Aperture vs Lightroom: any head-to-head comparisons/reviews?

I've spent a good deal of time looking for a head-to-head comparison of Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom and haven't been able to find anything. Can anyone point to to something?
I'm an amateur photographer who is progressing toward semi-professional (from a hobby standpoint anyway). I've been thinking about "upgrading" from iPhoto to Aperture or Lightroom. I've downloaded the demos of both but at this point I'm a little overwhelmed at figuring out which I like better (I know it's ultimately my decision, but would like to see some sort of comparison of the two). I use Photoshop Elements, but tend to be a bit of an Apple fanboy, so am leaning toward Aperture.
Thanks for your thoughts....

This looks interesting.
The Showdown: Apple Aperture and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
A new breed of software has recently emerged that promises to shift the digital photography landscape. Designed to streamline and integrate the digital workflow, Apple’s Aperture and Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom represent an exciting new generation of imaging applications.
What sets Aperture and Lightroom apart from the current stock of programs is the unwavering focus on digital photography, integrating the most critical aspects of the digital workflow from image import, metadata management, and cataloging to image correction and output.
But how well do these applications capture the nuances of the typical professional workflow? How do they compare with existing applications? And what does it take to integrate these applications into your existing operations?
Join us in March for a highly instructive and information-packed evening as we jump headlong into both Aperture and Lightroom and discover the nuts and bolts of how these applications work. You’ll learn how these programs were designed from the ground up to help you tame the digital avalanche and help you manage, select, and output your best images.
You’ll also learn how Aperture and Lightroom fit in with your existing tools ranging from raw converters to digital asset managers such as Microsoft iView Media Pro and Extensis Portfolio. You’ll discover when it makes sense to perform image manipulation within Aperture and Lightroom, and when you’ll need to turn to a higher-end image manipulation program, such as Photoshop, for advanced adjustments.
Our panelists will provide expert advice on how to use advanced new features in both programs to quickly examine hundreds of images, and how to organize your libraries for maximum flexibility and efficiency. You’ll also learn about new high impact options for outputting your images to print or the Web.
So be sure to join us in March for a lively and comprehensive exploration these two exciting new applications. You’ll come away with a good understanding of what these applications do, and how they compare with existing tools you are already using. You’ll also discover time-saving tips and learn important best practices that will help you maximize efficiency and capitalize on the state of the art in digital tools.
Speakers:
TBA
Sponsors:
TBA
Venue:
Blue Sky Rental Studios
2325 Third St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.626.7232
Date:
Tuesday, March 13
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Social hour: 6:00 p.m.
Cost:
ASMP members Free
Students $10
General $20
Advance Tickets: through Pay Pal
Jeff

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  • IPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom

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    I'm a big user of Photoshop for my consulting work as well as my serious photography - cropping, color balance, adding text and symbols and the precise management of color in the printing process - I do most of my own printing on an Epson 2200. How easily can I go from Aperture to PS and back to Aperture?
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    Ed

    I use SuperSlideshow Pro for creating my web pages. I want to keep the "slideshow" format - am I correct in that Aperture only produces thumbnail type galleries?
    Correct, although there are export plug-ins for Gallery etc.
    From what I've seen on this forum I have concluded that I will be better served to export/import all my iPhoto images to Aperture rather than access the iPhoto images via references - is this correct?
    I never had enough images in iPhoto to know, hopefully others can answer.
    Two features in iPhoto that I use frequently are to email images (often reducing the file size) and to export images for resizing for other purposes - insert in Word reports, upload to a photo forum that I belong to (Photozo.com),
    Aperture has an 'email image' function, you can set quality/size etc. For use in other apps such as Word you will either need to turn on Preview generation (with a performance hit) and will be able to drag-n-drop directly, or you will need to export Versions as needed to the Finder and then import to the other app.
    merge into a data base I created in Filemaker for managing the printing, framing and displaying of my work at various exhibits. Are these features available in Aperture?
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    Note that LightRoom has no scriptability +at all+, and only gained the ability to add export plug-ins in the most recent version, so there aren't many yet.
    I'm a big user of Photoshop for my consulting work as well as my serious photography - cropping, color balance, adding text and symbols and the precise management of color in the printing process - I do most of my own printing on an Epson 2200. How easily can I go from Aperture to PS and back to Aperture?
    Reasonably easily, but it's going to involve 16-bit uncompressed files so will use up HD space quickly. You shouldn't need to be doing any cropping or colour balancing in PS as that can be done first in Aperture.
    I get a feeling that MacWorld SF 2008 may give us an update to Aperture - any thoughts here?
    It seems likely...
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    A minimum of 2GB RAM and as good a graphics card as you can afford...
    Ian

  • Finder vs. Aperture/iPhoto/Lightroom et al

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    To get an idea of the benefits of Aperture and Lightroom you might visit the DAM (digital asset management) forum and see what they say about those applications over there.
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  • Export aperture to lightroom

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    From an Aperture point of view this is quite simple: Export your images to the Finder, write any metadata you prefer to the images on export, at whatever setting you choose.
    https://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=21%26s ection=1%26tasks=true
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    All you say about Aperture problems is:
    The next thing I tried was just exporting one project (march photostream, with 800 images) to my desktop in a folder. That also seemed to have an error or two,
    I'm not sure what help you expect with a problem described as vaguely as "an error or two".
    what to do about my workflow - should I be trying to export folder by folder from Aperture? Exporting Versions?
    I exported project by project from Aperture. Then imported to Lightroom. There  is no right way, there is only the way that you want to do.
    Same with exporting versions or originals. No right answer. It's what you prefer.
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  • Aperture to Lightroom Export/Import question

