Mac software - Aperture or ???
Discussion
Recently bought my first dSLR camera and have been using iPhoto and I think it is great for free software, but I want to get something a little more advanced.
Aperture is the obvious route (and the price is good too), but what about Photoshop, lightroom or something else? I'm not really clued up on what else there is.
I don't really want to do too many fancy effects, just handle RAW images and batch processing would be nice.
Aperture is the obvious route (and the price is good too), but what about Photoshop, lightroom or something else? I'm not really clued up on what else there is.
I don't really want to do too many fancy effects, just handle RAW images and batch processing would be nice.
Since it's your first decent camera and (I'm assume) a prototype hobby I highly recommend the cheapest software option. It's great the you've bought a nice camera but try and restrain your spending until you know what you need.
I'm 12 months ahead of you. I bought a four thirds camera last year and have had a lot of fun with it. I haven't turned into David Bailey and I now know that iPhoto would probably have done me fine. I did buy Aperture by default. I played with all its bells and whistles but after a while I realised that I only use one or two things that iPhoto doesn't provide. Aperture didn't break the bank so I'm not kicking myself or anything.
Aperture is like iPhoto on steroids. It will be familiar. If you find it's lacking anything then by all means explore other stuff.
I'm 12 months ahead of you. I bought a four thirds camera last year and have had a lot of fun with it. I haven't turned into David Bailey and I now know that iPhoto would probably have done me fine. I did buy Aperture by default. I played with all its bells and whistles but after a while I realised that I only use one or two things that iPhoto doesn't provide. Aperture didn't break the bank so I'm not kicking myself or anything.
Aperture is like iPhoto on steroids. It will be familiar. If you find it's lacking anything then by all means explore other stuff.
I used to use Aperture. I miss its strength at cataloguing images and events but having been using PS for much of this year I'd never go back to processing with Aperture. In theory it's quite powerful but in practice it's slow and laborious, particularly when it comes to working on selective areas.
Lightroom is the Aperture equivalent from Adobe, was going to suggest you look at that before Aperture even before Adz posted his comment; pretty sure Adobe offer a 30day free trial if you want to look beyond iPhoto.
Lightroom is the Aperture equivalent from Adobe, was going to suggest you look at that before Aperture even before Adz posted his comment; pretty sure Adobe offer a 30day free trial if you want to look beyond iPhoto.
As ever with these things you need to try them out and decide for yourself but...
I've got an Adobe Photoshop license, an Adobe Lightroom license and Aperture. I started off with Photoshop then found Lightroom could do 99.9% of what I needed then I tried Aperture; I've not used the Adobe products since.
Lightroom and Aperture are very similar so it comes down to which you prefer. I don't know what the pricing of Lightroom is now but Aperture is stupidly cheap on the App Store.
The one thing you will find, and this may or may not matter, is that there are many more plugins out there for Lightroom.
I've got an Adobe Photoshop license, an Adobe Lightroom license and Aperture. I started off with Photoshop then found Lightroom could do 99.9% of what I needed then I tried Aperture; I've not used the Adobe products since.
Lightroom and Aperture are very similar so it comes down to which you prefer. I don't know what the pricing of Lightroom is now but Aperture is stupidly cheap on the App Store.
The one thing you will find, and this may or may not matter, is that there are many more plugins out there for Lightroom.
I tried Phase One and Aperture when I got my MacBook. That's the good thing about free trials.
I have been using Lightroom since the days when it evolved from RawShooter - and I thought it might be just be me, but Lightroom seems much nicer to use and is pretty effective. So I have stuck with it. The way it organises is better, sorting seems easy and slideshows are a doddle.... And that's all on top of a pretty darn good RAW conversion. I rarely take images over to PS these days.
I have heard a few grizzles from Canon users who say they can never get reds right. TBH if you have an older Nikon you'll probably never get blues right. Either way, it just goes to show that not everything's perfect and it's worth giving it a go to see if you can live with it.
I have been using Lightroom since the days when it evolved from RawShooter - and I thought it might be just be me, but Lightroom seems much nicer to use and is pretty effective. So I have stuck with it. The way it organises is better, sorting seems easy and slideshows are a doddle.... And that's all on top of a pretty darn good RAW conversion. I rarely take images over to PS these days.
I have heard a few grizzles from Canon users who say they can never get reds right. TBH if you have an older Nikon you'll probably never get blues right. Either way, it just goes to show that not everything's perfect and it's worth giving it a go to see if you can live with it.
