Alternatives to Aperture (What are your plans?)

[r.harris1]

Workflow is important. I've found mine. Straight to Lightroom, into Photoshop, back to Lightroom and then to publish. Nothing exciting. No need for fan fair.

It's great you have a solution that works for how you want to do things.

Most of "our" images are ****.

No doubt.

"We" have a massively over inflated sense of self worth here. 99% of "our" photos should be deleted.

I think you're confusing a discussion on workflow and tools and the interest around it with being precious. It's just an interest, nothing to get worked up about . Even images being garbage doesn't preclude an interest in tools out there.

iPhoto is more than enough for most. Photoshop elements will suit a good portion of the rest. Aperture became rubbish (I used it for awhile) long before it was abandoned. Software doesn't matter.

Thanks for the opinion!

1% (at most) of us here at MacRumors are making money from our shots (I do occasionally, if I'm lucky).

The rest just like to pretend their photos are important. They're not.

Off the top of my head, there's only four or five people here that take 'good' photos. The rest of us are just talking ****.

"Importance" is a continuous spectrum, right? An image might be important to me, it might be important to society, or somewhere in between. Most are just important to the image taker. And maybe if someone buys one or if someone wins a contest or gets "likes" on a forum, it's fleetingly important to a small group, but that's typically where it ends, somewhere in that spectrum, typically close to the "important to me" side of things.

I don't think anyone here has an overinflated sense of self importance of their images but we do have a genuine interest in image processing and the tools people use - there are plenty of good ones out there. Yes, such discussions can get tedious (though less tedious than the "my galaxy S5 is bigger than your iPhone 5s" threads ) but when they do, we can ignore and move on.

 

[realitystops]

One I forgot

So from your logic, photos are only important if they generate revenue.

My photos are a journal of my life... totally irrelevant to their economic value.

/Jim

Thanks Jim!

My photographs are not my own history (having lost 80% of them-dont ask) But they are important to me, myself,I...
Consequently what I do to them etc is also important to me.

Thanks jim again.

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Most of "our" images are ****. "We" have a massively over inflated sense of self worth here. 99% of "our" photos should be deleted.

True to a point. I agree that many of us (myself included) keep far more than we should. I truly like about 1% of my shots but keep about 10%. That means 90% of what I'm storing long term is rubbish but storage is cheap.

The rest just like to pretend their photos are important. They're not.

Your photos may not be important to you and I'm sure my photos aren't important to you and that's fine. However, you're not qualified to determine what photos of mine are important to me.

Off the top of my head, there's only four or five people here that take 'good' photos. The rest of us are just talking ****.

No comment

 

[maflynn]

Most of "our" images are ****. "We" have a massively over inflated sense of self worth here. 99% of "our" photos should be deleted.

Perhaps your images, but not mine. Regardless of what you think, my keepers mean a lot to me, even if they don't generate revenue.

 

[VirtualRain]

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/27/aperture-development-stops/

This seems to all but seal the fate of Aperture, especially if Apple made the statement. I've used Aperture since it's introduction and have enjoyed it. In particular I've become comfortable with my "ecosystem" of Aperture, the NIK plugin, and the Zenfolio plugin. That has defined my prosumer (if you will) work flow for a few years now.

I'm not interested in bashing Apple for dropping Aperture or debating the merits of Ap vs LR vs Photos. What I'm interested in is what everyone is using for post and photo management and in particular what Aperture users are looking at to convert to.

To my limited knowledge (at this point) there seems to be a few options:

1. Continue to use Aperture/NIK for as long as I can.

2. Go back to pre-Aperture, which was hard drive folders and Photoshop

3. Jump on the Light Room bus

4. Is Nikon Capture a viable alternative? Plugins? I read NX-D will be free.

5. Perhaps Photos will be a "prosumer" editor under the hood with some interesting integrated cloud functions?

I would like to hear what long term Aperture users think they will do. I would like to continue to have a similar experience as I have had with Aperture / NIK / Zenfolio. I don't do a ton of post processing and if I do anything heavy it's in NIK. I stopped using Photoshop a while back because I didn't really use many of it's capabilities and the management part was easier in Aperture.

Edit: Oh, also converting my sizeable Aperture library into a new system is a big concern. I know there is a process for that for LR and obviously there will be one for Photos as well.

I'm somewhat late to this party having been on vacation recently, but I've been pondering the same thing since the announcement and here's what I've concluded.

