Lightroom vs Aperture

[mirffy]

Now I'm aware, that this might all just boil down to personal preference, but I'll just ask away anyway.

I'll be getting myself an iMac sometime soon (which will be my first Mac), and would like to switch my photography workflow from "the small occasional PS adjustment" to either Aperture or Lightroom.

So what do you use/prefer? Have you tried both? Why did you settle with one over the other? Does it offer any essential element of your workflow that is doable on the other with far too many steps? And again Is it just personal preference?

Any insight would be very helpful

 

[swiftaw]

There are at least half a dozen threads with this same title, try searching the forums.

It's pretty much a personal preference. Both apps offer 30 day free trials, so you can test them out.

 

[Aperture]

Just for the record, this topic has been discussed countless times. You will find tons of answers by doing a search. (I realize this sounds sarcastic-y but I'm not trying to come off that way) Edit: Beaten to it

I use Aperture. I think it fits my personal workflow better than LR & I'm not really a fan of the modules in LR, I like just having everything right in front of me.

If you go for Aperture, try to get at least 2Gb of RAM for it to run well. I only have 1Gb and it runs decently but could be faster.

Congrats on the Mac, though!

 

[mirffy]

For the record: I did have a quick look through the forums, couldn't be bothered with reading millions of posts all only stating "Aperture this" or "Lightroom that". I'll give you that much, that I didn't want to spend years on searching, and gave up pretty quickly after that.
So far experience has proven though, that either people post about Aperture and swear by that or vice versa with Lightroom - seeming to end up in something similar like Canon vs Nikon.

Hence my asking if there is any substantial difference, or if it really just was personal preference (maybe updates added some support here or there, that you needed?).

So should you still want to add some insight I'll gladly accept it.
I'll definitely try them out though, and thanks for the advice, Aperture

 

[Westside guy]

Be warned, my response may piss you off. Unintentionally, but even so...

I prefer Aperture.

It really boils down to personal preference; but if you're not a patient person - and I mean no offense by this, but the first impression you give leads me to believe you're not particularly patient - you should probably just go for Lightroom if you're already familiar with Photoshop. Its tools work pretty much the same way as Photoshop's tools work.

Aperture is quite flexible and powerful; but it works differently than Photoshop. To give it a fair shake takes some time.

 

[marioman38]

It is personal preference. I tried both, liked both, and went for Lightroom. They both do pretty much the same thing, and they both do them well. I liked the interface of lightroom, although many disagree. I don't really swear by it. I was going to switch to aperture for multi-display support, by it ended up being difficult to change libraries over, so I didn't get the ext. display anyway. Like others have said, get the trial, and use your judgement as to which is the better app.

 

[termina3]

For the record: I did have a quick look through the forums, couldn't be bothered with reading millions of posts all only stating "Aperture this" or "Lightroom that".

Then why should we be bothered with replying to your entitled attitude?

 

[Full of Win]

I like lightroom, don't know why, but lightroom just worked for me. I'm looking foward to the 2.0 versions, which should be out more sooner than later, where I'll look at aperature once more.

 

[Kamera RAWr]

Then why should we be bothered with replying to your entitled attitude?

Seconded! Not trying to be a jerk, perhaps though thats what I am being... If you saw the past "Aperture vs. Lightroom" threads and couldn't be bothered to read the posts, what makes you think this one is going to be any different?

The responses will all be similar to past threads, especially since there hasn't been any major revisions or updates in quite a while

 

[tersono]

I think it also depends on what machine you're using:

personally I prefer Aperture, but Lightroom seems to be a bit snappier on older hardware, and is also a little less demanding on screen real-estate (IMHO).

Both are great apps - the simple answer is to download both trials and see how you get on...

 

[JFreak]

Aperture seems nice, but what's wrong with the freebie iPhoto? So far I've been fine with it as well. As soon as I find it's not going to handle my library well, I'll order Aperture to replace it with, but so far so good. I'll be editing in PhotoShop anyway.

