First DSLR...picture library software

[tritian]

Ok I have finally taken the plunge and purchased a DSLR, a Nikon D5000, and am looking forward to learning a heck of a lot about photography in the next months and years.

Up to now I have been using iPhoto for my pictures. But I have the feeling I am going to need a better tool for managing and editing pictures soon, iPhoto just does not seem to be the right application for if one has lots of photos to manage.

So what is a better option? I have looked at Aperture and LightRoom 2. Both of which seem decent. I am going through those comparison threads now.

Since LightRoom and Aperture are the only 2 I have looked at, there may be better applications that I am not even aware of. If people have other suggestions I am opening to investigating a new app as well.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[cosmokanga2]

Download both Lightroom's and Aperture's trials and see which you prefer. They are both very similar and both work great.

 

[xIGmanIx]

I have Apperature and haven't even scratched the surface. iPhoto works pretty good and like film, if you setup the shot before hand, you shouldn't have to do much editing.

 

[joro]

I personally chose Aperture over Lightroom and PS (despite formal training on the latter) mainly because I liked the interface and flow of Aperture better. A lot of the great plug-ins such as Nik’s can be had for less than their Adobe counterparts as well.

I agree though, you should download the demo and see which one works for you best. Good luck with the photography!

 

[gkarris]

I have Apperature and haven't even scratched the surface. iPhoto works pretty good and like film, if you setup the shot before hand, you shouldn't have to do much editing.

That's what me, and old-schooler, does. Tries to set up the shot entirely and minimal PP.

I tried the two but iPhoto does everything I need - just maybe slight adjustments and cropping. Also, batch translate from RAW to jpeg for giving the photos to others...

But, the two mentioned are pretty good as well...

 

[tritian]

So it sounds like Aperture and LightRoom are really the defacto choices. No other little apps out there that are really good at the Photo Management piece? Editing I can do in any app, but I am just look at the best one for keeping all the photos organized.

 

[xIGmanIx]

So it sounds like Aperture and LightRoom are really the defacto choices. No other little apps out there that are really good at the Photo Management piece? Editing I can do in any app, but I am just look at the best one for keeping all the photos organized.

If that is the case, iPhoto should solve all your needs. On my PC, i used to just organize into folders by year month date stamp. That worked good enough for backups. on the my wifes Mac its nice because i can look at them all and sort them however i like.

 

[xIGmanIx]

That's what me, and old-schooler, does. Tries to set up the shot entirely and minimal PP.

that is what some good photographers told me when i started shooting pics as a hobby. They said film was good because it forced you to prep the shot due to the cost of developing the pictures afterward. Either program should suit you fine and iPhoto has its place in there as well.

 

[davegregory]

You might want to try Photoshop Elements. It organizes photos and edits them (to some degree). It's $99, so it's a lot cheaper than Aperture or Lightroom. You could give it a shot. I setup my parents with PSE and they really enjoy it. But if you're not concerned with any editing at all, I'd stick with iPhoto. I have iPhoto '09 and I use it to manage photos I post to facebook and flickr. It works really well for those kinds of things. I had used iPhoto in the past, but never liked it until '09.

 

[ChrisA]

Aperture has the advantage that if will directly import an iPhoto library. You will not have to re-do your metadata entry

A good third software to organize is to simply use Adobe Bridge. If you are going to be using a Photoshop base workflow then Bridge may be what you want. It comes bundled with Adobe products

Aperture integrates well with the iLife suite. If you like that it"s the way to go. Aperture's down side is that there is a learning curve. Ipot is easy t learn. Aperture takes longer to learn but is quick to use once to learn the keyboard shortcuts.