pixelmator - What are your thoughts?

Hi guys,

I recently bought a new base model MBP as my new main laptop as I got into photography (as a hobby) around 5 years ago and i need a machine to edit my photos etc.

What are everyones thoughts on pixelmator? I've been using during the free trial period and it seems pretty powerful. I'm new to the world of photo editing - how does it compare to photoshop?

I'm kind of scared to use photoshop as it seems hard to learn etc - pixelmator seems easy to use yet pretty powerful as I'm only looking to lightly edit my pictures.

So what are your thoughts? Pixelmator or Photoshop? Which do you use and why?

I've never really considered Pixelmator as being a program I would use to edit photos beyond very basic things like cropping or converting to web graphics. My definition of "edit photos," ie improve them, might be different than your interpretation, which sometimes is meant by people as simple resizing, cropping, lightening/darkening, captioning, that sort of thing.

I use Pixelmator constantly at work to make web graphics, so I tend to focus on sharpening, reducing, or removing the background on images with it, and it's very good at all of that. I've never tried things like "painting" with it. I find it has most of the basic controls Photoshop does and some nicely-done extras.

When it comes to ENHANCING photos, I use Photoshop CC and a few key plug-ins; if Pixelmator supported PS plugins I might be able to change over to it exclusively, but it doesn't.

By Editing photos I mean enhancing the picture with contrast, levels, exposure, hue, saturation etc for either the entire photo or portions of the picture and removing background or objects from the image. I don't usually do anything else to my pictures.

I thought using photoshop would be an overkill for such simple tasks?

shahvikram123 said:

By Editing photos I mean enhancing the picture with contrast, levels, exposure, hue, saturation etc for either the entire photo or portions of the picture and removing background or objects from the image. I don't usually do anything else to my pictures.

I thought using photoshop would be an overkill for such simple tasks?

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So do I. Don't forget that you have an OS X built-in photo library & editor known as Photos app. This pretty much does all you appear to want. My simple advice is, try Photos (love it or hate it). If you want more and if you've found Pixelmator to your satisfaction, go for it.

Ian

Yeah, I tried the photo's App but it just seemed a bit too basic. You can't for example enhance only a portion of a selected picture or remove items from a picture.

shahvikram123 said:

By Editing photos I mean enhancing the picture with contrast, levels, exposure, hue, saturation etc for either the entire photo or portions of the picture and removing background or objects from the image. I don't usually do anything else to my pictures.

Click to expand...

For the purposes above, Pixelmator should serve your purposes - I have the app on my Mac computers - retired now but used Photoshop on PCs @ work and found the learning curve really steep, especially as an infrequent user. Pixelmator is an easier program to use IMO - also if not already done, take a look at the tutorials on their Website - Dave

Hi

I was going to use Pixelmator as it seems quite a competent editor. However I am running Mountain Lion and have no intention of moving onto Yosemite or any other rock formation. Guess what? THe powers that be no longer offer a version compatible with my OS - so it's out the window with that idea. Then comes along Affinity Photo. It's perfect for my needs. Very happy customer.

I'm very glad you like Affinity Photo. I've been "trialing" it, that is, bought it and testing it against Aperture. Big learning curve, but good online tutorials. I'm quite prepared to accept the financial hit if it doesn't suit. But I need something to replace Aperture when it is no longer supported. You seem very happy with it. Good for you.

Ian

Keep us informed about your use of Affinity Photo Ian. Serif has been one of my favorite developers over the years and am interested in their new applications.

chscag said:

Keep us informed about your use of Affinity Photo Ian. Serif has been one of my favorite developers over the years and am interested in their new applications.

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Will do, I promise.

Ian