Q For Mac Users: What's Your Favorite Photo Editing Software For Mac Users?

Here is my list:

IPhoto for course seeing its on my Mac already.
Neat Image for noise reduction - Free
GIMP - Free
Pixelmator - Purchased
Colour Splash Studio - Purchased
Vector Designer - Purchased

I use Apple Aperture all the way.... most of the time ... otherwise the Pentax editing software which is made my Silkypix.

I use Lightroom for cataloging all my photos and basic edits. I use photoshop for more intensive editing, applying textures, doing HDR, etc. Photoshop is pricey, and has a steep learning curve but it's my recommendation.

I'm using Photoshop Elements 9 - about 100 bucks or less. It's missing a few things the pro version has, but it's still a good program. I have Pixelmator and really have not tried it. Lightroom and really have not tried it....and last but not least the only thing I use i-photo for it to see my grandchildren's photo stream. I HATE i-photo - the way it handles (sorts) "files", but that's just me.

I use Photoshop Elements 11 (I shoot in RAW mode most of the time and PE11 changes RAW to Tiff and/or JPEG). This is a good basic program. Unless you are a digital artist or have the money to spend on a program that will cost hundreds of dollars, PE11 should be ok.

Robert, I read in another thread the version 11 has some "issues", so I have not upgraded. Did you use a lower version before? Do you see a difference?

I never used anything but PhotoShop, starting at work about 20 years ago - Now that I'm retired I can't afford to upgrade so I bought PSE-10, which works pretty much as well as I need it to. However, I will put this thread under my Watched Discussions so that I can keep track of programs that other mac people use because I might want to try something different sometime. I guess all macs come with iPhoto, which i do not "use" per se, it just grabs onto and stores every image I upload. If there is anything I can actually "do" with iPhoto that is helpful or interesting, that I cannot do in PSE, I'd love to know.

Ginny, the little bit I've played around with i-photo, there are lots of thing that it does NOT do that Photoshop elements can do...I upload using "image capture" simply because I can't stand i-photo. At least I can see my file dates, files sizes, etc. in a list....

Thank you everyone for your input, suggestions! Phillip thank you for the link, that will be helpful for my research. I'll check out the other programs mentioned as well. I will continue to monitor this discussion...lots of good info! I appreciate your participation

So there are a few suggestions here - it would be nice if people would write something specific that they like or don't like about programs they are familiar with.

I like PSE primarily because it works very much like PhotoShop, which I started using on the job many years ago. I am not sure what PhotoShop CC is all about, but I have seen it mentioned a number of times. I am going to look up information on the internet about the other programs mentioned above.

Oh I forgot to mention way back in the early 1990s I used a program called "Digital Darkroom" but that was before there were (or at least before I could afford) a computer, a scanner, and a printer that could handle color. I did freelance desktop publishing at the time, and laid up a whole book with numerous photographs on my old box Mac SE with a black and white scanner and Digital Darkroom. Even though someone else wrote the book, I still consider it my own publishing masterpiece!

http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Kilimanjaro-An-African-Odyssey/dp/0961527749

I use iPhoto for storing my images and send an image to PSE8 for editing then Save it back to iPhoto.

I am a painter and photographer and was initially told (and read) that the much cheaper PSE compared to PS would do most of what I would need. As I have not used any other program I cannot compare them, but I am perfectly happy with PSE/iPhoto for the level of editing I am doing and learning, maybe plus the fact that I only keep a very small number of the images I take so I do not have a 'huge' photo library!