Photo Software

I'm looking for some good software to manage my digital photos. I use photoshop CS3 for editing and currently iPhoto for storing everything. But I'm finding it very limiting on what it can do.

Is there anything better? Doesn't have to be free but it helps lol

The best and the two used by the pro's are Apple's Aperture and Adobe Lightroom. I use Aperture and think it is great others will swear by Lightroom. Both have trials that you can download and try. Neither are free but life's like that!

And just for the record, once you have settled on your editor of choice, you can set your iPhoto preferences to use that as the default editor. Then when you want to edit a photo, the editing software will open, you can modify, and when you save, iPhoto will put it back were it belongs in the library.

I use lightroon. I need to upgrade to LR2.

I deleted iPhoto after it ate my David Allan Coe photos.

I use

Microsoft (yes, MS) Expressions Media 2. MS bought iView and are continuing to develop it albeit more slowly than some would like. If you have PS, you can buy an upgrade EM2 (don't ask me why. But PS is on their list of programs that entitle you to an upgrade rather than full program). It is about $99 US as an upgrade. It is working perfectly for me. I cannot use the other programs (Lightbox or Aperture) as they are jpeg driven and I use a lot of .pngs.

I use Bridge that comes with photoshop and it works just fine. I keep all my photos arranged by folders.

Nevermore said:

Microsoft (yes, MS) Expressions Media 2. MS bought iView and are continuing to develop it albeit more slowly than some would like. If you have PS, you can buy an upgrade EM2 (don't ask me why. But PS is on their list of programs that entitle you to an upgrade rather than full program). It is about $99 US as an upgrade. It is working perfectly for me. I cannot use the other programs (Lightbox or Aperture) as they are jpeg driven and I use a lot of .pngs.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by jpeg driven, like they just won't except png? I don't think I have a single jpeg in my Lightroom library, all RAW in there.

Hummm... I'll have a look at bridge then being as I already have it. But I do use a lot of PNG images as well so I would need something which would accept those.

Re Lightroom

I don't have it on the system anymore, but yes, I seem to recall it would not handle .pngs. Bridge handles them well but the problem I had with Bridge is that it would not let me (and a couple of other people I know who were trying to use it) write metadata to files on an EHD. I do not want all my images on my hard drive--I just have too many so that was what killed Bridge for me. I did go to the Adobe Bridge Forums and was told this should not be a problem. Well, it was and is and I am not the only one with it but I am not savvy enough to be able to fix these kinds of issues and I couldn't get a forum response other than it should not be happening. Hmmmmm.

If I am wrong about Lighthouse and Aperture, my apologies. I did test both of them and neither passed and my memory recalls it was because of .pngs. My hobby is digital collage and .png managment is crucial for me.

The only other Mac program I could find in a hobbyist price range was Mediadex (slightly pricier than Microsoft Expressions Media 2 upgrade). It was quite flaky and has absolutely no support whatsoever whether by forum or email which is nasty when you fork out $140US for a program. It is a nice program but I thought it was being abandoned. Otherwise developers would respond to urgent email one would think.

If you don't need .png management, that is a whole different story.

bringing life to the question with no answer... About photo software. I just received a Canon Rebel Xsi and want to learn how to really use it, but as far as software goes, I am a student and can buy discounted software. My current plans are to use the camera for action/sports shots while learning and then maybe, if I get good enough, move into business doing this. Alot of rambling to get to the point, but I can not find a page that compares PS Elements to CS4 (and extended) to Lightroom. The adobe site wants you to combine CS4 and lightroom. I am wondering if I should take advantage of the savings as a student and just jump right to CS4/lightroom combo ($400 total for both full versions, not student editions) and just learn them as I go. Sound crazy or overkill? I like alot of the features of them all, but would like to see side by side comparisons. Also, any sites list what features are NOT included in the student versions? I can get both full and student versions at a discount.