Switching from Aperture, where to start?

[Freida]

Hello guys,

I've been using Aperture for about 4 years for light editing but now that its discontinued and Apple is not supporting it I think I'm ready to make a switch. In the latest macOS the app crashes a lot and I have no patience to deal with this especially when knowing that Apple abandoned it for the ****** photos app. I also wanna take my editing skill further so I wanna learn and improve.
In Aperture I would start with autoenhance feature (if it looked good) and then i would start tweaking things like sharpness, skin smoothing (people) , removing spots, enhancing sky (when landscape), etc. Nothing too complex but decent amount.

Now I think I will wanna learn Lightroom as its widely spread (right?) so where would be a good start to start with the transition? I wanted to stick to Aperture for as long as I could but now I'm just fed up and Apple really doesn't deserve me sticking with their crap so going elsewhere.

What are your suggestions please and how did you handle the transition yourself?
Any good tips to avoid etc., please?

Thank you so much

 

[kenoh]

So I may not be in the same place as you.

I made the same transition a few years ago. However my photography was rotten back in those days so all I did was create an apple disk image big enough to store my aperture library on it and copied it in. Then I explored the pictutes folder inside the aperture library and imported the images I to Lightroom - clean copy and then culled anything OK wasn't I interested in, knowing I had them in my safe archive.

I then watched a load of YouTube videos on using lightroom and also signed up for an online course through creativelive.com which proved very good for subtle little tips and workflow hints.

I have a number of people I subscribe to on YouTube including YuriFineArt who are good at showing how to achieve certain looks.

It was relatively seemless and will be more so if you don't need to preserve your edits like me.

I timed it before I was anywhere near competent at editing so got off lightly really.

Been using Lightroom since November 2013 and never looked back.

I hardly ever go into Photoshop as Lightroom suits my capabilities just fine right now with the odd foray into the Nik tools (free from Google)...

Also this article on Adobe talks about the migration process using their Aperture import tool...

http://landing.adobe.com/en/na/products/creative-cloud/54511-aperture-switcher.html

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Is it for real crashing a lot in Sierra? Others are saying it is just running fine. Because if so I will stay with El Capitan.

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Personally, I really like Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription model (yes it's true there is one person who does and will say it publicly). IMO, $120 US a year is bargain and is a tiny fraction of what I spend on other photography related stuff yet it's a very important aspect of my photography.

For me, switching from Aperture to Lr & Ps was easy. I exported all my original RAW files from Aperture to an external back-up drive for future use if needed. I then exported all my edited Aperture shots in JPEG and imported these into Lr for reference should I want to find a shot to use again or retrieve from the back-up drive to re-edit with Lr & Ps.

Don't be intimidated by Lr & Ps. There are lots of free tutorial videos to watch that make the transition easy. Many of them can be found on Adobe's website.

If you do go for the CC subscription, learn Lr first. It's really not that different from Aperture. As you advance, you can learn the more sophisticated editing tools and options that Ps has to offer. The learning curve is steeper with Ps but worth it if you're passionate about your photography.

One other suggestion...learn and practice the keyboard shortcuts in Lr & Ps. Some people find the interface of these apps a bit cumbersome. Lr has many options to customize the interface so that it can look very much like Aperture and free up valuable screen space. From there it's fast and easy to navigate with the keyboard shortcuts.

~ Peter

 

[robgendreau]

Good time to switch, because the easiest transition is gradual, and when you can still run Aperture.

The most important facts about the move are these: Lr uses only a referenced library, where images are stored openly in the Finder folders, while Aperture can do that OR use a managed library, where all images are copied into a library, which is a special folder structure (package). Secondly, image adjustments are stored in Aperture's library, and don't translate: a given Aperture setting for contrast or WB or denoise doesn't translate to a parameter in Lr. So if you want those adjustments preserved, you've gotta export the finished product from Aperture.

