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Aperture or Lightroom
- Thread starter plunar
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I prefer Aperture, personally. It requires a bit of a learning curve, but it does everything you could want and it does it very well.
I used Lightroom for a few weeks as well, and while it has good cataloging features, I still prefer Aperture for organizing photos.
I used Lightroom for a few weeks as well, and while it has good cataloging features, I still prefer Aperture for organizing photos.
well, right now i'm downloading lightroom free. so in terms of price i'd say lightroom.
plus lightroom is also free for windows, if you have more than one computer.
plus lightroom is also free for windows, if you have more than one computer.
Something i really love about lightroom is it's auto and pre-set white balance options. the auto does just as good a job as i could do, and does it in a fraction of the time. that's a god send when i'm processing hundreds of photos. aperture seems more flexible, particularly for file management, but it doesn't make my workflow faster compared to lightroom. sure, i can make my own presets for white balance and batch apply it, but every photo is a bit different, and with lightroom i get the speed of batch processing with the tailored subtle differences in metering in each photo. lightroom is also better at handling the exposure as well.
call me a sell out for appreciating an automated workflow, but i just don't have time to fine tune every photo.
call me a sell out for appreciating an automated workflow, but i just don't have time to fine tune every photo.
Having used both, I prefer Aperture. It gets out of the way better, and smoothly integrates with my workflow. Lightroom seems to force my workflow into its model.
I know that doesn't explain it very well.
But Aperture just works without my having to think too much about it. With Lightroom, I kept having to think about the workflow.
The one thing I really liked about Lightroom was its new way of doing curves; but it's not a tool I really need most of the time.
You can define presets in Aperture - you can even get a list of them from Derrick Story.
I know that doesn't explain it very well.
But Aperture just works without my having to think too much about it. With Lightroom, I kept having to think about the workflow.The one thing I really liked about Lightroom was its new way of doing curves; but it's not a tool I really need most of the time.
You can define presets in Aperture - you can even get a list of them from Derrick Story.
actually, now that i know how Lightroom arranges photos in Finder, I really have no reason to ever open iPhoto again. thank you adobe for making the beta 4 free.
Aperture won't run on my g4 mini - wrong video card... but lightroom is very satisfying and I hope it's not $1000 bucks when the beta expires!
I really like lightroom. Let's see what it looks like, how much it costs, and/or if it will be packaged with CS4 (CS3?) in the end.
I have the lightroom Beta, and I have to say that I really don't like it or its interface. I haven't tried aperture, because I don't have a computer that works with it, but I think the interface looks great.
I'd say Aperture but if you've not gone through the manual process of dealing with film, it's going to be uncomfortable at first.
Lightroom is much better for those who don't have experience with traditional film cameras and the process.
Lightroom is much better for those who don't have experience with traditional film cameras and the process.
Aperture
I occasionally use lightroom and it is good. But I downloaded the 30 day trial of Aperture, the day my trial was up I was I had to buy it. So I had to spend the money cause I could not go without it.
I occasionally use lightroom and it is good. But I downloaded the 30 day trial of Aperture, the day my trial was up I was I had to buy it. So I had to spend the money cause I could not go without it.
I'm into day two of my trial of Aperture, and day one of Lightroom and iView. My first test was putting each program's stuff out on an external USB2 drive and pointing them at a directory of images from two days of shooting (mostly raw) on the same disk. Aperature wasn't zippy, but in a reasonable amount of time I could start working with images, though by the time I'd previewed a bunch and cropped a few and was ready to shut it down, it was still busy- but I could use other apps while it was doing its thing. Today I tried Lightroom. It took over my computer and made it totally unusable for about ten minutes before I killed it, no beachball o' death for most of that time, but no ability to clover-tab to another application or do anything but stare at the screen. After about five minutes, I could see the results of my application switch on the screen but the system was still non-responsive. iView was the about the same as Lightroom. I also left Aperture up to finish whatever it started yesterday.
I had about 500 raw images in one directory and five sub directories. Not a huge amount from a two day outing, and nothing like I'd shoot on a week out somewhere interesting.
I may end up with Aperture just because it seems to be the only thing my MacBook C2D Pro can actually be useful with.
I had about 500 raw images in one directory and five sub directories. Not a huge amount from a two day outing, and nothing like I'd shoot on a week out somewhere interesting.