I've previously compared both LR and C1 to Aperture and while LR has better NR and C1 better default RAW output, it was rarely the case that the same result could not be achieved with all three applications with some tweaking or plugins. The Rainmaker for me is NIK's simple control-point adjustment tools... which is essentially a one-click luminosity/tone mask. I cannot go back!

Sadly, I expect Apple's new Photo's app will neither support this kind of adjustment natively, nor work with NIK initially (if ever - depending on Google).

I plan to stick with Aperture/NIK for now (it still works great). When Photos is released, I'll likely switch to using it, and use my old CS6 Photoshop license with NIK for those photos that need local adjustments. If NIK ever supports Photos directly, I can drop Photoshop out of the mix.

My key concern about Photos is how it manages storage. For example, if I import 1000 images from a trip, many with AEB, do all those photos including the unwanted ones go into my iCloud Photo bank and get shared to all my devices, or only the photos I process and consider "keepers"? Hopefully there's some way to flag photos for cloud storage.

 

[flynz4]

For example, if I import 1000 images from a trip, many with AEB...

Maybe my brain is not working today. Definition of AEB?

/Jim

 

[jc1350]

Maybe my brain is not working today. Definition of AEB?

/Jim

Auto Exposure Bracketing. Take 3 shots of the same scene at "correct" exposure, -1/3 stop and + 1/3 stop (with the actual - and + being photographer's choice - could be full stops for example).

 

[flynz4]

Auto Exposure Bracketing. Take 3 shots of the same scene at "correct" exposure, -1/3 stop and + 1/3 stop (with the actual - and + being photographer's choice - could be full stops for example).

Got it... I actually use it quite a bit when I am on a HDR binge. AEB is one reason that I love Aperture's stacking feature. I auto-stack and then they just appear as a single image.

I am OK with all of my photos being synced to the cloud. Storage is "free", and cloud storage is on the path toward becoming free. (Free - def: cheap enough that I do not care). However, I do want some method of specifying what is shared... and also filtering for what I see.

So for example... using Aperture's metaphors... I'd want only stack pics to be displayed. I'd also want filtering on other metadata such as stars.

/Jim

 

[The Bad Guy]

I'm not saying peoples photos aren't important to them - I'm saying they're not 8 pages of internet thread important.

Pick a DAM and move on people.

 

[maflynn]

I'm not saying peoples photos aren't important to them

But you did

Most of "our" images are ****. "We" have a massively over inflated sense of self worth here. 99% of "our" photos should be deleted.

- I'm saying they're not 8 pages of internet thread important.

Pick a DAM and move on people.

I have moved on, I'm rocking with Lightroom, that doesn't mean I don't want to contribute and discuss things in this thread. If you're not interested in the content of the discussion, that's fine, but I think many of us are.

 

[r.harris1]

I'm not saying peoples photos aren't important to them - I'm saying they're not 8 pages of internet thread important.

Pick a DAM and move on people.

Thanks for the thoughtful words of wisdom and the helpful advice. My guess is that most people do have a DAM process and some are moving from one to another or are exploring options, but for various reasons all feel the topic is interesting enough to have an 8+ page thread. Of course, no one (to my knowledge) is making you participate.

 

[InfiniteLoopy]

There now seems to be a tool for exporting Aperture libraries into a folder structure, including baking edits into TIFFs or JPEGs and creating folders of previous smart folders:

apertureexporter.com (In beta, so usual caution should be applied. At a minimum, backup before using).

I’m still set on waiting for Photos, but I can’t help wondering whether I shouldn’t use a folder structure rather than a database (or rather, images in a flat structure, but viewable through a DAM that would enable star ratings, searches by keyword...).

Also, I wonder if I should settle for baked in edits. What I mean is once I’ve edited an image, create a TIFF file instead of just keeping everything as a “layer“ on top of the raw file that can only be viewed in a specific program. Obviously, I’d have the original raws too.

 

[Ray2]

I’m still set on waiting for Photos, but I can’t help wondering whether I shouldn’t use a folder structure rather than a database (or rather, images in a flat structure, but viewable through a DAM that would enable star ratings, searches by keyword...).

I use Aperture in a referenced mode and have just started thinking about the same issue. If you change to anything other than Photos, yes, you should switch to referenced. A big however is do this just before you make the switch. You'll want to first back up the managed library to a safe place, stop doing edits or DAM in Aperture, create the referenced files.