I'd take a look at Aperture Exporter, https://apertureexporter.com It's something that runs with Aperture and can make the transition MUCH easier, and is better for skilled Aperture users than Lr's aperture import tool. It has a demo. So you can use it with existing Aperture projects, and with a demo of Lr, to get a sense of what you want to do. Aperture and Lr can reference the same photos, and by starting with some small groups of stuff you can learn now to make a transition that works for you, since not everyone uses all aspects of either program, and since each has stronger and weaker points.

 

[dwig]

Consider doing this:
1. If you Aperture library is a "Managed" library then convert it to a "Referenced" library.
2. Download and install a Trial of Lr
3. Visit Julieanne Kost's site (http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html) and watch her tutorials starting with the "getting started" videos on basic library management, importing and basic UI.

With a managed Aperture library, you can Import it into Lr using Lr's "Add" option. This will leave the disk files unaltered and unmoved thus maintaining access from Aperture. Also set Lr to use an external XML sidecar file for its edit list instead of embedding it into any RAW files. This way Aperture's edits and Lr's edits will be independent and neither will step on the other's toes. You can continue to use Aperture when needed while still learning Lr.

 

[ChrisA]

Hello guys,

I've been using Aperture for about 4 years for light editing but now that its discontinued and Apple is not supporting it I think I'm ready to make a switch. In the latest macOS the app crashes a lot and I have no patience to deal with this especially when knowing that Apple abandoned it for the ****** photos app. I also wanna take my editing skill further so I wanna learn and improve.
In Aperture I would start with autoenhance feature (if it looked good) and then i would start tweaking things like sharpness, skin smoothing (people) , removing spots, enhancing sky (when landscape), etc. Nothing too complex but decent amount.

Now I think I will wanna learn Lightroom as its widely spread (right?) so where would be a good start to start with the transition? I wanted to stick to Aperture for as long as I could but now I'm just fed up and Apple really doesn't deserve me sticking with their crap so going elsewhere.

What are your suggestions please and how did you handle the transition yourself?
Any good tips to avoid etc., please?

Thank you so much

Adobe LR is the way to go. I think. You have to decide if you want to buy a subscription of a paid of lincenses. The subscription is not bad. you get LS and PS and can use on one any computer you own. If you use multiple devices this is good.

The FIRST step is to backup the Aperture Library in a redundant way. Buy a new hard drive, copy the Library. Tell Aperture to switch to using this new library, check that everything works fine. Then put the new disk back inside the box it came in and take it to work with you and place it inside a file drawer. Use a Cloud service such as Backblaze to make a second backup. I assume you already are using time machine. So now you have the required three backup copies.

The conversion from Aperture to LR is very time consuming and takes a lot of work. At first it seems easy, just use Adobe's script to do the import and wait till it is done. Problem is you can not transfer over you non-destructive edits. You get unproceed RAW files and finished TIFF or JPG files. YOU need to go through the library and edit metadata, make corrections and decide which files to keep. It's the manual work that takes time.

Keep this backups for a long time, even after you have gone through the LR library and you think have everything fixed. And during this process you need to maintain redundant backups of the new LR library

 

[Freida]

Thank you guys for all the helpful info. I think I will go through it all.
One thing I decided to simplify the process is to actually keep what I have in Aperture as is and only my new projects will start in LR. That way I won't have to worry about edits being transferred over etc. and also the library will be smaller to begin with. I might export some pics to jpegs so that way I'm fine with the edits.

I did a few days photoshoot last month which I still haven't edited so maybe that will be a good experiment to start with.
Also, if you guys know about a good plugin for LR (denoise or anything helpful) then please feel free to share.

Thank you all, you guys ROCK!

 

[kenoh]

Thank you guys for all the helpful info. I think I will go through it all.
One thing I decided to simplify the process is to actually keep what I have in Aperture as is and only my new projects will start in LR. That way I won't have to worry about edits being transferred over etc. and also the library will be smaller to begin with. I might export some pics to jpegs so that way I'm fine with the edits.

I did a few days photoshoot last month which I still haven't edited so maybe that will be a good experiment to start with.
Also, if you guys know about a good plugin for LR (denoise or anything helpful) then please feel free to share.

