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Articles
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Mac Workflow SoftwareThe ability to quickly locate and edit images, and prepare them for presentation, is a critical skill in the digital photography era. Experience comes into play here, but so do organizational skills and better software. Above all, a consistent workflow will help keep one sane and productive. Adobe® Photoshop® is the most visible software associated with digital photography, but there are many niches that Photoshop either does not (yet?) address, or which are filled better by other applications. As with all categories of software, the available software for Macintosh® is more limited than that available for Windows® PCs, but the gap is fairly narrow thanks to the popularity of the Mac with photographers and other digital artists. Some software is only available for the Mac. The new Core Image technology in Tiger™ is required for some of these applications. Each section will list the applications which I believe will address that aspect of a digital workflow. Deliberately excluded is software provided by camera vendors for their products; neither will Photoshop plugins be listed, because there are far too many for my weary fingers. My editorials on various workflow issues will be enclosed in a red border, like this paragraph. Commentary provided by other photographers is viewable by
clicking on an info icon: Photo ImportRetrieving images from an external device, such as the camera itself (generally not recommended) or a card reader, is a common feature of image management tools. Any image browser should be able to see images on an external device, but here I'm referring to the ability to pull those images onto a local or networked hard drive. As a general rule of thumb, downloading images directly from the camera is suboptimal. Cameras tend to be slower than dedicated devices such as card readers, and many cameras operate on battery power while the images are being retrieved, and thus there is a risk of corruption if the battery dies. If a tool imports images into its environment/database instead of a location of your choosing (see: iPhoto, Aperture), don't use it as the entry point to your workflow. It is very comforting to have images retrieved onto the hard disk and under your control first, and then import them into the closed system. That way if your software goes berserk, you have original copies of your photographs in a safe place. First I list the tools designed exclusively for import, then those software titles that have import functionality. It is quite possible that I have overlooked such functionality in other titles, and likely any of the image browsers or managers can be used to manually copy images from a card reader or camera. Dedicated ImportingImage BrowsingBecause many, if not most, of the tools discussed in this article allow image viewing and browsing, I'm going to restrict this list to those tools that I perceive as primarily dedicated to browsing any folder of images that the user wishes to see. See the image management section below for tools that offer browsing as part of a more comprehensive set of features. Image ManagementBecause many image browsers have organizational tools such as adding meta-data, I'm arbitrarily declaring that for software to fall in this category, it must not only manage meta-data and browse images, but it must use (or appear to use) some sort of database to track those images[1]. Some can track offline content as well. RAW ConversionRAW converters generate some of the most heated discussions on forums such as fredmiranda.com. The prices vary from free to $500, image quality is subjective and can vary depending on the subject and exposure, and an effective workflow (also subjective) is critical to their use for processing large numbers of images. Image EditingPhotoshop is clearly at the head of the class, but not everyone wants or needs so much power. I recommend Elements as a gentle way to start the learning process if you believe that Photoshop is where you want to go, but many of the alternatives listed here are less expensive and may have enough features that you don't need one of Adobe's products.
Image Enlargement3D ImagesImage Stitching/PanoramaImage CompositingImage MasksLens CorrectionOther SpecializedCD/DVD BurningWeb PublishingSpecialized Web ToolsPrintingAutomationFootnotes
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