 

[heiesuke]

I for one am glad u made this thread. It saves me time looking thru archives and so forth, for opinions. I've never used Aperture, since Lightroom has done the job well for me so far.

 

[tersono]

Aperture seems nice, but what's wrong with the freebie iPhoto? So far I've been fine with it as well. As soon as I find it's not going to handle my library well, I'll order Aperture to replace it with, but so far so good. I'll be editing in PhotoShop anyway.

There's nothing wrong with iPhoto if all you need is management of an image library. It's a terrific little app.

Aperture does rather more than just manage your image library, however, as it includes a wide range of correction tools. It works very well in my workflow for post processing images - better in some ways than Photoshop (although I use both tools extensively) - and often more convenient as I can manage my library and process images all in a single application.

 

[mirffy]

Well so far I've only seen iPhoto on my girlfriends Macbook, and it doesn't seem to cover my needs. I like adjusting the levels a bit, sharpening, and maybe straightening out the pictures if I was just slightly off, those kind of little things. So does Aperture and Lightroom handle their library similarly well?

Westside Guy: I know it wasn't hard to guess, and yes I indeed can be quite impatient, but I'll give both a try anyway. Who knows, I might end up in love with Aperture anyway

Kamera RAWr: That's the thing, all i saw was posts titled "Aperture this" and "Lightroom that" - no "Aperture this Lightroom that". I guess I just couldn't have been bothered to flick through the search result pages, or refine my search and found it simpler to just post a new thread. Also, I did read other articles on o'reilly about Aperture and Lightroom, but they never really compare both, they just say "I'm an Aperture guy, trying Lightroom..... Conclusion: I ended switching back to Aperture" or vice versa *sigh* nothing really very helpful for an undecided person if you ask me.
I apologise for that jerkish behaviour, I just can't stand being accused of not being able to use a forum and not having searched it (even though I might readily do so too).
So if you have any Aperture vs Lightroom threads bookmarked, I'll gladly read them if you post the links.

Cheers

 

[Father Jack]

Lightroom is my choice. It's at V1.3.1 ..

 

[Westside guy]

Kamera RAWr: That's the thing, all i saw was posts titled "Aperture this" and "Lightroom that" - no "Aperture this Lightroom that".

To be fair (and this has been pointed out to me multiple times) - MacRumors search function does leave much to be desired. A lot of times the only thing that works is to browse the indexes page by page; and THAT is annoying and time-consuming!

 

[mirffy]

Westside Guy: Is that so? And here was me thinking, that I'd not have to flick through pages and pages of search results that indeed is VERY time consuming, especially if you have the results displayed as posts instead of threads... I find it definitely lacks a decent overview, but then again, it's the same with all forums.
Thanks for pointing that out though, I wasn't aware the forum search was so "inaccurate" (for lack of any other word that would accurately describe it's shortcomings).

 

[Westside guy]

Westside Guy: Is that so? And here was me thinking, that I'd not have to flick through pages and pages of search results that indeed is VERY time consuming, especially if you have the results displayed as posts instead of threads... I find it definitely lacks a decent overview, but then again, it's the same with all forums.
Thanks for pointing that out though, I wasn't aware the forum search was so "inaccurate" (for lack of any other word that would accurately describe it's shortcomings).

Yeah, I find that a search like "aperture lightroom site:forums.macrumors.com" entered into Google works a heck of a lot better.

 

[obeygiant]

lightroom is faster and more intuitive for me. Also the interface has a level of customization that makes it nice to work with in the studio in front of clients. For example you can insert you studio logo over the Adobe logo. I'm unsure if Aperture has this feature.

 

[Aperture]

lightroom is faster and more intuitive for me. Also the interface has a level of customization that makes it nice to work with in the studio in front of clients. For example you can insert you studio logo over the Adobe logo. I'm unsure if Aperture has this feature.

That's pretty cool, actually. It wouldn't make sense in Aperture, though, because there is no Apple logo in the app or room for your own logo.