Aperture 2 or Lightroom 2

startingjourney

Is it better to buy a program I am more comfortable with or one that is know to be better? If I started selling photos would I need something better than Aperture? I tried the trials of lightroom and aperture. Aperture was much quicker and easier for me to quickly fix photos. I didn't like lightroom. If I took senior photos and edited them in aperture would the program be good enough? I don't want to regret this purchase but I do have until Christmas to decide.

lilmomma

If you are already familiar with aperture then you should consider sticking with it. I use lightroom 2 but before I purchased it I had the trial, so I was used to it after it ended. I tried aperture after that, and couldn't decide which to get. I'm not an expert but to me aperture was not as easy to use after using LR. From what I have seen and have been told they are pretty similar in the way they function. Aperture is a little cheaper too. One thing that sold me on LR was the downloadable presets. Also plenty of pros use just either one of those programs. I am not a pro but I also downloaded GIMP which is free, and does basically what photoshop does (not as user friendly though..) but is great if you want to do artsy stuff....and hey, can't beat free right?

wadesworld

I haven't used either, but had been leaning towards Aperture, since I'm more interested in managing my photos / making selects than I am seriously in-depth post processing nerd knobs. So, I can't speak from experience, but I can relay the results of my reading.

As of right now, Lightroom has a lot going for it and Aperture has some warts. For example, Lightroom has curve adjustments and Aperture does not. Lightroom can group a whole set of changes and apply them to any picture in the future. Aperture uses a "lift and stamp tool" which while it can achieve the same thing, is more clumsy in its approach. Aperture requires a pretty high-end machine to run - Lightroom's requirements are more modest, etc.

So at this moment in time, to me, Lightroom has the lead. However, some of the areas in which it leads are pretty in-depth post-processing specific, so if you don't do much post-processing, it might not matter. Many people believe Aperture's UI, workflow and speed (on a high-end machine) to be superior to Lightroom, so I don't want to beat it up too bad.

With all that said, Apple is expected to release Aperture 3 sometime in the not so distant future. I think it quite likely that with that release, Apple will leapfrog Lightroom and be ahead again. Until the next Lightroom release.....

I'm still undecided on which I will choose. I want to see what Aperture 3 brings and then I'll make my decision.

colourbox

I'm biased since I use Lightroom, but given that...Lightroom is 64-bit on both Mac and Windows, and has non-destructive local adjustments. Also, Lightroom has faster, wider camera raw format support (there continue to be bitter postings on Apple's own Aperture forum as to why Apple has not supported their camera yet when Lightroom has for a while).

Aperture has support for book-making in the app.

startingjourney wrote:

If I took senior photos and edited them in aperture would the program be good enough?

I believe that on fundamental image quality, both Aperture and Lightroom should produce comparable results. Don't give up on Aperture for that reason. With experience, you should be able to produce equally stunning work in either program.

startingjourney

I had the trial for aperture but I didn't much photos in my albums. I wonder if the full version would make my computer crash as I get into the thousands of images. It sounds like it could slow my computer down. Maybe Aperture 3 will be better? I have a lot of time to decide. I think I will download lightroom again and try the trial to see if I could somehow like the program.

wadesworld

I wonder if the full version would make my computer crash as I get into the thousands of images. It sounds like it could slow my computer down.

Again, I'm not speaking from experience, but all the comments / reviews I've read say that on a good machine, Aperture excels at handling lots of images. In fact, most people think it's better at that than Lightroom.

I don't think you're in danger of Aperture (or Lightroom for that matter) slowing your computer down. You might be in danger of those *programs* not running fast enough if you don't have enough RAM, a fast enough CPU or a fast enough graphics card.

I'm not trying to talk you into Aperture - just trying to show the pros / cons. In fact, Lightroom has gained a ton of marketshare with Lightroom 2 and you're likely to have more "support" (i.e. people on forums who use the same program as you) with Lightroom.

By all means if you prefer Lightroom, go for it. But I think worrying that Aperture is going to crash your computer is not a valid concern - anymore than it would be worrying that Lightroom is going to crash your computer or slow it down.