Photoshop vs Aperture
ccpickre
Registered Users Posts: 385 Major grins
Which is better?
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Why don't you tell us what you know, about each? What you shoot, what your needs are.
These are completely different products. Neither is "better" than the other.
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I know a LITTLE about Photoshop, but not enough to be any good.
I know nothing about Aperture because I've only ever used Photoshop.
I'm just curious what the differences are, what they do, and which is better for graphics things.
A more valid question (and a common one) is Aperture vs Lightroom. Which I cannot really answer (use a PC and don't agree with the all-in-one concept, so I think they both stink).
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
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Welcome to dgrin.
I think you might find Photoshop Elements easier to become fluent in quickly, but Photoshop CS or CS2 or CS3 are the standard for graphic professionals across the world. Thus, it is worthwhile to try and gain fluency in Photoshop itself.
Aperture and Lightroom are really not pixel editors, but data base programs that allow working pros who shoot large numbers of images that require little editing to keyword and catalogue quickly. Photoshop allows one to optimize an image pixel by pixel.
For those readers who do not know this young man, he is my son, Chris who is doing a GREAT job at Indiana University shooting photos for the Daily Student - the IU campus newpaper.
SO, everyone, lets try and make him feel welcome.
Lots of great knowledgeable folks here who will be glad to help you out, Chris.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Actually you would likely want to use both, especially if you shoot in RAW. Aperture is mostly a cataloging (DMA) and RAW converter.
As others have said PS is an editing program that also has a DMA (birdge with CS and organizer with PSE).
I use PSE version 5 and several different RAW converters depending on what I want to process. I don't sort my images or tag them so some of the DMA is lost on me
If one or the other get the student version of CS3 when it comes out.
Gene
Now I get it.
I have CS2 (Pshop and Bridge) for my Mac now. Just haven't had a chance to have fun with it, but this summer I'm going to be shooting around town and trying to learn. I have a few art ideas, and charity ideas I'm hoping to get finished this summer.
Welcome to dgrin.
I've been coming here for 2 years
but data base programs that allow working pros who shoot large numbers of images that require little editing to keyword and catalogue quickly.
Still might come in handy since I shoot a LOT. I try to get everyangle, every setting (within reason) and other things. So cataloging may help (I went from about 2000 photos from 04 to 07, to about 6000 now).
who is doing a GREAT job at Indiana University shooting photos for the Daily Student - the IU campus newpaper
I wouldn't say great yet. I do what I can
If one or the other get the student version of CS3 when it comes out.
Still a little out of my price range, even with the student discount
We won't discuss how I purchased CS2 though
Ok, so more questions I guess. I recently took all of my photos and took them out of the Iphoto library into my own lib. And I noticed some of my JPGs somehow ended up in thumbnail size proportions, even though I had converted them to full JPGs with size 9 or 10 quality (I'll sacrifice space for quality). Is this normal? Did I do something wrong or am I missing something? Or is it possible when I was moving all my photos I accidentally overwrote my JPGs with thumbnails and didn't realize it?
Here's how to look at my photos for the paper so far...
http://photos.idsnews.com/cgi-bin/fotobroker.cgi?t=&c=c12.htm
In the drop down menu for "photographer" select "Chris Pickrell"
Then for "number of photos" or whatever, select all.
It should bring up all my photos, and it's updated semi regularly if anyone takes a personal interest in my work, or learning I should say.
Also, I don't have a smugmug account, so for right now, I have photos on Deviant art.
http://djpick.deviantart.com/gallery/
I don't have much up right now, but I should be uploading a couple hundred within the next week or so. I wish there was a way to do a mass uploader for DA, at least until I finally crack and buy a smugmug account.
Feel free to leave critiques, criticisms, suggestions, or advice. I'm trying to learn as much as I can.
Also, I'm curious, why Bridge won't preview my RAW (Canon CR2 format) files, but photoshop will. I'm pretty sure I installed the plugin for Bridge as well, yet it never previews my Raws, even though the Bridge software on campus does. Did I miss something?
Aperture is MAC only - I should have clarified that.
I am not sure what you did when you took your photos out of the iPhoto Library. I think they need to be "Exported" for best image quality. I don't think you can just slide them out of the iPhoto Lib, but I am not certain about this.
I suspect Bridge won't open your RAW files because you do not have the most recent version of the Adobe RAW converter plug in. The 400xTi is a more recent camera and I doubt that CS2 has the plug in for it unless it has been updated from Adobe'e website. That is why the Photoshop on campus can see the files - it has had the ACR module updated.
Let's see if we can't get up a smugmug account and better situated with software before you upload all your files to devianart.
You can find all kinds of help with shooting and editing techniques here
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
w00t Chris, you've got one of the best guys around, in-house, to teach you BOTH product sets
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I know
I am not sure what you did when you took your photos out of the iPhoto Library.