Thank you all, you guys ROCK!

NIK software suite from Google - Free...

Noise Ninja is popular

Piccure is OK but a bit clunky

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Thank you guys for all the helpful info. I think I will go through it all.
One thing I decided to simplify the process is to actually keep what I have in Aperture as is and only my new projects will start in LR. That way I won't have to worry about edits being transferred over etc. and also the library will be smaller to begin with. I might export some pics to jpegs so that way I'm fine with the edits.

I did a few days photoshoot last month which I still haven't edited so maybe that will be a good experiment to start with.
Also, if you guys know about a good plugin for LR (denoise or anything helpful) then please feel free to share.

Thank you all, you guys ROCK!

There really isn't a whole lot that Lr can't do and there's nothing that Ps can't do if you decide to go that route. My suggestion is to learn Lr first before thinking about plugins. That can come later.
[doublepost=1475502478][/doublepost]One other suggestion should you decide to subscribe to Adobe's CC Freida.

In their updater app, you can choose to except or not except automatic updates. Don't except automatic updates. Adobe has pushed out some crappy updates that they've had to fix. Like any application, don't be in a hurry to get the latest. Update only after the people who love to be first to download and install have had a chance to provide feedback and Adobe has responded.

 

[kenoh]

Good shout... Be on the cutting edge, not the bleeding edge!

 

[MCAsan]

Go Adobe CC photography that includes: Lightroom, Photoshop, Lightroom Mobile, space on MyPortfolio.com to post galleries....etc. Some companies, such as Kelby On, offer a discount on Adobe CC for the first year. So you can sign up for a free Kelby One trial and use the member discount link to get a first year CC subscription for $2 off per month.

 

[robgendreau]

What plugins work best depends on what you need to do. Nik is free, so why not?

And there are lots of good workflow and metadata plugins, like these:

http://www.johnrellis.com/lightroom/anytag.htm
https://www.photographers-toolbox.com
µhttp://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies

Everything from tagging, listviews, search/replace, georeferencing, exporting, publishing, and so on.

Another thing I didn't mention is that for some of us maybe the adjusted images left in Aperture aren't so important. Aperture was left for dead a while ago, and the tools for RAW in more recently updated applications are better, even if maybe the interface, etc isn't. Stitching and HDR in particular since they're so popular. And spot removal, and maybe even denoise, lens corrections and other stuff. So re-doing an old image from RAW can sometimes produce better results now than 4 years ago. Not always, but sometimes. Won't necessarily help with really complex looks, or when someone wants an exact reprint of a old image, but it does help with deciding which Aperture stuff to export as big ol' TIFFs vs just a small JPEG to use as a reference for say composition.

 

[TheDrift-]

I made the transition a few years ago when apple dropped support. I just went cold turkey..I kept aperture and my aperture library and just started with Lightroom (I did copy over 50/60 of my favourite pics as tiffs)...after a couple of months I found myself hardly ever opening up aperture.

I found the kelby LR book good pretty good...

 

[MCAsan]

Yes Nik is free....you get what you pay for. All the designers left the company when Google took over and started Macphun. If you want top shelf plugs to run on a Mac platform, look at Macphun's Creative Kit set of apps plus their new Aurora 2017 HDR app that launched last week. The new Aurora is very powerful and has great new features.

Another good choice should be OnOne Software's Photo Raw package when it is released in November. It will have its own raw converters. So you can use it standalone or as a plugin to Lr or Ps.

The good news.....lots of choices.

 

[tgara]

I converted all my Aperture projects to Apple Photos (both RAW and JPGs). I still have access to the unmodified .CR2 (Canon) RAW files, so I can further tweak them if I wish.

Going forward, I chose to use the Digital Photo Professional software that came with my Canon cameras for making edits, etc., and to use a simple Finder file system for management. So far it's working great for me. The Canon software is the best for full integration and scope of edits for my Canon .CR2 files, and the RAW processor is second to none because it has access to certain parts of the image that other processors such as Lightroom do not. Plus it's free.

