Switching to Mac - learning curve questions

Marten,

iPhoto - while its a nice program for the average person who takes some snap shots of their daughters birthday, I would say its not something a serious photographer is going to use. Lightroom, Aperture, PS or NX2 are going to be more approiate.

ProShow Gold - sorry Ive never used it.

Spyder - I would say this is a must have especially if you make a lot of adjustments and/or printing.

Ditto everything Kevin Foster said. A wedding photographer needs something better than iPhoto. Don't know about ProShow Gold. And yes, you need to calibrate your display, although Spyder isn't the only good tool.

For processing software, check out Aperture or Lightroom. I prefer Lightroom.

Will

Hi Marten:

I went to the ProShow Gold website. The only way I could see to run this on a Mac is to use a program like Parallels that allows you to load the windows OS on your Mac. A little off topic; if you also use Quicken products you may want to seriously investigate this option. The financial software packages for the Mac aren't in the same league.

I've been very happy with my Spyder 3.

With my Epson R1900 printer I've had better success with printed output using Aperture, but for your interests I'd say Lightroom is better.

I ADORE Aperture. It is used for our family photos, our trips, and our weddings, portrait shoots - EVERYTHING. (I use iPhoto for stuff I take or keep on the iPhone. If our girls take pics, they go into iPhoto.) As a matter of fact, just with the built in tools, I find myself doing 90% of my editing in Apterture, only using Photoshop for very specific tasks.
And with the brushes & tools that can be purchased for Aperture, it may be possible to run EVERYTHING through aperture.

For slideshows, we actually use iMovie because you can get more control over the effects.

And for what Mark says about Quicken: I don't know why you would NEED to run Windows just to run the financial software. QuickBooks, Quicken, etc on the mac are exactly the same as their pc counterparts. Same program.

Ooops - I should have said that I've Lightrrom on my PC and the Mac came loaded with Aperture (another learning curve!). I wasn't thinking of using iPhotos for editing, in fact it didn't even occur to me. I was wondering how it is at file management?
Mark - can the Spyder calibrate the printer too?
Will - what else should I consider alongside Spyder?

Aperture is BRILLIANT for file management. Do NOT BOTHER w/ iPhoto.
Personally, I learn by jumping in & doing, and searching the manual to know if there's something specific I want. I don't sit down & read the book first. If you learn by reading the book, open the help manual in Aperture & look down the table of contents. There's also online video tutorials a friend has found, but I hadn't bothered looking for (help is good)

The search & labeling & keyword & tagging functions that Aperture has aren't there in iPhoto - or aren't as easy to find and use (can you tell how much I use iPhoto?)
With keywords, and ratings, as well as filenames... and being able to change version names w/o changing the original filenames.... Aperture as a cataloging & management is invaluable

Thanks Maria - I take it you simply don't bother loading anything into iPhoto?

I only use iPhoto for 2 reasons
1) stuff that my girls shot whether on a toy camera or 1 of my P&S - and that was only to keep it completely seperate from everything coming off the SLRs. I've given up on that and ALL go into Aperture now.
2) stuff i've shot w/ the phone camera, and that's really just because it mostly my kids and it makes syncing w/ the computer easier.
I USED to send into iPhoto for easy connecting & referencing to iDVD, iWeb, Pages (for making brochures, etc), but I think an update must have changed that. When I'm building DVDs, brochures, or whatever, these programs have access to the Aperture library & can use the photos I choose w/ no other exporting, adjusting, etc.

Thanks Maria. If only I could get the last wedding processed (I've another tomorrw) I could start playing!