Reply to: Buying a Mac

[expat]

Is this any good for you (it doesn't specify 16bit in the specs)?

It's free to try, if you like it, I think I've still got a licence code knocking around from a bundle which you can have if you like.

Thanks. Looks like an impressive product but I don't know it at all. The specs don't mention bit depth, and it doesn't seem to have the Healing Brush.

My favourite editing program Lightzone does have the Clone Stamp, but PS's HEaling Brush is really irreplaceable. However.... this is now in PS Elements, which is down to 55.00 so quite on the cards.

[NickFitz]

Is this any good for you (it doesn't specify 16bit in the specs)?

It's free to try, if you like it, I think I've still got a licence code knocking around from a bundle which you can have if you like.

It's built on ImageMagick, which supports 16 bit AFAIK.

[Moscow Mule]

For retouching, the problem is quite specific: it is for scans of old film, which needs initial retouching in 16bit. Nothing you need to do to digital needs that. I don't need general recommendations on photo tools, I need specific knowledge on where to get 16bit/channel with good spotting and healing-brush tools.

Answer 1: buy another copy of Photoshop. I#m looking for Answer 2

Is this any good for you (it doesn't specify 16bit in the specs)?

It's free to try, if you like it, I think I've still got a licence code knocking around from a bundle which you can have if you like.

[bogeyman]

TextMate is very highly regarded by many developers of my acquaintance (although I just stick with Eclipse).

Another vote for TextMate, although its development seems to have stagnated somewhat.

Never liked BBEdit.

[expat]

Try Textmate.

I haven't ever had the need to use anything other than iPhoto for retouching, but I read good things about Aperture.

Thanks. May also try TextWrangler. Doesn't matter yet as I don't develop on it, but I'm just so practiced with Textpad (e.g. frequently use Block cut/paste).

Edit (TextWrangler being BBEdit Lite, so they say). But while I'm asking: Block cut/paste - you know, highlight a rectangular block and drag it, and the rectangular block is dragged to the new location (both line and column). Say hightligh columns 11-20 of lines 51-70; then drag that to line 21 column 41, and the rectangular block is dragged to cols 41-50 on lines 21-40. Hard to explain, easy to see and use.


For retouching, the problem is quite specific: it is for scans of old film, which needs initial retouching in 16bit. Nothing you need to do to digital needs that. I don't need general recommendations on photo tools, I need specific knowledge on where to get 16bit/channel with good spotting and healing-brush tools.

Answer 1: buy another copy of Photoshop. I#m looking for Answer 2

[NickFitz]

Take a look at BBEdit.

TextMate is very highly regarded by many developers of my acquaintance (although I just stick with Eclipse).

[DaveB]

Yeah. My biggest Missing App: Textpad. Simple, but it and I have learned to get along so well.....

Take a look at BBEdit.

[DaveB]

God. The last time I went to an Apple Store (Bristol) to look at the new MacBook, I knew more about the product than they did.

Still, it was the look and feel of the thing that sold me - even though I didn't actually buy it from them.

Been in PC world recently? Last time I went there the guy trying to sell me AV and "PC Management" software was a 1st year medical student...

[Peter Loew]

Yeah. My biggest Missing App: Textpad. Simple, but it and I have learned to get along so well.....

Next one along, when I get to it: a 16-bit/channel photo editor. Gimp is great for Photoshop-like manipulations, but it's only 8-bit/channel. That's not good enough for serious retouching of scans of old emulsion. Lightzone is superb for getting your photos done and dusted and out the door in no time (and looking better than you thought possible) and it is 16-bit/channel; but it doesn't quite have PS's retouching capabilities. I had been hoping to avoid buying PS for the Mac. Oh well.

I use iPhoto to touch up my party pics mostly. I shoot RAW with my DSLR and hence use Aperture to process the RAW files.

I don't really manipulate images with PS or the like, but the odd time I do I use PS Elements...

[Moscow Mule]

Yeah. My biggest Missing App: Textpad. Simple, but it and I have learned to get along so well.....

Next one along, when I get to it: a 16-bit/channel photo editor. Gimp is great for Photoshop-like manipulations, but it's only 8-bit/channel. That's not good enough for serious retouching of scans of old emulsion. Lightzone is superb for getting your photos done and dusted and out the door in no time (and looking better than you thought possible) and it is 16-bit/channel; but it doesn't quite have PS's retouching capabilities. I had been hoping to avoid buying PS for the Mac. Oh well.

Try Textmate.

I haven't ever had the need to use anything other than iPhoto for retouching, but I read good things about Aperture.

[DimPrawn]

I'm buying a Mac at lunchtime.

A Big Mac.

[expat]

No you are not 'using it wrong' it's just that you haven't done serious day-in day-out work on it.

Enjoy your shiny toy

Yeah. My biggest Missing App: Textpad. Simple, but it and I have learned to get along so well.....

Next one along, when I get to it: a 16-bit/channel photo editor. Gimp is great for Photoshop-like manipulations, but it's only 8-bit/channel. That's not good enough for serious retouching of scans of old emulsion. Lightzone is superb for getting your photos done and dusted and out the door in no time (and looking better than you thought possible) and it is 16-bit/channel; but it doesn't quite have PS's retouching capabilities. I had been hoping to avoid buying PS for the Mac. Oh well.

[Moscow Mule]

Is running a virtual machine really usable? Is it really efficient or is it just that a modern processor is 10X more powerful than XP actually needs to run OK?
Personally, dual-booting on a new Mac sounds preferable but I haven't tried any of these systems... a colleague runs SQL server on a MacBook Air using Parallels, but I'd be worried it would all bog down a lot.

You can run OSX 10.5 on something pretty old and decrepid.

Runnning on a dual core machine, there's plenty of spare capacity to run XP.

Like all VM solutions, parallels is configurable. I let it have about 0.5GB of memory and optimise for OSX performance - still good enough to do what I need to do (coding stuff & testing).

[d000hg]

VMWare Fusion (http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/)

I use VS lots - no problem.

Is running a virtual machine really usable? Is it really efficient or is it just that a modern processor is 10X more powerful than XP actually needs to run OK?
Personally, dual-booting on a new Mac sounds preferable but I haven't tried any of these systems... a colleague runs SQL server on a MacBook Air using Parallels, but I'd be worried it would all bog down a lot.

[Durbs]

I'm not looking forward to having to code on the Mac... well Java will be fine since it has Eclipse but I am too set on Visual Studio for C++.

Yeah, i bought mine to use XCode and knock up a few iPhone apps and am a long time VS user. Totally different way of doing things!