Photo Editor for Mac/iPad?

[6120]

Hi all,
Not a direct Mac Music q but related .

I've got to edit a load of band photo's and videos for album artwork, uploads, and archival, and really not sure what app to go for.

I've had a look at a lot of online reviews and have downloaded Snapseed, Retouch, Photo Editor which are ok but very basic, so thinking it might be worth biting the bullet and go for an annual plan with Adobe Photo Express or something similar though I think Adobe Photoshop might be overkill.

For movies I'm working through an iMovie tutorial to see how that works but any other suggestions wold be welcome.

I'd like to do this all on my 11" iPad Pro as it can handle the load and I can do this away from my music iMac too.

I'm good with working through tutorials etc., but Photoshop is on another level I don't think I really want to go to!

Does anyone have any experience of doing this type of work and what they recommend?

Thanks!

[BigRedX]

What exactly do you want to do with this app? Simply to catalogue all your photos or do editing and compositing? Are you planning to be working for print or just for on-line images?

There's a reason why Photoshop is so ubiquitous, and that's because there's very little that it can't do in terms of pixel manipulation, and certainly if you are going to be producing graphics to be printed, especially packaging I couldn't recommend anything else for non-vector work.

As a bit of background I work in print graphics and significant portion of my income comes from sorting out files that have been done in more basic programs so that the results are actually printable and will look the way the "designer" intended.

[Rob Kirkwood]

I used to be a Photoshop user, but refused to join in when they switched to subscription-based.

I'm now retired anyway, but use Serif Affinity Photo on Mac, which is quite similar to Photoshop. There is an iPad version (though I haven't looked at that).

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

It's a very reasonable one-off purchase, and I've been very pleased with it. Although they're Nottingham based, I have no connection other than happy user!

Rob

[resistorman]

I also use Affinity on iPad (excellent!) and Windows, but since I have a Mac M1 Air now I might put it on there too. You might also look at GIMP, which is free and open source and is now available for iPad.

[Nazard]

+1 for Affinity Photo, which is often offered at half price by the publisher. I have bought Photo, Publisher and Designer when on offer.

I have an Adobe subscription too, for PS/LR, but Affinity Photo is an excellent, well supported editor.

[ManFromGlass]

For video it’s Lumafusion all the way for me on the ipad.

[MarkOne]

Don't completely dismiss the Apple Photos app, once you dig in a bit it can do a fair bit of of what Adobe Lightroom can, you have loads of exposure, colour etc controls, there is a spot healing tool, crop and straighten, selective colour luminance and saturation, full RGB curves and level adjustment tools.

Obviously you don't have more advanced tools like gradient and radial filters like you get in Lightroom, and obviously Photoshop is the gold standard for a reason

As a fully paid up 'here, Adobe take all my money' CC club member, I have access to all the CC tools, and I still find myself using the Photos edit mode sometimes, because its quick, easy and seamlessly syncs between iPad, iPhone and Mac.

[6120]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Thanks MarkOne. I’m not doing any cataloguing but purely photo editing (cropping, colour adjustment, basic effects, etc.) of old band photo’s and new gig photos’s. I hadn’t really thought of graphics but it might be something to look at.

I don’t have much experience on this so looking to start slowly and build up to Photoshop if necessary. Tbh, I didn’t know about the basic Photos app will look at that first

Serif Affinity looks very interesting and I’ll dig into that too.

I haven’t heard of Lumafusion but got iMovie free with my new ipad pro so was thinking of doing that first.

Another tbh, but I’ve now got quite a few music tools annual subscriptions (all the usual suspects) so ideally looking for something I can buy outright. It’s surprising and shocking how much those an annual fees build up

Thanks again

[sonics]

Don't forget about Photoshop Elements, too. That's quite capable, not too complicated and would probably be a good fit if you don't want to pay a subscription.

[BigRedX]

Another tbh, but I’ve now got quite a few music tools annual subscriptions (all the usual suspects) so ideally looking for something I can buy outright. It’s surprising and shocking how much those an annual fees build up

OtOH, something like Adobe Creative Cloud works out as very good VFM (IMO) if you use more than one of the applications on a regular basis. As a professional user, I find subscription is minimal, a single basic job will more than pay for a month's use of all the apps, and the subscription method is a lot less painless than trying to find £2k to upgrade all the programs I use, which has proved problematic in the past.

[ManFromGlass]

Lumafusion is more inline with the “pro” video programs. There are tons of very clear tutorials from the company and third party sources.
I’m amazed at how easy the program is to use and how powerful and all without using a mouse (although I have hooked one up along with a keyboard and external hard drives to my ipad pro)
Sorry to sound like an ad for the program but it’s a great creative tool!

[MarkOne]

Thanks MarkOne. I’m not doing any cataloguing but purely photo editing (cropping, colour adjustment, basic effects, etc.) of old band photo’s and new gig photos’s.

…

Thanks again

Don’t think of it as a catalogue app. (It is that, but it is also a competent editor) Just pull the pics in, do all the edits, and export them to wherever you need. I only mention it because, as a Mac and iPad user you have it already, for free. And it might just be all you need.

[6120]

Thanks again for your suggestions and advice.

I've had a look at the Seriff app and its cheap and will probably cover everything I need to do. I'm not intending to pursue any professional work and won't need anything too heavy duty for now.

I had Adobe Photoshop Elements when I was on pc's years ago and had forgotten about it but will take another look.

LumaFusion also looks interesting and is not too expensive either

Obviously things might change depending on how good my efforts turn out!

Cheers.

[Mats G]

A bit late to the party, perhaps, but wanted to chime in anyway.

Having worked in Photoshop for many years, I made the switch to Affinity Photo in 2015 and haven't looked back. It's grown into a very powerful photo editor, which I heartily recommend.

The only area where I haven't been able to get satisfying results with it is when developing Apple Pro Raw files. Some time ago, I by coincidence learnt about Raw Power by Gentlemen Coders. It does not contain all the creative tools that Affinity Photo or Photoshop do, but focuses on making the best out of a picture in terms of exposure, colours, dynamics etc, be it from raw or other formats. In this regard it resembles Lightroom. It is available for MacOS and iPad and developed by a former Apple employee, who seemingly has deep insights in the Apple Pro Raw format, which differs from standard raws by not being, well, strictly raw. Embedded in these files are e.g. HDR and sharpening data that appears as fixed for editors like Affinity Photo, but which Raw Power opens up and makes available for editing. That makes a tremendous difference on the results you can get from Apple Pro Raw files, but the app is equally capable of great results on any raw or other formats.

If you're interested in the technicalities behind Apple Pro Raw and Raw Power's way of handling it, watch this clip from Gentlemen Coders: https://youtu.be/LguSpnDoShM. Interesting stuff.

Oh, and it's a one-off buy and very reasonably priced.

[sonics]

Some time ago, I by coincidence learnt about Raw Power by Gentlemen Coders.

Thanks, I didn't know about that.
I'll add that the free cross-platform RAW Therapee is worth a look, too.

[blakedirksen]

I'm a big fan of Pixelmator Pro. One time purchase, updates keep up with Mac OS updates and works work with my Photo's library.

[Mike Stranks]

I'm just getting into GIMP - very comprehensive, cross-platform and free!