MacBook Pro users out there?

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
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Location
Coolidge, AZ
Two issues.

I need SIMPLE photo editing software. I am willing to buy PS Elements, but what is the learning curve? I am pressed for time and easily frustrated with non-intuitive software.

Second, is it possible to add a second monitor? I used multiple monitors when I had PC's and found it very efficient for the way I work.
 
Carol I have an iMac, and a Macbook (not a pro)

- first, the monitor is possible. You need to buy a converter cable that plugs into your mac. Depending on the age of your mac, this is either a thunderbolt or a Mini DisplayPort. You need a converter to convert it either to VGA or DVI, depending on your external monitor. VGA is the most common.
I actually bought one that converts to HDMI also, so I can even plug my macbook to a TV. These are common all over amazon.com. I personally bought a cheapie $6 unit, rather than buying the $30 Apple-brand unit and it works fine.

- When you plug in the monitor the apple will just see it there, and probably start automatically mirroring. Use the "Displays Preference" to switch from mirroring to spanning.

My wife/son have PS elements (need it for a homeschooling group they are part of) and they are bumping into the learning curve, and will probably need to take a class to get up to speed on how it works. I use "Gimp", which is free. It also has a learning curve and I'm not sure I'd recommend it to an average user. It comes out of the Linux world, and the interface can be daunting to people without unix experience. (On windows, they've made Gimp totally native, but on Mac it still is kind of unix-like, which is unfortunately)

But also remember that your mac came with iPhoto. you can crop on iphoto, resize (when you export), sharpen and adjust brightness/contrast and other levels. My wife uses that for 95%++ of her photo editing. (She is the photobook-creator of the family). If you have a slightly older mac, you might want to just pay the $29 to get the lastest version of the OS, which will come with the latest version of iPhoto.

Hope this helps,
best wishes,
...art
 
I've found iPhoto to be very easy to use, and it's capable enough to do all the photo editing I need to do. It comes free on a MacBook. The same goes for iMovie. I haven't personally used PS Elements, but I've heard very good things about it being easy to learn.

It is definitely possible to add a second monitor, just be aware that MacBooks have a proprietary display port. I had to get an adapter to hook my MacBook Pro up to the HDMI on my TV.

http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-Female-Adapter-Macbook-Pro/dp/B002HU629E
 
No help on the Mac stuff, but I use PS Elements a lot. It's far from intuitive for a lot of tasks. I've spent hours and hours poking around and experimenting with it to get where I am now (and I still consider myself to be a lightweight with it). I've gotten pretty good at the tasks that I typically do, but I'm barely using the full capabilities of the software.

What type of editing are you wanting to do?
 
i was gonna offer some help carol, but if vaughn feels that elements isnt intuitive enough i will back off. because my experience was with its bigger brother Photo Shop.. so from my Friends experience, elements is a fine software from what i have heard,, there again it depends on what you need to do with your pictures..
 
I don't want to do much with photos right now. I am a linear thinker. iPhoto eludes me for doing any kind of editing, or even importing from the camera. Right now I want to import from the camera, crop, auto-enhance, rotate, re-size for the web, and save in various folders not related to iPhoto.

I have some pictures to share with you all about what I have been building. But they will wait until I get a handle on this. When I was on the PC, I used Picture Manager. Pretty simple. Worked great for my simple linear brain.

Down the road (not too far) I will need to process photos for a new website, so I am willing to spend a couple of bucks and take some time to learn what I need to know.

The MacBook Pro was born a year ago last February. Running OS X Version 10.6.8. I got it refurnished at the Apple store. I am getting so I like it. Now I have to remember to convert files to .doc for my secretary. Soon I will have to make slides compatible with PowerPoint for the church laptop for worship resources. Enough to make me reconsider getting MS Office for the Mac as I am very used to it. But I committed to learn how to use this thing!

Keep the info coming. I am still thinking. Dangerous, I know! :rofl:
 
What camera did you end up with anyway?

I've had a few different ones and always try out the programs that come with them. I know the newer ones I've owned have had the workflow app (import, process, fix, crop, save, etc.) with built in functions for uploading to the web, so just curious if it had mac software.
 
iPhoto can do all of your list of requirements.

When you connect your camera or memory card (thru a reader), iPhoto should pop up asking if you want to import all or selected pics. After importing, do your editing. When edited, export (File/Export) just the pics you want to use. Here you can control compression quality, size and even give sequential names. These will be your working copies. iPhoto keeps the originals in their original format and quality level, uncropped, etc. just like they came from the camera.

Sorry, this is just a quick 'taste' of what iPhoto can do. Feel free to ask more questions if you get stuck.

If you like online training, check out www.lynda.com. Probably the best online training site. It's about $25/mo. If you dedicate the time you can learn enough to sprain your brain in just one month.

I just checked. The iPhoto '09 Essential training has some free movies. One is importing pics from your camera!
 
I don't want to do much with photos right now. I am a linear thinker. iPhoto eludes me for doing any kind of editing, or even importing from the camera. Right now I want to import from the camera, crop, auto-enhance, rotate, re-size for the web, and save in various folders not related to iPhoto.

iPhoto can do all of your list of requirements.

