gimp vs aperture?

RockstarPhotography · Apr 13, 2011

I'm giving my dad, who used to be a photographer but pretty much put the camera's away when digital came, my old d3000. I know he's not going to want to spend much money on editing software so my question lies in how good is gimp for basic camera raw editing? I may be able to persuade him to buy aperture since it's an apple program, he's apple enthusiast an currently works as an apple technician. But if gimp does a good job for editing, I may just send him that route. He will basically just be doing the basic adjustments to raw photos i'm sure.

480sparky · Apr 13, 2011

GIMP does not handle raw files. There are plug-ins, but I haven't figured out how to install them so I can't speak for them.

KmH · Apr 14, 2011

Aperture is like Lightroom in that it's main function is DAM - digital asset management, and image editing is a secondary function. Aperture and Lightroom are parametric image editors, meaning they cannot edit pixels, so to be able to do all the editing needed for photography you need an additional application that can edit pixels.

GIMP can edit pixels. But, GIMP is pretty much limited to only doing 8-bit edits. Most Raw files today are based on 14-bit depth capture files that when converted are then 16-bit depth files.
Consequently, for professional grade editing you really want to do as many 16-bit depth edits as possible to maintain image quality, and avoid issues like posterization and banding which can result from 8-bit depth edits.

FranDaMan · Apr 14, 2011

KmH said:
can[/I] edit pixels.

And what editing would that be ? I can do most of my editing in lightroom, so what are the edits that absolutely require PS ?

EckoZero · Apr 14, 2011

GIMP has a plug-in for RAW editing called UFRaw which is also free.
I used it for a while when I first started shooting RAW.

The interface is simple as hell - click a tab based on what you want to change, move sliders, sit back and relax etc.

It's a bit limited in that you don't have specific control over things like "Clarity" and "Vibrance" but with a bit of playing around you can easily control those with UFRaw.

Then I switched to Scarab Darkroom for a bit - that's another freeware bit of kit and looks top notch.
Controls are similar to Lightroom and once again, tweak the sliders and relax.

Drake · Apr 14, 2011

How about the software that came with the camera for RAW developing? I have no idea how advanced your dad is with computers, but even if GIMP could handle RAW files, it's a pretty complicated piece of software to start with. A simple RAW developer with some sliders could make it a lot easier for now. If your dad needs more after some time, he'll decide what he needs himself.

Light Guru · Apr 27, 2011

Like has been said Aperture is a LOT more then a place to edit photos. Have him download the free trial of Aperture and test it to see if he likes it. If he does its only $80 now from the Mac App Store.