[PKMike]

Some background on me: (1) I feel reasonably competent at basic computer skill, but certainly I am not advanced. (2) I shoot for my own enjoyment, not for money. (3) I would rather spend my time making photographs with a camera than in PP with a PC. (4) Therefore I try to get it right in the camera and mostly bypass PP. (5) I shoot in RAW(DNG)+JPEG with a K-3 just in case I may want to make adjustments to something that I need to. Then I generally delete all unwanted images first, next all RAW files go unless it is something I think I may want to print and or adjust later.

My situation: I am using a PC with I5 processor and 4 Gig of RAM. It was recently reset to factory specs by a tech. He cloned my hard drive and reinstalled PS Elements 7 thinking it would then work properly. There is not much else on this PC. PC seems fine but PSE does not. It is slow, works my hard drive very hard and crashes regularly ( especially when I try to view a RAW file, but not always). I suspect problem is with PSE 7 and not with PC. I don't know, is my PC enough to run PP software? My tech thought so. So did I.

My question: What is my best option for PP software? I want something intuitive (PSE 7 does not seem intuitive to me, maybe later versions are better?), reliable, and capable of working with RAW files when needed. Never used Lightroom but have considered it. I know there are other options available such as Paint Shop etc.

My other question: Should I buy a Macbook Pro with retina? (can of worms, I know). I have considered this for a while now. If it might make a big difference in running the software it might finally push me over the edge to buy one. Love the retina display. Kind of tired of windows continuous updates and issues. Thanks for any helpful comments or advice, Mike

[Swift1]

Try ACDSee Pro 8. It's inexpensive and does everything. It should run fine on your PC.
I tested a bunch of RAW processing software and found ACDSee the best for my purposes.
I'm still using ACDSee Pro 6.

[jatrax]

PSE 7 (if you allow it to try and use it's organizer function) will basically try to take over your computer. It is horrible. If you turn off the organizer function then it's not so bad. But if the organizer has been running you will have a mess because it tries to copy over all your files into it's own system and you will have multiple copies of everything.

Re your computer, sure that is plenty of computer though I might add more RAM, 4gb is a little short. But that's not a big investment.

Re software: What is your primary goal: 1) develop pictures using detailed PP or 2) have an organized image collection with relatively simple software that will do PP if needed?

If #2 then take a hard look at Lightroom. It will do everything you need in a much more efficient manner than PSE 7. If all you want is simple PP then lots of cheap, even free programs are available. The newer versions of PSE are better than 7 as well, just avoid the organizer like the plague.

If I were you, sit down and make a list of everything you currently do with images and everything you want to be able to do. Prioritize the list then see what does that the best.

[boriscleto]

All of the major PP software is cross platform so that shouldn't be a worry. (Lightroom, CaptureOne, Corel Aftershot, etc). There is no Mac version of Paint Shop, but Pixelmator is an equivalent. Affinity Photo looks interesting too.

Affinity Photo is a New Pro Photoshop Alternative for Mac Users: Get It for Free

Sadly, Apple has killed Aperture. And the new Photos.app is more like a dumbed down iPhoto.

[SpecialK]

PSE 7 (if you allow it to try and use it's organizer function) will basically try to take over your computer.

I never noticed that issue with v9 or 13.

Elements is good. A book for any software will help make it "intuitive", however there is a lot of online help, as well.

If you just want to "get right" with 5 basic controls in the camera and review on a 3" screen - good luck :-) There is much more you can do or re-do after the fact.

[stevebrot]

PC seems fine but PSE does not. It is slow, works my hard drive very hard and crashes regularly ( especially when I try to view a RAW file, but not always).

Something is tying up memory. 4 Gig should be adequate for simple tasks, though the large file size from your K-3 would present a moderate challenge with your setup. I had a similar-spec'd PC when I got my K-3 and it worked pretty well with Lightroom and PSE. I upgraded soon after (Win XP "End-of-Life") to a higher-spec'd Win 7 (64) system with twice the RAM and couldn't be happier.

As for the MacBook Pro...That is a fair piece of change. I don't know that you will be spared periodic patches and updates (yes, Apple does those too), but OS X is a decent operating system and the hardware is solid. If you buy the Mac, your software choices will be winnowed a bit, but you probably know that already.


Steve

[stevebrot]

If #2 then take a hard look at Lightroom. It will do everything you need in a much more efficient manner than PSE 7. If all you want is simple PP then lots of cheap, even free programs are available. The newer versions of PSE are better than 7 as well, just avoid the organizer like the plague.

I stopped short above of making specific software recommendations, but concur with jatrax. It is hard to beat Lightroom. It is a solid value. There are other options for RAW processing, but Adobe Camera Raw (ACR, for short) through Lightroom is competent and predictable. Lightroom's cataloging features are icing on the cake.

One product that I cannot recommend for RAW processing and which I own is Paint Shop Pro X 7. Its RAW converter truly sucks and it has difficulty operating as a color-managed workspace (i.e. other than sRGB). PSP has its uses, but general PP and cataloging is not one of them.


Steve

[narual]

Just remember if you're going from a desktop to a laptop (I don't think you specified what your windows box is), adding extra hard drive space is not so easy.

I love lightroom. I almost never open up Photoshop anymore... just when I want to merge a panorama or do edits beyond what lightroom can do (like add text).

[jatrax]

I never noticed that issue with v9 or 13.

I had (until yesterday) PSE 7 on my work computer. It was a horrible experience until I learned to avoid the organizer. It would spend hours searching the computer for images to index, then copy them into it's own directory system. It tied up the processor and used up disk space at an alarming rate.

