Cameras and Photography Explained

If you read my Recommended Mac Hardware article and are now looking for advice on what software to install on it, you've come to the right place!

I'm going to break this up into several sections, as we have a lot to discuss:

• macOS and Utility software
• Productivity software
• Photography-related software (but also see my full article on photo software)

A couple of definitional things before we get started:

• Direct — means available directly from the developer (all links here go to developer sites)
• App Store — means that the product can be found in the official macOS App Store
• Subscription — means that the software requires monthly or yearly payments to continue to work
• Perpetual — means that once purchased, no other payment is necessary for it to continue to work (paid updates may be offered, though)

macOS and Utility Software

Let's start with which macOS to use. If you bought a new Mac that came with the current macOS 15 (Sequoia) installed, you don't have any choice. A Mac can only (directly) run macOS versions starting with the one that was current when the Mac was introduced (though virtualization may let you run older ones; see the blue note on the Mac Hardware page). So those buying M4 Macs at the moment are forced to use the current macOS, unfortunately. These users should probably update their macOS every time Apple releases a dot-update, because those are filled with bug and security fixes. 

But let's say you bought an older Mac, for instance an M1 model on sale. That model may not have the current macOS installed on it. The question that becomes immediately important is whether you should upgrade to the current macOS. My answer is generally "no" in this case: you should upgrade to the last version of the macOS already installed on that computer. Why? Compatibility, basically. Each year when the new macOS version is released, we all discover a few things that "break." Maybe a printer driver no longer works, maybe a software program has issues with something in the new OS. The most reliable version of macOS is usually the final version of the previous year's OS. As I write this, that would be macOS 14 (Sonoma). It generally takes Apple (and hardware/software developers) several iterations of the current macOS before all issues caused by the version change get worked out. Since Apple only provides security updates for the last three macOS versions, it's generally okay to be on Sonoma when Apple is promoting Sequoia. 

This brings up something you need to deal with every time you buy a new Mac: you need to check and verify that you have the latest version of hardware drivers and software applications. Being one macOS major version out of date is usually okay, but the more versions of macOS you have to skip over when you upgrade your old machine to a new model, the more this is going to raise clear problems.

Let me iterate a few things to know about macOS in the current environment:

• Apple introduces a new named (and numbered) version of macOS every year. This is typically introduced at the Macintosh Developer’s Conference in June each year, but not shipped to users until some time in late fall of the same year. (Developers need lead time to deal with changes and new features.) The current macOS as I write this is macOS Sequoia, or 15.3.1 as I finished this article. 
• When the next macOS arrives in fall of 2025, wait for awhile before updating. Each new macOS tends to have something in it that will cause some subset of Mac owners to have compatibility issues, at least temporarily. There’s no one that declares an “all clear” signal, but if you stay informed via the many Mac sites, blogs, and fora, you’ll get a good sense of when the latest macOS and all the software/hardware vendors stabilize their products enough for you to update.
• Apple supports the most recent three versions of macOS with security updates and sometimes bug fixes. The three currently supported versions are 2022’s macOS Ventura (13.x), 2023’s Sonoma (14.x), and 2024’s Sequoia (15.x). These security updates are important, and necessary to keep hackers from getting into your computer easily. When offered an security update to the macOS version you’re currently using you should probably update. If not immediately, then as soon as you’re comfortable that there are no reports of the update breaking something (rare, but it’s happened).  
• Apple Silicon computers generally require at least macOS Ventura (there were a couple of early exceptions). All the M4 Macs require macOS Sequoia. Personally, I’d update any Apple Silicon computer (M1, M2, M3, or M4) to macOS Sequoia at this point. The only exception to that I’d make is if you know that some software or hardware product you’re using does not work with macOS Sequoia. Note, however, that if you do update to macOS Sequoia, you may need to download new drivers for some hardware. Apple has been deprecating old methods of communication between the computer and peripheral, which makes some products that rely on those old methods break until you install proper new software for them. My RAID system, for instance, required a bunch of jumping through hoops to get it to run properly with macOS Sequoia that took me well over an hour to get done.

Second on our list of operating system things to discuss is whether or not you should migrate your old data, settings, and applications using Apple's Migration Assistant when you get a new Mac. My advice here is to not use it during your initial setup. Get your new Mac running and check all your hardware first. Once you've verified that and backed up your new base system, you can go back and run Migration Assistant (it's an app you’ll find in Applications/Utilities). 

