I own a mac and was wondering if the aperture3 software is comparable to photoshop or some of the other editing software?
Best (Photo Editing) software
(43 posts) (25 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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lightroom, capture one, dxo optics pro, bibble 5, ...
there are several titles of software which can be compared to aperture, many also available for mac.. they have all their dis/advantages... lightroom comes with best database supported library option, converts fine with upgrades and does the job best (i manage collections/catalogs with 50.000+ pictures in it).
since 3.0 they also got rid of the lower end quality noise reduction and using camera raw it probably is the way to go for the non medium format shooter (i would suggest capture one if you use their products). also it is said, that capture nx gives slightly better quality especially if you're measurebating do it the nx way..make your own opinion, your can tryout every suite for 30 days i think..
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi,
I would also add that a lot depends upon what you do, volume-wise. If you do a few shots for editorial work or a lot of shots for event work, what you choose to get and _learn_ will make a huge difference.
The "learn" is a hard, but necessary pill to swallow. I have taught Photoshop at the college level for years (and I'm still learning ;-) ), but it isn't necessarily a volume work tool (Lightroom is). But training on any software is a good idea if your goal is income producing. How much training is dependent upon how much income and of course, how much potential, is in your market.
My best in whichever direction you take,
Mike
Posted 2 years ago # -
Lightroom and Aperture are the Nikon's and Canons of the photo workflow world.
there are others but, there are less books about them, less training, less help, etc.
They are most similar to bridge or Picasa, in that they aid organization and management of photos, with some basic editing.
as Roshak said, they both offer 30 day trials, so download both and see what you like.
Just like nikon/canon, you cant go wrong, but there are minor differences. Aperture has better video support for example, also facial recognition and built-in geotagging.
but lightroom has better integration with photoshop and better noise reduction.Read some reviews for details
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/adobelightroom3/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/05/ars-reviews-aperture-3.arsPosted 2 years ago # -
sunderbrew - first of all welcome to the forum, as for using photoshop and aperture (platform doesn't matter generally, I know that there's no aperture for windows but let's skip this) this are two different programs, used for two different kinds of work. photoshop is sth that allows You modify the pictures from inside out, has layers, lot's and lot's a filters and effects, and generally it's designed towards one photo workflow. on the other hand is aperture (and lightroom) - a piece of software designed especially for digital photographers, it allows You to work with all Your pictures and apply (mostly) general correction to them. It's much faster to get through many of pictures in aperture than in photoshop.
one more thing, if You are a mac user, please consider using iphoto, as it gives You a lot of possibilities to manage Your photo library and it's free.Posted 2 years ago # -
This is a bit like an oil thread on a classic bike forum - don't ask me how I know ;^)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Im a windows user, but i'll second the advice about iphoto, i've heard of plenty of pros say that if it wasnt for 1 or 2 specific features, iphoto would be more than enough for them.
Its really powerful given that its free.
in the same vein take a look at picasa, its not as polished but still very good.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I use Lightroom3 a friend uses aperture3. They are about the same but each has a few subtle differences that some tout over other. None of them made a difference to me- I just like the feeling of Lightroom. I use all of Nik plug-ins as well.
Picasa works good as a cheap option. I have noticed that it can really cause Jpeg artifacts when you save too much so be careful.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I use lightroom 3 for 95% of my work. it's a genuine cross platform program and can be used on windows or Mac
It is excellent for ever thing apart from,
When you want remove things like telegraph poles,
Clone or move things
Merge photos for panos
HDR
I use CS5 for the abovePosted 2 years ago # -
Depends what you want to do.
Photoshop is king if you want to make dramatic changes to your photos. Photoshop Elements is well worth a look, too, and will probably meet the needs of most amateur photographers. Elements is significantly cheaper :). If you're on a tight budget, GIMP is worth a look.
Aperture and Lightroom have excellent image management features, but their image editing is more limited than Photoshop. Both are geared to managing your pics and fine-tuning them, rather than making dramatic changes - as sevencrossing points out above, you can't remove telegraph poles satisfactorily, for example. iPhoto is similar to Aperture but its editing features are sorely limited.