Edited by K12beano on Saturday 10th December 23:25
Lightroom.
It's intuitive for new users and amazingly powerful for more professional applications. There's also a free trial and a load of fantastic free instruction on line.
http://lightroomkillertips.com/
http://www.pixiq.com/tag/lightroom
It's intuitive for new users and amazingly powerful for more professional applications. There's also a free trial and a load of fantastic free instruction on line.
http://lightroomkillertips.com/
http://www.pixiq.com/tag/lightroom
matt-ITR said:
I wouldn't mind doing a few HDR shots just to try, can either create them?
LR - you cannot directly create HDR. However there are a couple of things you can do.You can process RAW files with different exposure settings and then HDR the alternatives in another program - like making an HDR out of a single shot.
Or, and I like this, you can selectively treat an image to different exposures to dramatically change sky, for example.
Purely as an example - I wouldn't be doing this normally - this takes 30 seconds...
.....in selective brush mode in Develop. You can selectively increase or decrease exposure, contrast, colour saturation, clarity and sharpness et cetera....
Unless you're looking for full on HDR effect, this is an effective way to control a lot of factors.
I use lightroom for processing and occasionally photoshop for anything that needs more advanced cloning, layer masks etc, as has been said aperture is similar to lightroom it's just preference.
If all you want to do is process raw files then I'd start by using the software that came with the camera, don't know what camera you have but I know the Canon bundled software (DPP) is pretty good.
If all you want to do is process raw files then I'd start by using the software that came with the camera, don't know what camera you have but I know the Canon bundled software (DPP) is pretty good.
matt-ITR said:
I can get lightroom for about £65 where as Aperture is about £10 cheaper.
At that price, Lightroom would seem like the best choice after the comments here. 30 day trail is a great idea though.
I wouldn't mind doing a few HDR shots just to try, can either create them?
£65 for Lightroom seems really good - where is that please ?At that price, Lightroom would seem like the best choice after the comments here. 30 day trail is a great idea though.
I wouldn't mind doing a few HDR shots just to try, can either create them?
dibbly dobbler said:
matt-ITR said:
I can get lightroom for about £65 where as Aperture is about £10 cheaper.
At that price, Lightroom would seem like the best choice after the comments here. 30 day trail is a great idea though.
I wouldn't mind doing a few HDR shots just to try, can either create them?
£65 for Lightroom seems really good - where is that please ?At that price, Lightroom would seem like the best choice after the comments here. 30 day trail is a great idea though.
I wouldn't mind doing a few HDR shots just to try, can either create them?
I'll stick in a thumbs up for Aperture 3 here. I paid £45 on the Apple App store for it nearly a year ago. I think it is still about that price now. Reviews seem to have it more or less level pegging with Light room, with some preferring one and other others preferring the other. At the time LR3 was 4 times the price of Aperture so that was decision made for me. FWIW I find it utterly marvellous and very rarely use photoshop as aperture has such a wide range of very easy to use editing tools and some neat free third party add ons. I imagine LR3 is more or less the same deal. I hear that the built in noise reduction on LR3 is a lot better than Aperute but many seem to prefer Aperture's brush editing. have heard people praise and slate both pieces of software in equal measure. But as I said, at £45 I felt prepared to just take a punt on Aperture and I don't regret it.
I would (and have) try out both Aperture and Lightroom, there are 30 day trial of both, they pretty much do the same thing, but in slightly different ways.
I tested both when Aperture 2 and Lightroom 2 came out and preferred Lightroom, mainly because I'd been using Lightroom since version 1.0, so was more used to how it worked, I'd imagine that it would be the opposite for you coming from iPhoto. As the cost of upgrading my Lightroom license was pretty much the same as starting of with Aperture, I stayed with Lightroom.
Coming into it fresh now I'd be more tempted to learn Aperture because of the price difference between the two.
I tested both when Aperture 2 and Lightroom 2 came out and preferred Lightroom, mainly because I'd been using Lightroom since version 1.0, so was more used to how it worked, I'd imagine that it would be the opposite for you coming from iPhoto. As the cost of upgrading my Lightroom license was pretty much the same as starting of with Aperture, I stayed with Lightroom.
Coming into it fresh now I'd be more tempted to learn Aperture because of the price difference between the two.
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