Utility software I find useful and recommend:

• Intego Internet Security (App Store, free Limited Version; Direct, US$50 Full Version Subscription, often discounted) — Don't fall for the "Macs don't get hacked" nonsense. Plenty of malware targets Mac users, and while the base OS does a reasonable job of mitigating the worst of that, I believe everyone should have their Mac behind as much protection as possible (at least protection that doesn't impede the system performance). Intego has been my choice for years, and I've learned to trust it. 
• 1Password (App Store or Direct, US$36/year Subscription) — If you're on macOS Sequoia you have a near equivalent capability built into the operating system, and can probably skip this utility. I've been using it since it first came out, and it's proven to be the most robust and secure password and private information handler in the Mac realm. 
• Carbon Copy Cloner (US$50, Direct, Perpetual) — If you need a way to reliably (and hands off) backup your system, I find Carbon Copy Cloner to be the best choice, though SuperDuper comes very close (plus there's another option I'll list next). 
• ChronoSync  (US$50, Direct, Perpetual) — While this product can be used as a backup system, where it excels is in keeping folders and files in sync between two computers, for instance between my Mac Studio desktop and my MacBook Pro portable. This syncing is bidirectional, so my MacBook Pro has all my files when I walk out the door, but if I work on or add anything while I'm mobile, that's synced back with my desktop when I return. You can do this through the cloud for money, but this is a perpetual license product that uses your local network and has more than paid for itself over the years in my use. 
• CleanMyMac  (App Store, US$40/year Subscription) — I'll likely get some pushback that you don't need an application uninstaller and cleanup type of product, but quite frankly, there are so many cache, cleanup, maintenance, and uninstall bits to keep track of, you're going to appreciate that you can do it in an automated fashion without having to keep track of all the details yourself. 
• EtreCheck (Direct, Free Limited Version; US$19 Perpetual Power User version) — When something isn't working or you just want piece of mind that you've dealt with all possible issues on your Mac, EtreCheck is the utility you want to pull up and run. It's like System Report on steroids and with clearer information as well as useful recommendations.
• Hidden Bar  (App Store, Perpetual) — If you're dealing with too many icons on the menu bar—typical on recent MacBooks that have camera notches—you might want a way to reign that in so that you can manage it. That's what this little utility helps you do: you can still get to everything, but you can control what's always shown. 
• Imazing (Direct, US$50/year Subscription or US$75 Perpetual) — If you're deep into Appledom and have Macs and iPads and iPhones, you need to look at this program. It's a way to install and control what's on your mobile devices, as well as keep your own backups (which means you can free up a lot of your complimentary iCloud space in the process). 
• Moom Classic  (App Store, Perpetual) also Moom (Direct, US$15 Perpetual) — Yes, the latest macOS allows you to snap windows to positions on the display, but it's not very good, nor is that as customizable as Moom is. If you're dealing with big screens and lots of windows open, trust me, you want to take control over what appears where, and Moom will help you do that. 

I used to suggest "drive maintenance/repair" utilities, but in this new SSD world they tend to be less necessary and useful. If you're interested, DiskWarrior and DriveGenius are the two "goto" products you'd want to look at.

Productivity Software

The usual complaint about Macs is that "oh my gawd, I still need Microsoft Office." No you don't. Not at all. I'm going to tell you how you do better with every app you'll find in the Office package.

First off, the free Pages app you get with your Mac can handle Word documents, The free Numbers app can handle Excel documents, and the free Keynote app can handle PowerPoint documents. The free Mail client supplied with macOS can deal with your email. So you already received programs for free that do much of what Office does. Moreover, these programs all are integrated with iCloud, meaning that you can save your file in one place and use it on multiple Macs. The problem with using Apple’s free solutions is twofold: big differences in UI/UX, and having to pay attention to Export versus Save.

Let's start off with the winners: Keynote is simply better than PowerPoint. Once you start using Keynote you won't want to go back. There can be some rough spots with fonts if you're trying to share back and forth with Windows PowerPoint users, but that's a solvable problem (learn what the macOS included Font Book app can help you with). 

Numbers is an excellent, slightly simplified, and more approachable Excel. The UI is simpler and easier to deal with—no icons cluttered all over the windows to control things—and its files are quite compatible for sharing with Windows users, though you'll need to be aware of Export/Save differences.

Pages, unfortunately, is a mess. While it can serve as a word processor, it was designed more as an unfriendly page layout program. You're going to ditch it and replace it with one of these two programs:

• Mellel (US$70, Direct Perpetual)
• Nisus Writer Pro (US$65, App Store or Direct Perpetual)

My choice has been for some time Nisus Writer Pro, though there are some very nice things I like about Mellel. Nisus Writer Pro is a pretty direct Word substitute, and it has features and performance that Word lacks. It also is a perpetual license and costs less ;~).