Once you've gone to referenced its almost a certainty you will make changes in parts of the hierarchy, a drive, whatever. At that point your referenced Aperture library will be a slew of files than can't be located. So you may as well trash it and move on with the new. Or, you maintain your hierarchy and continue to use Aperture, your backed up managed copy will not reflect these changes.

I'm just starting to think through this so others please feel free to chime in.

 

[MCAsan]

There are pros and cons of doing managed vs referenced libraries/catalogs of images. I think there are several things to consider:

• how many images are there to be managed in the foreseeable future
• is you Mac a Macbook with relatively limited space or an iMac with up to a 3TB drive
• do you want to create completely separate libraries per customer or topic
• If you have a Macbook, how much of the overall library(s) do you need to carry with you vs having the data on external drives

It will be interesting to see if Photos will have a similar powerful DAM concept that supports managed or referenced libraries. As I remember Capture One will let you do either managed or referenced libraries.

http://www.lifeafterphotoshop.com/managed-vs-referenced-files-in-aperture/
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7625
http://archive.bagelturf.com/aparticles/qanda/files/8992c352f4d1429747200b3e06c215fe-42.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziSVtiUUiHU

 

[jakesaunders27]

Quick question, does Lightroom automatically use referenced files when you import, so the files that you import are in a folder and lightroom just references them and doesn't change them, that data is in the Lightroom library?

Thanks

 

[Razeus]

Yosemite frankly shouldn't even launch until the Photos app is ready.

 

[OreoCookie]

Yosemite frankly shouldn't even launch until the Photos app is ready.

Why? Apps should be released when they're ready, and Apple has said it'll update Aperture (and I assume also iPhoto) so that they run on Yosemite.

 

[maflynn]

Yosemite frankly shouldn't even launch until the Photos app is ready.

You realize that Yosemite is more then a vehicle for the new photo app, and that many people who won't take advantage of that new app are eagerly waiting for the new OS.

 

[thedeske]

Quick question, does Lightroom automatically use referenced files when you import, so the files that you import are in a folder and lightroom just references them and doesn't change them, that data is in the Lightroom library?

Thanks

It makes 2 files - a catalog(not library) called lrcat & a preview file called lrdata (the thumbnails,etc)
It does not move the photos around unless you tell it to on import (copy)
or move them afterward (different folder or drive) Correct, the photos in folders are never touched, so non destructive. The app only needs to know where they are, external or internal, etc.

There is a "Library" module where you can see everything imported into a catalog, even if the drive with the photos is not plugged in. This module is using the thumbnails in the lrdata file.

You can check out the basics at AdobeTV - many free videos

 

[MCAsan]

Two different cases:


The first case is importing photos out of a camera or memory card. LR will import the images in the folder structure you tell it to use. Personally I have it import photos to /Pictures/2014/(folder for the day the photos were taken). You can decide on the folder structure you want. You can tell LR to copy the original files unchanged (leave the raw format) or copy and convert to the DNG format. Personally I stopped doing the DNG conversion.

The second case is the files are already on your computer. So you will not be importing them. You will be adding them to the catalog. LR will not have any reason to move them. It just needs to know their location.

 

[jakesaunders27]

^^ Thanks guys, helps a lot going on holiday soon and trying Lightroom instead of Aperture and see how I get on with it, cheers!

 

[Razeus]

After a clean install of Mavericks this past weekend, I no longer have iPhoto or Aperture on my Mac.

 

[MCAsan]

Evidently Yosemite beta goes public tomorrow.

 

[captain kaos]

Ive tried LR, and couldn't get on with the UI. Ive been with Aperture since the start, and this news just blows. Another kick in the teeth for Pro users in my book. I can only hope on a few things:

1) I can keep going with Aperture. My cameras are all supported and i shouldn't be upgrading anytime soon. Obviously there will be a time in a few years....then i don't know what to do.
2) If the new photos app is non destructive then that may be the way forward.
3). Apple pulls another fast one and make my latest version of Aperture suddenly not work, perhaps even in Yosemite. Now that would be a double kick in the balls.
4) Then i can see my only option would be some of the other programmes,(corel recently bought a nice linux/mac/PC programme which i looked at a while ago - cant remember the name at the moment), but then ive got days of "fun" trying to move 20,000 odd photos into a new library.

Thanks Apple.

 

[Razeus]

Evidently Yosemite beta goes public tomorrow.

How stable is the current betas?