In terms of workflow, I'll process all my images in DPP, convert the ones I want to share to JPGS, then add those JPGs as an Album in Apple Photos. From there I can use iCloud Sharing to share the photos, or post them, message them, etc.

 

[Chinchilla2020]

Hello guys,

I've been using Aperture for about 4 years for light editing but now that its discontinued and Apple is not supporting it I think I'm ready to make a switch. In the latest macOS the app crashes a lot and I have no patience to deal with this especially when knowing that Apple abandoned it for the ****** photos app. I also wanna take my editing skill further so I wanna learn and improve.
In Aperture I would start with autoenhance feature (if it looked good) and then i would start tweaking things like sharpness, skin smoothing (people) , removing spots, enhancing sky (when landscape), etc. Nothing too complex but decent amount.

Now I think I will wanna learn Lightroom as its widely spread (right?) so where would be a good start to start with the transition? I wanted to stick to Aperture for as long as I could but now I'm just fed up and Apple really doesn't deserve me sticking with their crap so going elsewhere.

What are your suggestions please and how did you handle the transition yourself?
Any good tips to avoid etc., please?

Thank you so much

I just recently decided to upgrade my OS from Mavericks to El Captian, and had been hesitant due to Aperture. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I can't go to Sierra because I have a MacPro 4,1. I'm kinda in the same boat, since I'm still unsure of how to proceed. However this is what I learned:

1. Make a backup of your Aperture library. If you are upgrading your OS, install the new version of Aperture on the new volume. Open the library and let Apeture upgrade the database. After you do this read the following link where it tells you the caveats of having Photos upgrade the library again to make it a hyrbrid database.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202461

2. When it's in hybrid mode, there are a lot of things you need to realize, but at least you'll still be in the Apple Ecosystem. Note, you might need twice the amount of storage b/c I think the new Photos archive makes the database the same size.

3. If you decide to switch Lightroom like I will probably doing, export your RAWs. I haven't done this yet, but read what the other people have said, as I will need to as well. LR is decentralized how it handles photos.

I'm started to get used to LR but I so really miss the brush in Aperture as well as things like shows the selected focus point. Photos seem to look a little better in LR tho. One thing I really like is the lens correction as no photos are flatter as opposed to being slightly rounded/fisheyed.

This is just off the top of my head. I haven't finalized yet on my new workflow but I'm getting there.

 

[MCAsan]

LR is decentralized how it handles photos.

IMHO, a single managed database package was a terrible idea in Aperture. No good way to handle libraries of images that are in the multiple TB range. A referenced library using file system folders is much more flexible. The folders can be anywhere on any connected volumes. I never understood the need for Apple to invent and force the use of abstracted containment layers of arbitrary names such as projects, years, albums....etc. If LR if you want to construct deep nested collections inside collection sets....go for it. You can still see the physical locations in the file system.

 

[TheDrift-]

.....I'm started to get used to LR but I so really miss the brush in Aperture as well as things like shows the selected focus point....

Its been a while since I used aperture..but can't remember the brush being that much different to LR?

If you want to see the focus point...I think you can if you use a plugin.

 

[BJMRamage]

This is all great info. I switched to Aperture and loved the upgrade from iPhoto and not having a need for Photoshop use.

But then Apple decided to drop the ball on photography. I was hoping to have Photos with an Aperture-style plugin to buy from Apple. I have been hesitant in making a switch because aperture does still work for me. I may be getting a new system at work and of so maybe a new system at home and aperture may not work as nicely with sierra. Time for me to really look into a switch.

 

[fcortese]

This is all great info. I switched to Aperture and loved the upgrade from iPhoto and not having a need for Photoshop use.

But then Apple decided to drop the ball on photography. I was hoping to have Photos with an Aperture-style plugin to buy from Apple. I have been hesitant in making a switch because aperture does still work for me. I may be getting a new system at work and of so maybe a new system at home and aperture may not work as nicely with sierra. Time for me to really look into a switch.