Let's face it, Microsoft Outlook hasn't really gotten much better in several decades, and has all kinds of issues. Those of us who use it—me because I have a 30+ year history using it—all have regular complaints about Outlook. Apple Mail (free with macOS) generates some complaints, too, but it’s already installed and it works decently for most people. The good news is it supports extensions. If you need more ability to separate real emails from junk, get the SpamSieve add-on. MailTags can help you sort, organize, and find your emails. If you want your emails in a searchable database, try MailSteward.

So, here’s the game plan for Microsoft Office users:

• Instead of Word, use Nisus Writer Pro (requires you to purchase it one time)
• Instead of Excel, learn to use the free Numbers
• Instead of PowerPoint, learn to use the free Keynote
• Instead of Outlook, use Mail (and perhaps augment it with some extensions)

As for browsers, I use Firefox instead of the supplied Safari, but there are plenty of browser choices. The one thing that I'd strongly recommend, though, is that whatever browser you use is that you switch out the search component from Evil Google to something far less sinister and less privacy invading, such as DuckDuckGo. If you do that, you'll actually get better, targeted results instead of a screen full of "related" ads.

Finally, if you work with PDFs a lot—and Nisus Writer Pro is superb at creating them, way better than Word—I'd suggest that you get PDF Expert (US$40, App Store, Perpetual), the best of the PDF editors I've found on the Mac.

Photo Software

Much of the following is repeated from my Software Recommended for Photography article, but I’ve stripped it down to just Mac and embellished it specifically for Mac users:

• FastRawViewer US$24 (Direct, Perpetual). FastRawViewer (FRV) isn’t quite as deep at the ingest and annotation capabilities as Photo Mechanic (PM), but it serves up a different set of options that are useful when browsing raw images: the ability to clearly assess exposure and even make some adjustments that the Adobe converters will pick up. FRV is a bit of a geeky tool. The features and UI are initially a bit overwhelming to novice users, but there’s a ton of user customization that’s available if you take the time to learn the full product. (Disclosure: one of the principals of the company producing this product is a friend, and provided me a copy for free; on occasion I’ve suggested changes or features for the program. That said, I have no financial interest in you buying the product; I get nothing for recommending it). 
• Apple Photos Free (installed with macOS). Didn’t expect that, did you? As much as we all lamented the loss of iPhotos and Aperture from Apple, I think most people aren’t really giving the replacement, Photos, a real chance. The basic problem here is that Apple is thinking different, and if you don’t get on their wavelength, you’ll just sit there scratching your head wondering what you should do or how to do the thing you want to do. So let me recommend the way to deal with that: my friend Jason Snell’s book, Taking Control of Apple Photos. He’ll step you through learning Apple’s unique terminology and design. But yes, Photos will allow you to build a photo catalog, browse it, and even develop/process images in it. You just have to learn Apple Speak and its Photos Dialect. One word of advice: stay away from iCloud Photos, at least until you fully understand Photos. The cloud-abilities you can turn on are useful to someone in an all-Apple ecosystem, but you do dangerous things if you don’t fully understand what you’re doing. So System Settings > iCloud > Saved to iCloud > Photos should be Off to start. 
  Editing/Processing Software that works from within Photos:
  • One of the key developers behind Apple Aperture built a Photos plug-in that works really well (and works as a standalone product, too): Raw Power (US$40, App Store, Perpetual). Raw Power will definitely give you a set of tools that help you get your images looking the way you want them to. The same developer has a more sophisticated version in Nitro Photo (US$100, App Store, Subscription or Perpetual)
    
