the settings (like saturation of a certain color) in-camera with the "styles" Search for them in the menu of your camera, better yet study the manual because there's much to be learned from it.

[bob_r]

Bob,
You mentioned tweaking settings on the 30D to increase saturation etc...are you talking just a basic change of f-stop or bump of ISO, or is there a place in the settings where I can be bumping up the color etc that I don't know about yet?

Remember...very new to the camera, very new photographer...


Thanks again

Yes, you can tweak the settings. Open "Menu" and go to "Picture Style" and select it. Scroll down to "User Def, 1" and hit "Jump". This will take you to the various settings. Scroll down to each one and select and then turn the wheel to increase or decrease and then hit the select button again. When you are finished, hit menu again and make sure "User Def 1" is set as your picture style.

Hope this helps.

Bob R

[stephaniekscott]

I have been reading that manual, but somewhere, I missed the part re: changing settings...thanks again, will look at it again and try it out.

And thanks Luca for the insight on Elements...that is good to know, this was a part of my debate, upgrade to the new version of Elements, or take the plunge and buy the big daddy version of Photoshop or Apeture 2.