If you're completely hesitant to leave Aperture, then keep it. Aperture lost some options with El Capitan, and I don't know if any other functions were lost with Sierra. I left Aperture completely and made the switch to Lr (I have the CC package) in January of 2015 and used apertureexporter, mentioned in an earlier post, to migrate my completely referenced Aperture library. An option to consider is keep your Aperture library in tact but start anew with Lr. You have to keep your photos in a referenced location anyway for Lr. Give it a year with all of your new photos and see what if anything Apple does with Photos. The tools with Lr and PS are too powerful and after learned, really easy to use. My workflow and post-processing is so much better than it was with Aperture. With Lr Mobile, I have pictures I want on my iPhone and I use Lr Mobile's camera for my iPhone photos because I have access to most of Lr's post-processing and they get synced back to Lr on my home computer. Anyway, that's my 2c.

 

[robgendreau]

3. If you decide to switch Lightroom like I will probably doing, export your RAWs. I haven't done this yet, but read what the other people have said, as I will need to as well. LR is decentralized how it handles photos.

I'm started to get used to LR but I so really miss the brush in Aperture as well as things like shows the selected focus point. Photos seem to look a little better in LR tho. One thing I really like is the lens correction as no photos are flatter as opposed to being slightly rounded/fisheyed.

Exporting the RAWs for use in Lr can be useful, but if you are competent enough with Aperture then you could move them from the Library and reference them using Aperture. Since Lr uses a referenced catalog that means Aperture and Lr can reference the same RAW, which can be handy as you transition.

If you're completely hesitant to leave Aperture, then keep it. Aperture lost some options with El Capitan, and I don't know if any other functions were lost with Sierra. I left Aperture completely and made the switch to Lr (I have the CC package) in January of 2015 and used apertureexporter, mentioned in an earlier post, to migrate my completely referenced Aperture library. An option to consider is keep your Aperture library in tact but start anew with Lr. You have to keep your photos in a referenced location anyway for Lr. Give it a year with all of your new photos and see what if anything Apple does with Photos. The tools with Lr and PS are too powerful and after learned, really easy to use. My workflow and post-processing is so much better than it was with Aperture. With Lr Mobile, I have pictures I want on my iPhone and I use Lr Mobile's camera for my iPhone photos because I have access to most of Lr's post-processing and they get synced back to Lr on my home computer. Anyway, that's my 2c.

I agree, but I'd go a bit further and say you should begin a transition NOW while it's possible to use both with the current system software. Some have had more issues with Sierra than just loss of some features; YMMV. It's better to have both Aperture and the new system available in case you need to go back to Aperture to change something.

And of course in the meantime you get use of iPhone RAWs, lens profiles, new tools, and all the goodies available in the more modern Aperture alternatives. Waiting for Photos to do anything at this point is probably a waste, and there could be a downside in stalling.

 

[BJMRamage]

For me, I know I need to eventually make the switch Aperture is dead. Gone. and no direct replacement (or lower-level replacement with option to "upgrade"

so, while Aperture is working and fits my needs, I know I will need to switch from it to another application. I just need to find that time that I never seem to have.

 

[angeloweb]

Lately I've just been storing my photos in folder year/month structure. Slowly exporting my old Aperture projects as I have time.

Using Canon's DPP/Image Browser/Camera Window/EOS for downloading, browsing, editing, and printing. Not nearly the features of Aperture, but DPP gets the picture accurate without me needing to do much developing usually. And it all prints accurately to my Canon Pro-100.

Maybe I'll see what happens with OnOne Raw or whatever else comes out soon. Lightroom just feels awkward compared to Aperture, and my needs aren't that complicated currently.

 

[Freida]

Thank you guys for sharing your experience and suggestions. I think I might try the lightroom thing and might buy the full version. I hate their CC nonsense so if I like it I'll just get it and stick with it for few years

I don't think Apple will revive Aperture so its unfortunately time to move on.
Thank you all