Latest Lightroom v Aperture anyone?
Discussion
Been loving Lightroom for many years now - even back in the days when it was RawShooter, so that's probably 2005, six whole years back.
Very, very tempted to get a Mac for the first time. So naturally, even if I love LR it's got to be worth at least a glance at the obvious alternatives. And the rate of progress has been fascinating.
(I do know that it is possible that Adobe will swap like-for-like your PC software for MAC versions, btw - and a useful tip if you didn't already know. But I may end up with a PC a Lapdog and a MacBook Pro!)
So anyone had recent experience of LR and Aperture - I've just had 10 minutes play at an Apple Store and it seems very similar, but obviously not got detailed outputs for comparison.
Very, very tempted to get a Mac for the first time. So naturally, even if I love LR it's got to be worth at least a glance at the obvious alternatives. And the rate of progress has been fascinating.
(I do know that it is possible that Adobe will swap like-for-like your PC software for MAC versions, btw - and a useful tip if you didn't already know. But I may end up with a PC a Lapdog and a MacBook Pro!)
So anyone had recent experience of LR and Aperture - I've just had 10 minutes play at an Apple Store and it seems very similar, but obviously not got detailed outputs for comparison.
I'd be interested too - they used to be similar prices, but now Aperture via the Mac App Store is only about £45, which makes more sense to me as a bump up from iPhoto than spending over three times that on LR.
Have been getting into geotagging (and I have 4 months of travel photos with carefully saved GPX tracks to work through) so functionality like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87qr35gxKs is pretty compelling - does LR have an equivalent?
Have been getting into geotagging (and I have 4 months of travel photos with carefully saved GPX tracks to work through) so functionality like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87qr35gxKs is pretty compelling - does LR have an equivalent?
sjg said:
Have been getting into geotagging (and I have 4 months of travel photos with carefully saved GPX tracks to work through) so functionality like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87qr35gxKs is pretty compelling - does LR have an equivalent?
That's Eff-ing 
i don't have a need for it myself, but wow!You need a plug-in for LR, and how you do it is described http://www.photohowto.info/adobe-lightroom-3-and-g... but I don't think it's as simple as that Aperture method!
I have a MacBook and Aperture - I also have a Windows 7 laptop and Lightroom, but I'm not a heavy user of both so my view may be ignored if you so choose.
Aperture organises my photos nicely and makes it very easy to find things. It's quick enough and allows me to edit my photos on a simple level. However, it doesn't give the same kind of control that Lightroom does - Lightroom has more intuitive "sliders" that can let you control what you see far easier. Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
Lightroom also allows greater control of Tone in your photos (highlights, lights, darks and shadows) - also with simple sliders.
There are plugins for both, but I've used none as I don't edit often enough.
Me, I'm going to maintain the status quo for now, but I may end up getting Lightroom for my MacBook for better editing. And CS for more in depth stuff.
Aperture organises my photos nicely and makes it very easy to find things. It's quick enough and allows me to edit my photos on a simple level. However, it doesn't give the same kind of control that Lightroom does - Lightroom has more intuitive "sliders" that can let you control what you see far easier. Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
Lightroom also allows greater control of Tone in your photos (highlights, lights, darks and shadows) - also with simple sliders.
There are plugins for both, but I've used none as I don't edit often enough.
Me, I'm going to maintain the status quo for now, but I may end up getting Lightroom for my MacBook for better editing. And CS for more in depth stuff.
james_tigerwoods said:
Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
That was mostly what I was wondering."If and when" I get round to choosing a new camera I may put more reliance on in-camera processing than I do currently, too. So I am keen on finding any clear practical difference just like this!
K12beano said:
james_tigerwoods said:
Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
That was mostly what I was wondering."If and when" I get round to choosing a new camera I may put more reliance on in-camera processing than I do currently, too. So I am keen on finding any clear practical difference just like this!
The thing is - I prefer the way Aperture organises things though...
Apart from the fact that when I import in to an album, it ALWAYS creates a project even if I don't want it to. Or rather, especially. And you can't delete that either as it will hold all the photos therein - deleting it deletes the photos...
