Please advise me on what library and image processing software you would recommend for a Mac user for amateur use. I’ve had past experience with Aperture, iPhoto, Photos, Lightroom and PS. A tiny bit with Gimp.
But I need now to build a website and some print materials as we are opening our garden and a catering venture publicly post lockdown. There will also be a book. This lot will be 90% images and design, with minimal text and I need to revisit library and processing software for this. I only have Photos available currently and am looking at alternatives, including the latest iteration of Luminar 4 with AI, which I have never used before. I'm attracted by batch processing, sky replacement, quick deletion of unwanted components and what appear to be similar tools to LR.
Ideally I would like software that shows the focus point (which Aperture had). At present I have our entire library available in Photos (Mac OSX Big Sur). This has some editing capability a bit like LR, and is non-destructive. However, it is also a bit amateurish and dictatorial on workflow. The library functionality is OK and of course is it fully Mac integrated.
Background context
I’ve been a member since 2008 and had active periods here, but in the past few years have just watched threads and not contributed.
I feel as if I have had a rocky ride with software. Started with Aperture (Mac), forced to move to Adobe when Mac killed that, and fell out of love with Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge when I felt the paid subscription model became too expensive (I dislike subscription software) and Adobe became too intrusive for an amateur user. I also found some elements not very intuitive and dropped Adobe when we no longer needed it for business.
Along with a large Raw, Tiff and jpeg library from past activities, my wife and I have hundreds of iPhone images. These are super convenient, but frankly not very satisfactory for sharpness, editing or reproduction, so we are now building a fresh library of good images with our travel cameras. This means main camera is a full frame Canon 5DIII, backup 70D and a wide range of quality L fast glass. Pro tripod and lighting available.
Kind regards and thanks in advance
Adrian