Question from new MAC user

[page40]

I just recently made the switch from PC to MAC yesterday! I am totally new to this wonderful machine and so far I'm happy I switched. But I wanted to ask any MAC users what do I need to get started. I was using PSE7 on my PC. Should I get that for my MAC or will iPhoto be enough. I loved PSE7 for organizing my photos but I'm not sure iPhoto will allow me to do as much editing. Should I calibrate my monitor right off the bat? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

[digigrandma]

Congrats on your new Mac! I'm sure many Mac users will be along to offer good advice. I have a Mac which I love. I use PSE 8.0 for creating scrapbook pages and for photo editing. I use Bridge to view my photos. I only use iPhoto when I want to add photos to my iPad or iPod Touch.

Have fun learning all about your new Mac. Be sure to use the Help menu and look for some other threads here that address different Mac tips and ask all the questions you want. There are several very knowledgeable Mac users here.

[anxela]

Ok, I'll answer this in "if I were you" mode - it might not be what you choose to do, and it might be totally different from what others do.

I don't use iPhoto for anything but creating photo books. I'm not a huge fan of iPhoto, but the photo books are awesome!

If you're used to Elements, I would use that over iPhoto any day... but there's also Lightroom, which is awesome both for organizing and for editing photos. Download the trial, and see what you think. I love Lightroom.

If you have calibrating software/hardware, do it right away. It always looks good, until you calibrate. The display tends to have a blueish tone right out of the box. There are several good and not too expensive calibrator devices out there.

Oh, and if you want to do scrapbooking, I suppose Elements or CS is what you want to get. I don't think iPhoto will do you any good there.

Also, keep you desktop uncluttered, as this will keep your mac happy and fast-working. There are a bunch of threads here that will explain these and other maintenance stuff about your mac here in the community (like Merr already said). I recommend reading them, there might be stuff there you would want to pick up. Also, "Mac OS X Snow Leopard - The missing manual" by David Pogue is great. He also has one on switching from Windows to Mac, but I haven't read that.

Enjoy your new Mac!

[cstaff]

I would get PSE (or CS) and Adobe will usually let you transfer your license from pc to mac... call cust. service. Several threads here re: iPhoto and Bridge. I went with Bridge and have all my DD supplies tagged from the get-go. I use LR for all photos. I did move up from PSE to CS4 as Adobe had a special pricing for that too. You might search this forum for the above mentioned threads... very helpful to me.

[page40]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I really appreciate your comments. I will call Adobe about switching from PC to Mac for PSE7. Any ideas on where I might find CS for a good price?

Thanks,

Eleonor

[Jen D]

Originally Posted by page40

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I really appreciate your comments. I will call Adobe about switching from PC to Mac for PSE7. Any ideas on where I might find CS for a good price?

Thanks,

Eleonor

If you have kids in the house I would look at Academic Superstore Lightroom is super cheap there!