K12beano said:
Adobe will swap like-for-like your PC software for MAC versions
Careful on this one, they will if current latest version, but previous ones you'll be offered a crossgrade. I tried to get my PC version of CS3 over to Mac but couldnt upgrade past CS4 because it's PowerPC, Adobe would only sell me the upgrade to CS5 which wouldnt work on that hardwarejames_tigerwoods said:
Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
Agree with this. Been using lightroom since it was launched pretty much (on PC), never had an issue with it. It does what I need (also a heavy FF photoshop user), and produces excellent results from RAW. Got an iMac a few weeks back and installed the 30 day trial of Aperture, just find it doesn't seem to produce the same quality shots as LR, and there's a few things which annoy me about it (user interface issues mainly). I'll not be buying after my 30 days are up, and will be investing in LR for the mac.
Yes, Adobe will do a cross-platform swap - once. However, it has to be the whole hog; you can't have it on a Windows desktop and on a MacBook on the same licence (the licence is for two machines).
I've never used Aperture (like the OP, I've been with Lr since it was RawShooter), but I can comment on using it on iMac and MacBook Pro. On the iMac (with 8Gb RAM), it runs like a greased pig: smooth, responsive - sweet. On the MacBook Pro (4Gb), it's less comfortable. For one thing, the smaller screen (15" against 27") is a hindrance. It's also noticeably slower - although only in comparison to the iMac: it's still pretty slick, but you do notice the odd lag. Perfectly adequate for doing work when out and about, but I still like to get stuff back on the big beast asap.
The speed difference between the two really shows up when you bring PS into the equation: that puts a strain on the MacBook. I'm seriously considering blowing £70 to upgrade the 'Book's memory to 8Gb to see if that makes it better. I'll still live with it, though, because that's the thing that really tips the balance for me: the way Lr and Ps work together; absolutely seamless.
The only real gripe I've got with Lr (working on two machines) is that it doesn't have a proper catalogue merge facility. You can do it, but it's a bit of a kludge and not as easy as it should be.
I've never used Aperture (like the OP, I've been with Lr since it was RawShooter), but I can comment on using it on iMac and MacBook Pro. On the iMac (with 8Gb RAM), it runs like a greased pig: smooth, responsive - sweet. On the MacBook Pro (4Gb), it's less comfortable. For one thing, the smaller screen (15" against 27") is a hindrance. It's also noticeably slower - although only in comparison to the iMac: it's still pretty slick, but you do notice the odd lag. Perfectly adequate for doing work when out and about, but I still like to get stuff back on the big beast asap.
The speed difference between the two really shows up when you bring PS into the equation: that puts a strain on the MacBook. I'm seriously considering blowing £70 to upgrade the 'Book's memory to 8Gb to see if that makes it better. I'll still live with it, though, because that's the thing that really tips the balance for me: the way Lr and Ps work together; absolutely seamless.
The only real gripe I've got with Lr (working on two machines) is that it doesn't have a proper catalogue merge facility. You can do it, but it's a bit of a kludge and not as easy as it should be.
abarth500 said:
james_tigerwoods said:
Aperture will do it, but Lightroom does it better.
Agree with this. Been using lightroom since it was launched pretty much (on PC), never had an issue with it. It does what I need (also a heavy FF photoshop user), and produces excellent results from RAW. Got an iMac a few weeks back and installed the 30 day trial of Aperture, just find it doesn't seem to produce the same quality shots as LR, and there's a few things which annoy me about it (user interface issues mainly). I'll not be buying after my 30 days are up, and will be investing in LR for the mac.
I took nearly 200 photos of a Lancaster flyby and tried to use Aperture to edit them (the sky was overcast and hazy which meant that, for the most part, results were s
tty. Again. Add in the fact that I should have dialed in a higher ISO at the start and you've got a recipe for trouble).Aperture just wouldn't edit the photos very well - I just about managed to do the colours, which I still wasn't happy with, but I couldn't do the Tones. I'm sure there's a plug in that will do it, but I just wanted to drag a slider and done. Something that you can, so easily, do in Lightroom.
I ended up taking the RAW photos I was happy with and putting them through Lightroom on my Windows PC instead.
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