When you connect your camera or memory card (thru a reader), iPhoto should pop up asking if you want to import all or selected pics. After importing, do your editing. When edited, export (File/Export) just the pics you want to use. Here you can control compression quality, size and even give sequential names. These will be your working copies. iPhoto keeps the originals in their original format and quality level, uncropped, etc. just like they came from the camera.

Carol, John has already hit the high points. Let me just add a bit

If iPhoto does NOT pop up when you plug in your camera, try this: Plug in your camera via the Camera's USB camera. Turn on the camera. (Some cameras have a "connect to PC" button, some just do so automatically when you turn them on.) Launch iPhoto. It should just show the camera listed under "Devices", like this:
(ps: open iPhoto's preferences and you can set whether or not it automatically launches when you connect your camera.)
iphoto1.jpg

Aside: Oh yeah, these photos show the buttons un-highlighted, because the iPhoto window was not active when I took the screenshots. Sorry, that was just quicker and easier for me...

Select your camera, and then iPhoto should display all the photos on your camera. Select the ones you want to upload and then click one of the import buttons on the bottom right, like this:
iphoto2.jpg

It then imports all your pictures and gives you the option to either save or delete them from the camera.

Now you can turn off and disconnect your camera. Go back to the left column and pick the events button from your library and find the photos you just imported. It tags them by date, you might want to rename them to something else. Select the photo you want and then click the "edit" button along the bottom, like this:
iphoto3.jpg

Then depending on your iPhoto version you'll see a bunch of basic editing buttons like this:
iphoto4.jpg
Usually the crop, enhance, and redeye buttons are enough for basic snapshots that I want to upload here. My wife will play with the "adjust" button on the far right which puts up a sub-menu with a bunch of sliders for controlling the look of the photo.

I hope this is some help, please let me know if you have more questions. Generally iPhoto is pretty slick. I haven't even tried playing with the face-recognition options that iPhoto now offers.

best,
...art
 
I agree that Gimp can be... daunting... but it is free to try so it may be worth a shot. If you decide its to overwhelming you aren't out anything but time and a few pulled hairs :D
 
Well Carol i agree with Vaughns view of Elements but i do think its worth the investment in time. If you look out at various online stores like Amazon and Staples there is the latest version of Photoshop Elements bundled with Premier (video editing) for $100.
I picked up a pack like this even though i have full versions. I actually wanted a scaled back package. There is automatic all sorts available in elements. Given your plans down the road go for something where any time you invest now will pay off later and you also going to have support and not just from Adobe but guys here.
For the price the package is a bargain. Check this out digital download. :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005O24HZ8

Pity you on a Mac. Yeah i know all the Mac fans will want to slaughter me but hey a really great and free package is Infraview especially when you got a whole batch to rename and number and resize.

Its an intuitive package been around for years and just works. :)
Score one for PCs and uncle Bill.:)

Dont forget before you go laying out $$ for office try out the free open office suite.

http://www.openoffice.org/porting/mac/

Enjoy

Oh and one last one....Windows live essentials :):):) has a pretty good photo and movie editor and can be run cloud based or on your computer when not connected to the web.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
Rob, re-read Carol's first sentence. She's looking for simple. PS Elements is a great product, but simple? Not so much. :D I really like some of the quick edit tools PSE has, but for the basic tasks Carol listed above, I think something like iPhoto would be a lot faster and easier to learn, but still do all the things she's looking to do.
 
Cracking knuckles...

carol,
for the money, Gimp is 95% of what PS claims to be... But it IS something you'll need to learn a Few commands in.

For what you want, I would go with Elements. for 4 years when I worked for Costar, I used Elements version 4, they're up to 10 currently. Here is why I recommend that you take a small amount of time after purchasing elements to learn what you want to do: It comes with a photo Organizer which IF you let it do its thing will 'always' be able to find your images.

Typical workflow for PSE amounts to this: plug in your SD card to reader or slot on your Mac: kill the iphoto that will inevitably crop up... and open up Elements. Import your photos using elements, and it will file them away for you by date and/or project.

once you have them in there, getting your photos to 'viewable' is as simple as opening an image and hitting Command L, Command S (though I recommend Shift Command S which allows you to rename the image). Providing your camera is doing its thing well, that will get you in the game and $ for $ it is about the best program going.
IF you want to take the time to learn to crop and so forth, I"ll gladly help
 
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I love my mac, I hate iPhotos, it's too bossy:rolleyes:

I use preview, which comes with the mac.

This is what I do, I plug my iPhone/camera into the mac, Open up "Image Capture" (it's under Accessories) and you will see you camera on the list of devices. highlight the the photos you want to import from your camera, choose the destination folder, click "Import"

Then when the green check marks show that they imported, close "Image Capture"

next up, open Preview (again in Accessories) hit Open and find the photos you just imported into the file you selected, highlight the photos and click "Open".

In Preview you can resize, crop, rotate and do some image adjusting, you can also add arrows, and text.

I hope this helps!
 
Wow! Thanks Ned and Stu. I am off to Seattle for a week and then come back for a local conference, so no later than the first week in June I can get back to this project. Also thanks to Ned for the extra help offered.

You guys are awesome!
 
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