Actually, I literally dragged and pasted from Finder into my own folder. I didn't do anything from Iphoto at all.
I suspect Bridge won't open your RAW files because you do not have the most recent version of the Adobe RAW converter plug in.
I downloaded the update from Apple so my computer can preview them, and I updated Pshop and it works on them as well. And sometime bridge will see some of them, but not all, even though I put the plug in in its directory as well.
Let's see if we can't get up a smugmug account and better situated with software before you upload all your files to devianart.
Ummm, ok
w00t Chris, you've got one of the best guys around, in-house, to teach you BOTH product sets
I know
Now, I'll be a troublemaker & say that IMHO the Aperture/Lightroom concept is flawed. They are all-in-one apps & end up being bloated & unable to really do any one step extremely well. I'm on PC, so for Aperture only go from the complaints I've seen on fora, and have played with LR and went away disappointed. It really reminded me of the ol MS Works idea--which died fairly quickly as everyone went back to Word/Excel/etc to get real work done. I much prefer a dedicated DAM to do my organization work (IMatch in my case, iView os probably the best bet for a Mac), and a dedicated converter for Raw conversion (Bibble Pro for me). Photoshop comes in as the 800lb gorilla for more serious bit editing & with good reason. It ends up a bit more expensive for all the separate apps & you end up jumping from one to another--but the payback & the possibility to running multiple operations simultaneously & having hte best tool for each job. To me the all-in-ones are like a wrench, great if you need one, but sometines you also need a screwdriver or a hammer--and a wrench doesn't do too well there. So, a different viewpoint to consider.
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
i use both photoshop and aperture. my style of workflow needs each of them seperately. i use aperture to sort through all of my photos from everything. i upload into aperture and then give good photos appropriate star ratings and then create a smart album with all the starred photos from that set. once i get to this point there is a fork in the road.
-if i'm working on a shoot that demands quantity over quality (sports, live bands, most event photos) i cruise through them using aperture. it lets me modify the pictures with enough power that i dont need to open photoshop and does it much faster.
-if i need a few high quality pictures (models, important wedding/event photos), i move to photoshop where i can dig in and make the best possible finished product.
i hope this helps!
just want to say welcome chris, i use photoshop CS3 and Lightroom. For large shoots, Lightroom expedites my workflow and produces a very consistent output.
(I am an IU staff in Indy, and my marketing intern from last summer is a current writer for the Daily Student...small world!)
Use that University software discount while you can, let me know if you need links.
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
Aperture and Lightroom are most certainly not "all in one" apps, and they're not bloated.
They are, at their core, RAW converters as well as rapid sorting/cataloging tools. They are very good at letting you start with 500 photos, and find your 5-10 "keepers" where you want to do some more serious editing. They are also very good at tagging and organizing photos... doing typical "clerical" stuff.
Their closest analogue IMO is Bridge... basically these tools replace Bridge+Adobe Camera RAW in a single application. And for photos that need "light" editing (color space, levels, etc.) you can do it in Aperture or LR... and you can do it much, much more quickly than you can in Photoshop.
Working with iView+Bibble+whatever else is using LOTS of tools, and you can lose track of where everything is. Another key thing that Aperture and LR offer is the ability to quickly FIND things. Yes, iView can do decent cataloging, but its editing absolutely sucks.... really it has nothing to offer there at all. iView is a goner for most folks on the Mac these days... Bridge 1 drove the first stake in its heart (it did for me), and Aperture and LR really broke out the .50 caliber and caught it with a head shot. Well, or maybe it was Microsoft buying it that did that for the Mac side of things
Urban, do you remember their name?
Well, now that I understand the software better, I'm off to learn DIY studio equipment and lighting for a project I want to do this summer
Well, your thread title WAS "photoshop vs. aperture"
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
touche
Like I pointed out many times, my commenst were my *opinion* which I know many photographers don't share. LR is quite popular based on the number of threads I see. I don't happen to agree--I think it's trying to do too much and there are better solutions for each step.
For example, pointing out that iView is weak as an editor. Same goes for my DAM of choice IMatch & my thought is "duh! it's not an editor, it's a DAM!" IMatch, again IMHO, is worlds better at organizing/cataloging than LR & I use the heck out of it; I also leverage the extensibility by accessing the other tools through it (think a receiver in a HT system). By the same token, I feel Bibble is a far superior RAW converter than LR; I realize this gets into the religious debate of "best" RAW converter, so again is just MHO.
It's nice to have the choice, and I was simply pointing out there are other ways to skin this cat than LR. I gave LR a try and was left wanting at each stage, particularly the initial cataloging stage. So, I have elected to stick with my current toolset and workflow, which I've gotten to be quite efficient (example: I've been able to process 8,000 images & go from download to publishing to my SM account in about a week).
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/