I may end up with Aperture just because it seems to be the only thing my MacBook C2D Pro can actually be useful with.
Lightroom is faster than Aperture, no contest. The difference in speed was greater before (in Lightroom's favour), but now Aperture is faster than before and will work on a MBP or something similar to it. You just had a bad user experience.
I like Aperture because I think it's great for organizing photos. That part is superior. I like Lightroom, and will like it more because version 1.0 will have versioning and master copies, much like Aperture. Organization will still favour Aperture somewhat, but Lightroom's editing power and ease of use means I rarely ever go into another program to edit. So Aperture is slightly better at cataloguing and organizing photos, while Lightroom's editing is far superior (and it's cataloguing is going to be better in 1 or 2 months when v1.0 is released.
Oh, Lightroom also runs faster on the same hardware.
I like Aperture because I think it's great for organizing photos. That part is superior. I like Lightroom, and will like it more because version 1.0 will have versioning and master copies, much like Aperture. Organization will still favour Aperture somewhat, but Lightroom's editing power and ease of use means I rarely ever go into another program to edit. So Aperture is slightly better at cataloguing and organizing photos, while Lightroom's editing is far superior (and it's cataloguing is going to be better in 1 or 2 months when v1.0 is released.
Oh, Lightroom also runs faster on the same hardware.
That's odd, while it started to look fast, Lightroom just locked my system up for the longest time once it'd supposedly imported my images, I've got 3G of memory on a 17" MBP with a 2.33G C2D. How many images do you normally import and in what format and what sized files? I had ~500 NEFs, mostly just over 19M each.
Hints from Adobe put its price somewhere between those of PSE ($100) and PS ($650). That places it pretty close to Aperture pricing, but it could come out to less if they whip up some kind of suite for it.Aperture won't run on my g4 mini - wrong video card... but lightroom is very satisfying and I hope it's not $1000 bucks when the beta expires!
I'm going to be royally P.O.'ed if the price for Adobe Lightroom is more than Aperture, or if it only comes as a package with something else, like the CS3 Suite.
QUOTE=compuwar;3199602]That's odd, while it started to look fast, Lightroom just locked my system up for the longest time once it'd supposedly imported my images, I've got 3G of memory on a 17" MBP with a 2.33G C2D. How many images do you normally import and in what format and what sized files? I had ~500 NEFs, mostly just over 19M each.[/QUOTE]
Again, I don't know why you're experiencing such lag, because Lightroom being faster than Aperture is just a fact. This isn't even an opinion. It's just like how iView Media Pro is faster than Lightroom AND Aperture, although I don't find iVMP useful as Lightroom.
But like I mentioned before, Aperture is catching up in the speed department now that v1.5 is out. However, I expect Lightroom performance to be optimised upon release, along with a versioning feature like Aperture has, so the difference in speed might be much bigger in a matter of weeks.
How so? I'm just curious, and I hope you can explain this.
QUOTE=compuwar;3199602]That's odd, while it started to look fast, Lightroom just locked my system up for the longest time once it'd supposedly imported my images, I've got 3G of memory on a 17" MBP with a 2.33G C2D. How many images do you normally import and in what format and what sized files? I had ~500 NEFs, mostly just over 19M each.[/QUOTE]
Again, I don't know why you're experiencing such lag, because Lightroom being faster than Aperture is just a fact. This isn't even an opinion. It's just like how iView Media Pro is faster than Lightroom AND Aperture, although I don't find iVMP useful as Lightroom.
But like I mentioned before, Aperture is catching up in the speed department now that v1.5 is out. However, I expect Lightroom performance to be optimised upon release, along with a versioning feature like Aperture has, so the difference in speed might be much bigger in a matter of weeks.
How so? I'm just curious, and I hope you can explain this.
I'll agree that Lightroom hogs up the hard drive! After using it sparingly for a couple months I was running out of space! I moved the managed photos, and backup folder, and freed up 25 gigs all for only 500 pictures the app has ever seen! I'll buy it though, especially if it's bundled and works well with pse 5.
I'll buy it though, especially if it's bundled and works well with pse 5.I don't think he is complaining about absolute speed but how well (or not well) lightroom plays with other applications. He says Lightroom "takes over" the machine, forcing it's window to be on top and uses resources so aggressively that others applications don't multi task well with it.