iPhoto for Mac OS X: the best alternatives

iPhoto is already included on every new MacOS X, but unfortunately it quickly reaches its limits. We show you the best alternatives for professional image management and editing on your Mac.

The classic: Photoshop as an iPhoto alternative

The classic image processing program remains the undisputed Adobe Photoshop product family.

• Even though Photoshop is probably the best image processing program, it is usually too expensive for private users and has an exaggerated number of functions. You should therefore use Adobe Photoshop Elements, the little brother of Photoshop, at the beginning.
• Both Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Elements convince in the quality of the filters and effects. No other program has such professional and lossless editing.
• Features such as a "Content Aware Move" function, which can move people in the picture, for example, or intelligent color correction are unique and professionally structured.
• You can download and buy all Adobe products (also for Mac) on the official website.

Apple's iPhoto alternative: Aperture for Mac OS

Apple's more professional version of iPhoto is called Aperture and has a lot more features than iPhoto.

• Aperture is structured similarly to iPhoto and accesses the same image database. Therefore, you have all your old images in Aperture immediately and do not have to import them.
• Aperture also works with Photostream and can immediately send your pictures to the cloud so that you can admire and show them anywhere. Your pics can also be shared via social networks.
• The program supports more than 150 different RAW formats. That should be enough to open all of your image files.
• In addition, the iPhoto alternative can tag photos in one place and recognize faces. You can also order prints and even books of your photos directly from Aperture.

Google's iPhoto competition: Picasa

Google's alternative in the race for the best photo program is called Picasa and brings the most important image editing tools.

• Unlike the other programs, Picasa for Mac OS is freeware, so it's free. However, the number of functions and their quality is also lower.
• Picasa really does all the work for you when managing the images. As soon as a digital camera is connected, the program imports all images and can distribute them via the web, order photo books or burn CDs.
• Picasa always keeps the original file of the picture when you edit it and creates a new picture with the changes. So you can always access the original.
• Picasa can also recognize faces and perform geotagging.

Your previous iPhoto program can also use face recognition. We show you how to activate the function in the practical tip on face recognition.