Aperture vs. Lightroom: 2013
Aperture vs. Lightroom: 2013
Discuss Aperture vs. Lightroom: 2013 My iMac is about a year old: 21.5-inch screen, i7 chip, 8 gigs of RAM and a one TB hard drive. I had Aperture 2 on my older iMac and, frankly, I've been getting by reasonably well with iPhoto on the new computer so far. ..., located within Photography: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing. Topics: aperture, computer, frankly, imac, iphoto.
Please bear with my contribution to this topic. Now, I don't want to play the game of suggesting what is better, but rather to share my experiences and opinions. In the end, to each his own.
I owned and extensively used Aperture 3 for well over a year before trying a trial version of LR3. After a very short time with LR, I regretted having spent the $179 at the time on Aperture. LR4 is $149 U.S. new and was only $79 for an upgrade, and even though Aperture is now much cheaper in the Apple App Store I would still pay the extra for LR4 new without any question or hesitation whatsoever. Allow me to explain.
My biggest mistake was how I bought A3 "just because" and didn't even attempt the trial version of LR. (So as a lesson, no matter what, import the same 10 photos into a trial version of each and fiddle around with them for starters.) Anyhow, I got really good at Aperture and figured out most of its features, but then started to get annoyed at some of its 'bugginess' (the darn thing just "wouldn't work" and would hang up and crash - not always, but often enough), its relative ineffectiveness with noise reduction, and lack of lens correction options. Only then did I decide to give LR3 a try. There were other things about A3 that I found clumsy or not too intuitive but better in LR3. Needless to say, not long after I enthusiastically bought the full version of LR3. For the record, my experiences with learning A3 also made the learning curve for LR3 and now LR4 much easier.
I think the LR4 post-processing effects are better, especially noise reduction which I've found to be largely on par with Topaz Denoise. I was particularly blown away by the lens corrections options. And being able to adjust tone and saturation and even white balance by clicking and dragging on very specific portions of a photo just can't be beat. I like the LR Filter options better. I also really like the Survey and Compare view modes. Overall, LR4 seems to give you more post-processing options, or maybe they don't - but in any case, to me they're just easier to implement and are more logically organized, so maybe it just seems like I'm getting more options than A3. In short, LR4 just seems more logically thought out than A3 and it has also never hung-up or crashed on me.
Some Apple users like to have the Apple-like look and interface of A3, one reason why I blindly rejected LR at first. But I soon got over that with LR, especially when I realized the amount of extra "power" I was now dealing with. I also have no problems with importing to the LR4 catalog because, like A3, I can create a folder structure in Finder then create my own structure in LR4 if I wish or use the same one as Finder.
I was also annoyed at first by thinking I had to switch between the Library and Develop modes in LR by clicking on them at the top of the window; in A3, all I had to do was press "W" to toggle between modes. However, I later learned that all I have to do in LR to view photos in a grid is to press "G", to view a single photo press "E", then to develop/process the photo press "D". Problem solved for this keyboard-shortcut junkie!
I should finish by adding that the only really annoying thing I've found about LR is that its Clone and Heal brushes (Clone and Repair in A3) are far easier and quicker to use and much more flexible in A3; in LR4 I'm forced to do these in an external editor. If you're touching up blemishes, unwanted objects, etc. a lot, this is an important consideration. I got around this by buying the Photoshop Elements 10 Editor in the Apple App Store, but I'm also not on a tight budget.
Hope this gives you a lot to chew on!
From PentaxForums.com: http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/digital-processing-software-printing/210308-aperture-vs-lightroom-2013-a.html#ixzz2MfY86soZ