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Aperture vs. Lightroom

Westside guy

Westside guy

macrumors 603
Original poster
Oct 15, 2003
6,449
4,360
The soggy side of the Pacific NW
 
ah, thank goodness. I thought this is going to be another aperture vs lightroom thread...fuh :)

Anyway great job westside guy :cool:
 
I am getting good results with a new program called "RAW Developer". It handles my Canon 5D m2 files very well. For storing photos I like Iphoto better, it's faster anyway.
 
Interesting - as I am thinking of swapping!

First - Capture NX is awful. Nikon ought to subcontract that out as part of Aperture. The GUI is worse than Photoshop, and that's saying something.

Aperture - which I have had since launch - is almost a great program. However it has far too many bugs to be any good as a professional tool.

As a professional photographer, I cannot simply tell my clients that I have a problem with their images because my software has decided to corrupt random examples and display them as maroon boxes with "Unsupported Image Format" written in them!

Apple do not even acknowledge this as an issue AFIK, yet the web is full of postings from people suffering from this bug. Their arrogance is almost unbelievable.

I am trialling LR and, although the GUI is MUCH better that PS (which I do not own because I am not a sheep!) I still do not like it as much as Aperture in most respects. It is, however, more reliable as far as I can tell - although a 30 day trial is hardly enough to establish that.
 
If you haven't tried Capture NX 2 you should. It gives FANTASTIC conversions right out of the box. Blows LR2 away. BUT, its horrible and working with large batches of pictures and has no asset management.

I use LR2 extensively, but still export out to CaptureNX2 when i really want the best conversion fast.

I like Aperture, but i have too many pictures and am sticking with a more mainstream database for the long haul. What if i go back to PC's? What if i want to bring a catalog to a colleague w/o a Mac and is running LR? etc, etc. there is also a ton more help, books, tutorials online, etc for LR2 than Aperture.
 
TXBDan said:
If you haven't tried Capture NX 2 you should. It gives FANTASTIC conversions right out of the box. Blows LR2 away. BUT, its horrible and working with large batches of pictures and has no asset management.

I use LR2 extensively, but still export out to CaptureNX2 when i really want the best conversion fast.

I like Aperture, but i have too many pictures and am sticking with a more mainstream database for the long haul. What if i go back to PC's? What if i want to bring a catalog to a colleague w/o a Mac and is running LR? etc, etc. there is also a ton more help, books, tutorials online, etc for LR2 than Aperture.
Click to expand...

I agree. NX2 is a worthy update, just like Aperture 2 was a must for anyone that hadn't already jumped ship to LR or any other database software.

If I had a choice, I'd use an Aperture to NX2 setup and leave PS behind only because I ONLY use PS for editing images and nothing else. I may do that once I have the time to use NX2 enough to adapt my workflow with it, but for now it's Aperture --> PS for extensive toning and adjustments.

And the going back to PC thing has come up with my colleagues and I many times, and I have since borrowed a copy of LR from a friend to try it out. Still don't like the UI, but LOVE the flash sites and other nuances. The day I move back to PC will be the day I have to sign up for $3000 worth of Adobe software. :)
 
In my (professional) opinion, both applications are pro-sumer grade apps. The question of which application processes files "the best" will be up for continual debate. I use C1 Pro (3.7.9) to process files & i love it. Phase One has come up with C1 Pro 4.6.x over the last couple of months and it's not quite their yet. Anyway, if i personally had to chose i would go with Adobe. NOBODY knows photography better than Adobe.
 
I tried NX2 and I hated how horrendously slow it was to do anything, especially batch files. I ended up with LR2 because I got it for a great deal and even though I very much like it for basic WB/retouching I still do the heavy stuff in CS4.
 
I just started the switch to Lightroom after using Aperture from the first release.

The process of converting a 100GB+ database to Lightroom has proved daunting to say the least, any good advice on how to accomplish it?
 
Aperture 2 better GUI then lightroom 2

I use Aperture since it came out. It just works for me cataloging and smooth back and forth with photoshop. I been reading a lot about Lightroom and they are so many tutorials and support. So I decided to download a trial, man it took 15 min. missing around with that clanky nasty { windows} looking software its ugly lol I stick to Apple made products they just work for me. Now lets hope they don't drop it, we Aperture Users are waiting for a major upgrade there still hope. :cool:
 
jons said:
I just started the switch to Lightroom after using Aperture from the first release.