We got new work computers and yesterday I got PSE 13 installed. I've not used it a lot so far but compared to PSE 7 it is much much nicer and I don't seem to have any organizer issues. So perhaps it was only PSE 7 that was an issue. Or maybe just the way I had it set up. Any way it is more than enough for what I need at work and seems fine.

For picture work on my home computer I have the Adobe Photographer package with Lightroom and Photoshop. I would never have bought Photoshop bu itself but since I have it I've been learning it and using it more. Everything revolves around Lightroom, then out to Photomatix, Nik plugins or Photoshop for special details then back to Lightroom.

[stevebrot]

Everything revolves around Lightroom, then out to Photomatix, Nik plugins or Photoshop for special details then back to Lightroom.

Yep...that is how it works and those tools that do the round-trip well are the keepers IMHO.


Steve

[PKMike]

Thank you everyone for responding. I failed to mention that my PC is a laptop running windows 7 (64 bit) and is expandable to 8 gig of RAM. I also have external drive. If I don't buy the Mac I plan upgrade to 8 gigs of RAM. This machine is 5 years old (as is the PSE7) and I think a first gen I5.

PSE 7 (if you allow it to try and use it's organizer function) will basically try to take over your computer. It is horrible. If you turn off the organizer function then it's not so bad. But if the organizer has been running you will have a mess because it tries to copy over all your files into it's own system and you will have multiple copies of everything.

I'm so glad to here this. This is exactly what has happened to me and causes such a frustration that it actually discourages me from having a desire to do any PP. Now I know I want to uninstall this program and discard it. I hope it doesn't leave a mess (of files) on my hard drive.
Does LR5 have similar tendencies with its organizer? I hope not. Sounds like that may be the one to go with.

[tuco]

Be advised if you buy a 10-bit photo editing monitor you will not be able to operate it in 10-bit mode on a Mac. The path to the monitor needs to be 10-bit. And Apple does not support a 10-bit video driver if that is in you future at all.

[MikePerham]

Some background on me: (1) I feel reasonably competent at basic computer skill, but certainly I am not advanced. (2) I shoot for my own enjoyment, not for money. (3) I would rather spend my time making photographs with a camera than in PP with a PC. (4) Therefore I try to get it right in the camera and mostly bypass PP. (5) I shoot in RAW(DNG)+JPEG with a K-3 just in case I may want to make adjustments to something that I need to. Then I generally delete all unwanted images first, next all RAW files go unless it is something I think I may want to print and or adjust later.

My situation: I am using a PC with I5 processor and 4 Gig of RAM. It was recently reset to factory specs by a tech. He cloned my hard drive and reinstalled PS Elements 7 thinking it would then work properly. There is not much else on this PC. PC seems fine but PSE does not. It is slow, works my hard drive very hard and crashes regularly ( especially when I try to view a RAW file, but not always). I suspect problem is with PSE 7 and not with PC. I don't know, is my PC enough to run PP software? My tech thought so. So did I.

My question: What is my best option for PP software? I want something intuitive (PSE 7 does not seem intuitive to me, maybe later versions are better?), reliable, and capable of working with RAW files when needed. Never used Lightroom but have considered it. I know there are other options available such as Paint Shop etc.

My other question: Should I buy a Macbook Pro with retina? (can of worms, I know). I have considered this for a while now. If it might make a big difference in running the software it might finally push me over the edge to buy one. Love the retina display. Kind of tired of windows continuous updates and issues. Thanks for any helpful comments or advice, Mike

I am also running an i5 @ 3.33gh but in 64 bit mode and with 16 gb of RAM. I have not problems running LR5 and PS CC. My suggestion is to up the RAM before spending cash on a new machine.

[narual]

Does LR5 have similar tendencies with its organizer? I hope not. Sounds like that may be the one to go with.

The only issue I've run into with LR5 is that it's ridiculously difficult to fix "missing" photos, if you happen to move any photos without doing it precisely correctly inside lightroom. I have about 43,000 photos LR considers "missing" from when I moved a hard drive and then backed some of the files up to NAS.

That said, if you simply do this when you first install Lightroom, it will never really be a problem that will matter:

For every catalog you create (if you ever make more than just the initial one), go to Catalog Settings > Metadata> Automatically write changes to XMP.

If you do that, you won't lose much of anything if your catalog gets corrupted or you screw up like I did while moving to a new hard drive. You can just delete the files from LR and reimport them, and any edits you made will still be there.

If you don't, well, you still won't lose any files, just all the work you put into editing them. Or you'll have the tedious job I have, of reminding LR 1 folder at a time where everything is, and then hoping it will find the rest of the files in that folder.

[jatrax]

Does LR5 have similar tendencies with its organizer? I hope not. Sounds like that may be the one to go with.

No it does not. Lightroom simply indexes where the image is located, it does not try to move or copy the file into it's own structure. That (IMHO) is the beauty of the system. You organize your images the way you want which makes back ups and moving to a new computer very easy.

It is recommended that all your images be under a single directory such as "Photos" (how you organize under that is up to you). You just point Lightroom to that directory. If you move to a new computer you just copy the "Photos" directory to the new computer, install Lightroom, copy over your catalog and point it to the new location. In about 30 seconds you are back up and running. This seperation of actual files and the indexed catalog is important at least IMHO.

The only issue I've run into with LR5 is that it's ridiculously difficult to fix "missing" photos, if you happen to move any photos without doing it precisely correctly inside lightroom. I have about 43,000 photos LR considers "missing" from when I moved a hard drive and then backed some of the files up to NAS.

Narual, I've moved computers twice and successfully re-attached all images without any problem. It should not be difficult at all, just click on the question mark and tell Lightroom where the file is. Of course it is much easier if everything is all under one directory so you only have to locate the root directory and Lightroom finds the rest. PM me if you are having a problem, maybe I can help.