My vote goes to Aperture, with Lightroom a very close second. Plus GIMP for those rare occasions when you need more.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Funny that you mention removing telephone polls, I can do that in Aperture in just such a way that you'd never know one was there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
don't know if this applies every where where but you can download free 30 day trials of many Adobe products
http://www.adobe.com/africa/downloads/Posted 2 years ago # -
gelu88 said:
in the same vein take a look at picasa, its not as polished but still very good.I've noticed that Picasa is really lossy, though. Even doing minimal corrections on something (say, straightening) seems to result in huge chunks of data being lost. Maybe there's something I'm doing wrong? Also, the degree of control if you're trying to fix levels or contrast, for instance, isn't as fine as I've seen on many programs.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I use CS5 (the Adobe Camera Raw editor is the same found in Lightroom 3) and Photo Mechanic (camerabits.com/site)
I used lightroom but found it a royal pain the arse, I hate the way it stores and catalogs files. If you come to Lightroom without ever using Photoshop it's relatively easy to use, but if you come from a Photoshop background it can become very confusing and frustrating.
Find a workflow you're comfortable with as there's really no right or wrong way...just remember to back up your files.Posted 2 years ago # -
All of these programs have demos/trials, try them out and figure out what works best for you. I mainly use Lr 3, but keep DxO for certain things. Photoshop is very powerful but for photos I don't need that much power and I prefer the workflow in Lr more.
Posted 2 years ago # -
LR is designed for a efficient workflow first, everything else second.
For example, when i come home with a 1000 shots of 2 back to back basketball games (D7k battery still at 45%!!)and i need to send 10 pictures to my editor by the following morning, no software gets me there faster than LR.
I don't need much editing, and when i do most of it is taken care of within LR, the few outliers are taken care of in Photoshop. But i can tag, reject, flag and rate all my images in a flash.
Plus i (almost) never have to worry about RAW, they are taken care of automatically by ACR.
Posted 2 years ago # -
+1 from gelu88. LR made a huge difference in my work flow management.
If I need some more advanced editing I use an old copy of photoshop elements 7.0. For everything else I use Nik. between those, I don't need anything else.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I downloaw using Nikon Capture and then almost exclusively use PS Cs3 (actions define my workflow) but when I have a cheap client I'll use LR 3.0...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Here are my requirements and usage, I would appreciate any/all suggestions for the best fit of software
Amateur photographer - 90% will be family photos, rest will be landscapes, action/ sports shots maybe some art house stuff down the line
Easy and intuitive organization software - preferably one that will actually move and consolidate all my images on my hard drive
Ability to work with RAW files and convert them to a variety of type of files
Basic to moderate photo editing and touch up
Ability to process and edit video, specifically the video files in the format directly form the camera
Web publishing a plus but not required
Preferably all this in one platform and cost under $150 if possible.
I want to be able to go straight from my camera to end usage with one app
Again - any suggestion would be greatly appreciated
Posted 2 years ago # -
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I'm not a video guy but for photos, I found Lightroom and the Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 Bundle gets me 99% of what I want. Lightroom handles 90% of my editing and helps me keep everything organized better than Elements ever could.
Corel has some great products as well. "X3 ultimate edition" usually comes with their video editor in a bundle and is very powerful. I have X2 and anything Elements can't handle, it can easily do it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Any thoughts on Google Picasa / picnik?
The file organization interface is 100 times more intuitive then photoshop and the editing seems very user friendly to the point of being toy like
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi Alchse,
You'll find tools in Photoshop (in Elements as well as the professional versions) that are far more complete than Picasa - and I am a paid Picasa user.
Of course, I'm also a Photoshop teacher as well. ;-)
My best,
Mike
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks Mike - if I could just get the import / organization functionality to work for PS I would be willing to spend time and effort learning the editing tools.
I want it to search all my hard drive as my stuff is currently poorly organized
When I tell the program to do this - it gets hung up trying to import audio files.
The pictures that do get pulled in don't seem to me in any sort of folder structure nor have I found the utilities to re org the files and folders to how I want them like picasa allows
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi,
You should let the Organizer find the files for you by type and catalog them. Depending upon your drive size, and processor speed, it shouldn't be onerous, a few minutes or so. Unless you were particularly goofy, and I really doubt that, they are likely fairly easy to see.
You could then make further catalogs of what you want, delete or move content as you wish.
My best,
Mike
Posted 2 years ago #
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