Newbie! Help with Photo editing software

I am VERY new to mac and am having problems! shocker right? lol. I do a lot of photo editing and have not been very impressed with iphoto... I have Photoshop cs2 that I was using on my pc, but would like to try and use it on my mac... I have no clue how to use parallels, boot camp, or Vm! I literally have only been able to get online, check mail, and play around with the dock! I did download gimp as I heard it was so great...again, not impressed! A little scared of trying to install a pc program on my new mac... but dearly miss my photoshop!! any ideas?

If you want to use bootcamp you need to install a copy of Windows XP or Vista, then install you Photoshop CS2.

I bought Parallels and Windows XP and run my old windows software seamlessly on my new Mac (I'm a recent switcher, too). I picked XP as it has a more favorable memory management scheme than Vista does.

I had trouble the first time I installed it because I tried to fuss with it mid-install (I didn't realize it was still running) and had to do it a second time...not a bad glitch and it has run perfectly since installation.

I agree with you that iPhoto seems more like a photo album than a darkroom photo tool. I'm sure it can do a lot once you learn more about it. However, you may want to check out Aperture 2 for a more powerful editing software: Aperture 2 - Apple Store (U.S.)

If you had a current copy of PhotoShop, you could go to Adoe and they would move you over to the MAC versions.

You can also try Elements if they make a MAC version as it will be closest to your PhotoShop in learning curve.

I have only been in my MBPro for a week and via BootCamp installed Vista and it works GREAT! It is faster than my PC. You will need to buy a copy of Vista but you can get one for cheap on eBay and then you can use all of your PC programs.

iPhoto was never ment to replace your PhotoShop for post processing. I could never do without PhotoSHop with all the time I put in it's learning curve.

Good Luck

I strongly suggest that if you install Windows, see if you can install XP with only SP1 on it. As soon as you say yes to the "downloads available" icon for windows update with anything, your computer will SSSSSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW
DDDDDDDDDDDooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwnnnnn..... when running Windows.

Therefore, don't download (don't even let the files download for easy install and take up hard drive space) SP2 or anything else. Many programs I find that say XP with SP2 or later required work fine (like the latest Adobe Reader 9 or whatever) with only XP with SP1.

I think that makes the point.