The process of converting a 100GB+ database to Lightroom has proved daunting to say the least, any good advice on how to accomplish it?
Click to expand...

Having switched from LR to Aperture, and back again to LR, then back to Aperture, I can say that it's not easy.
 
Mac 13 said:
I use Aperture since it came out. It just works for me cataloging and smooth back and forth with photoshop. I been reading a lot about Lightroom and they are so many tutorials and support. So I decided to download a trial, man it took 15 min. missing around with that clanky nasty { windows} looking software its ugly lol I stick to Apple made products they just work for me. Now lets hope they don't drop it, we Aperture Users are waiting for a major upgrade there still hope. :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm actually giving LightRoom a serious look and at the moment I'm leaning towards transitioning over to LR.

I found the interface to be better then aperture's. The organization of LR is quite different then aperture but different isn't bad. It seems that with LR you're better off not organizing the images in folders too much but rather use collection sets, collections/smart collections to organize your images. I have a very hierarchical organization scheme in aperture, and the model does not fit well with LR

I've been using aperture since day one and I think its strength is in the organization area. One of my pet peeves is the fact that apple seems let aperture twist in the wind and it's largely ignored the fact that people need to edit their images. Aperture's editing capability is rudimentary at best. LR has some fantastic capabilities in editing on the other hand. I know with my luck, the day I buy LR, is the day apple releases aperture 3.0 :cool:

I still like (and use) aperture but as I play with the LR trial I can see that LR has some clear advantages over aperture.
 
maflynn said:
I'm actually giving LightRoom a serious look and at the moment I'm leaning towards transitioning over to LR.

I found the interface to be better then aperture's. The organization of LR is quite different then aperture but different isn't bad. It seems that with LR you're better off not organizing the images in folders too much but rather use collection sets, collections/smart collections to organize your images. I have a very hierarchical organization scheme in aperture, and the model does not fit well with LR
Click to expand...
Actually it fits just fine. You simply keep your heirachical filing [a good idea anyway] and then use collections/set/keywords etc on top of that - best of both worlds. :D
 
I started with Lightroom and then spent a long time with Aperture, the organisational side of things is superb for me. However, I need that little bit extra from the editing side of things before having to use plug ins and Photoshop, which Lightroom gives me. I'm not a fan of the organisation in LR but I'll have to get used to it.

If Aperture 3 allows for presets (as I'm sure it will) and gives a bit more on the editing side, then I'll probably switch back again.
 
As much of an Apple fan as I am, I just don't feel comfortable using Aperture. Lightroom works better for me: it's faster to find, edit, and print within LR than in Aperture.
 
LR2 is FAR superior. Aperture needs some serious improving, especially in the processing department.
 
Razeus said:
LR2 is FAR superior. Aperture needs some serious improving, especially in the processing department.
Click to expand...

It goes back and forth.

No real word on Aperture 3. I am sure that the leap frogging will continue with both Adobe and Apple. I would love Aperture to have a few more editing and toning features, and I would love Adobe to actually care about the way Lightroom organizes and it's database.
 
Capture NX2 without a doubt gives better conversions out of the box. its really amazing. but indeed, its very clunky and a huge chore for batches of photos whereas LR2 is a breeze.

I use LR2 98% of the time and love it, but MAN i wish i could get the initial quality i get out of NX2 with it. i dont know how to get a workflow in order using both of them.
 
I use Lightroom for one reason only - it's multi-platform. If I ever decide to go Windows I don't want to re-do all of the work I've already done r.e. tagging, etc. Sure, I could probably automate the process and make the transition, but who needs that hassle?

Having used both I found both to have pros and cons, so with all things being equal (to me) the multi-platform "pro" won it for LR.
 
I just switched to LR. I like Aperture much better but with Snow Leopard it became unusable. It slows down to a crawl as soon as you apply any modifications to a picture, the more you apply, the slower it gets.

Once 3.0 comes out I'll switch in a heart beat, but for now I'll use LightRoom
 
updated LR and Aperture???

There is a beta LR3 out which from my colleagues, I hear is superb (I haven't tested it yet.) But the BLR 3 eventual release will be much different from the Beta with many improvements over LR 2.x.....

There is no beta of Aperture 3. There is no talk of aperture 3. Only rumors. Apple doesn't care about professional photogs.

I have Phase One Capture one 5.0 and think it is an inferior product. Much too much contrast and vividness when importing NEF images.
 
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