  • Pixelmator Pro (App Store, Perpetual). Both a standalone and Photos plug-in capable editor/processor. Originally independent, now owned by Apple. Same team makes another product with a different UI approach in Photomator (US$120, App Store, Perpetual or Subscription).
• Lightroom US$19.99/month (1TB Plan), (Direct, Subscription) but also see Photoshop, below . What started as a simple program to help photographers with workflow has turned into a whopper of a do-all, slice-all, be-all imaging program. In fact, things have expanded so much that if you’re new to Lightroom, you’ll need help (I suggest Matt Kloskowski’s The Lightroom System video tutorial set, usually US$199, but often on sale). A lot of folk are turned off by Adobe’s subscription requirement, but frankly, US$240/year is a reasonable price to pay for a tool and storage that are kept current and keep adding useful features. And no, if you drop your subscription, your catalog doesn’t go away (though your cloud images will need to be downloaded first). Some of the things you can do with your images in Lightroom do go away without subscription, but Lightroom would continue to work for basic functions on your local images. And no, you don’t need to send your images to the cloud to use them (at least for Lightroom Classic CC); everything can stay local to your computer if that’s what you want. Lightroom is slow to ingest, can use lots of extra drive space if you’re not careful (e.g. previews to improve browsing speed), and has panels all over the place (left, right, bottom, etc.), but none of that really takes away from its power to organize and develop your images. Note that with Nikon Imaging Cloud, you can take advantage of that 1TB of storage reasonably directly: set your camera to push images to Nikon Imaging Cloud and Nikon Imaging Cloud to push them to the Adobe cloud. This allows you to do things like work on your images without having to ingest a card or carry a computer (you can use an iPad with Lightroom for images in the Adobe cloud). 
• Photoshop ACR and Lightroom Classic CC US$14.99 to US$19.99/month (Direct, Subscription). Our longest-living raw converter, and one that keeps getting updated for new cameras while adding new features and capabilities (yes, latest new camera conversions tend to be preliminary for awhile, and not optimal). Photoshop’s Adobe Converter Raw (ACR; and the LR conversion that uses ACR) has a few wrinkles that sometimes we complain about, but it’s also still one of the most reliable raw converters available. If you convert to smart objects, you can even keep Photoshop in the non-destructive mode for most everything you do. My suggestion has always been to avoid Adobe’s standard conversion and tune ACR to your camera and tastes, which fortunately, is a fairly straightforward project that you only need to do once for each camera. Some of the recent features, such as the Super Resolution one, expand the capabilities beyond what you might think ACR actually can do. And that’s sort of the point: ACR has gotten better with time. We may still complain about some small things, but the big things keep expanding and getting better, particularly masking. ACR is a solid working tool. I use it every day. And that puts me in Photoshop, which has advanced layering and masking tools I use all the time. The Lightroom only plan is US$14.99 month, and includes the basic Lightroom (and 1TB of cloud storage). If you also want Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, you now have to subscribe to the Photography Plan at US$19.99/month, which is getting pricey (strangely, Photoshop by itself is more expensive, go figure). I wouldn't blame you for looking at other options if you don't have a grandfathered original plan (which had less cloud storage, but is currently still effectively US$9.99 a month if you pay annually). 
• Affinity Photo 2 US$70 (App Store, Perpetual; Direct  sometimes discounted). The poor man’s Photoshop. Almost literally. Affinity has done a tremendous job building out near clones of Photoshop, Illustrator, and inDesign. Those of you still stuck on Creative Suite 4 probably ought to be using the Affinity products instead, because they’re better than the Adobe CS4 versions, though perhaps not quite as good as the current CC version (at least for Photoshop). No subscription, no elaborate licensing scheme, product doesn’t expire, updates happen regularly. Just like it used to be when we had to walk ten miles through the snow to school ;~). You can even buy a very nicely done physical book that’s sort of half manual, half inspiration, should your need for a paper trail of help arise. The one thing I’d caution about is that Affinity Photo doesn’t extend into the latest/greatest stuff Adobe has been doing—e.g. Super Resolution, the new AI masking, or AI noise reduction capabilities—and raw support for a camera that was announced today doesn’t exist and won’t for awhile. But Affinity Photo does have HDR, panorama, and focus stitching support, plus it even does Smart Objects, which is why I say the CS4 folk ought to move on: Affinity is now starting to supply things you won’t ever get as your CS4 installation grows weeds and cobwebs. And it runs faster and more smoothly. 
• Acorn 8 US$20 (App Store, Perpetual). An oft forgotten gem of a product that grew from a MacPaint competitor to a mini-Photoshop. If you rarely need to directly edit an image but still want some AI capabilities while being able to address things pixel by pixel, Acorn is an excellent choice.
• DXO PhotoLab 8 US$229 (Direct, Perpetual; sometimes discounted). If what you’re looking for is a solid raw converter that is more approachable than the Photoshop behemoth and that produces really nice images without a lot of geeky work on your part, I’d suggest DxO PhotoLab. It’s not the fastest raw converter (particularly if you use their excellent Prime noise reduction). It’s also not the best choice for batch processing a lot of images. But it has a lot of automatic capability, and it produces excellent output without a lot of extra work on your part. DxO tends to release a new major version yearly (for which upgrade costs are lower, currently US$99), which is pretty much the old software pricing model (e.g. not subscription).
• Your camera company’s free product(s). They all have one. They’re all kludgy, missing features, don’t have much performance, and sometimes can be buggy. But they’ll all net you a raw conversion that looks a lot like the JPEGs your camera creates, and if all you need is a raw conversion every once in a while, this is probably the option you should look at first.