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    Thanks. Steve

    I tried the plug-in (got a trial version of LR5) and after making sure that my entire Aperture Library was referenced, started it - and made sure to tell it to leave the files where they were! To my dismay (1) a lot of photos that I would have expected to be imported came back with errors - even though the ORF Olympus RAW file was a supported camera and more importantly (2) a lot of my photos that were in particular folders, now found themselves in folders based upon the date the photo was either taken or imported into Aperture. Now I read about this - but it is only supposed to happen if you had a managed library and then LR would move the image files into folders based upon dates.
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  • MBA and Aperture or Lightroom

    Does anyone have experience using the Late 2008 1.86GHz MBA with either Aperture or Lightroom? I am a newcomer to digital photography and was warned off the 1st gen MBA for use with either of these programs.
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    Aperture Works great. If you are doing any editing etc - the fan will come on after a minute or 2 - but it runs fine. I submitted a large review of the new MBA SSD machine and the various heavyweight programs it can run well etc, but it was rejected by the site admins here since I didn't ask any questions in my review.
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    Message was edited by: McGilli

  • Aperture vs Lightroom Color Renderign

    Like many I have downloaded the Lightroon beta to stack against Aperture. It is an interesting excercise to run the two side by side on a 30" screen. Takes a bit of grunt.....
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    Rgds
    Chris

    I think I am doing better than that. In the small cog menu at the top of the Aperture adjustments pane there is a menu option 'Remove All Adjustments' which I select prior to comparison. Likewise in LIghtroom there is a Reset button bottom right corner of the Develop pane. I would point out however that even pressing this reset button produces a different color rendering than that in the Library area of Lightroom. I therefore see THREE raw states
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  • Aperture to Lightroom

    When I migrate my photos from Aperture to Lightroom, will my photos merge with any preexisting Folders in Lightroom of the same name or will they remain in a separate Folder called Aperture?
    If they remain separate, will I be able to move them into a folder or Collection within Lightroom?
    currently my photos are on my hard drive in Pictures in Aperture.
    thanks
    john

    Hi John
    It depends on your set-up in Aperture e.g. whether you have a referenced library or a managed library. Some users are awaiting Adobe’s next iteration of the plug-in but if you wish to try now, Victoria Brampton has a useful article on her Lightroom Queen blog.
    http://www.lightroomqueen.com/ready-move-aperture-iphoto/

  • Aperture to Lightroom: Switching experiences?

    I'm wondering what experiences any users can share who have made the switch from Lightroom to Aperture.
    How long did it take you to convert your Library?
    How is the performance working for you in the new application?
    What features of the new application have surprised or dissapointed you?
    Was it worth the trouble to change?
    Thanks for sharing!

    Before Aperture 1.5, I used Lightroom extensively. In fact, I was asked to be in a select group of Beta testers that were able to communicate directly with the engineers. It is a good program and does the job for some people. However, after trying Aperture 1.5, I never went back to Lightroom. There were 3 main reasons:
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    3) I processed some of my typical images using Aperture and Lightroom, and thought Aperture's photos looked better. Aperture's files were natural and film-like (without the grain!), while the Lightroom files had a plastic look to them.
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    I am a Canon shooter and have not been affected by the recent delay in support for new cameras. I would suggest people waiting for support to look at the big picture. First, you will not be updating your camera on a frequent basis. The D3 and D300 are far superior to older Nikon cameras, which caused Nikon shooters to jump at the new cameras. Future Nikon camera improvements will probably be more modest and you will not immediately need to buy them. Second, I think the Apple people have learned from this experience and may be able to implement changes for quicker support. I have no personal knowledge of this, but it just makes sense. And third, with Joe Schorr's posts, it is obvious the new camera support is almost here. It would be ashame to jump ship with support just around the corner.
    If Aperture will benefit your business, then try find a workaround for this short period of time. What about shooting raw and jpg files and using the jpgs in Aperture? Then you would have the raw files to use with ACR for problem images.
    My 2 cents,
    Dan

  • Aperture to LightRoom conversion

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    Mike

    I just moved my images from Aperture to LR beta and the method I used took a little work but it went very smoothly, which is what I care about.
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    With Apple pulling the plug on Aperture, I reluctantly went over to Amazon and bought a copy of Lightroom 5.5.
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    I have a list as long as my arm of things I can't figure out how to do. I have to have a browser open Googling every bloody thing I want to do and many times fail to find an answer.
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    I wanted to share the 2 Lightroom face plants from this week, trying to figure out how to make this thing work.
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    I launched Aperture, went to the Shared services and selected my Flickr and in flowed the new album and photos synching up without any monkeyshines.
    #2 iCloud Photostream is absent:
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    I fee like I'm in a nightmare and I can't wake up.

    #1 I don't use Flickr so I can't say.
    #2 doesn't surprise me: Adobe wants you to use their sharing tools. I can't really hold this against them.
    Note that while Aperture and Lightroom do very similar things, they aren't the same programs. You'll need to learn a bit about how Lr works and it's not necessarily "wrong," it's just different to what you're used to. Moving the same way could be similarly frustrating for people.
    As far as deleting images, Lr is actually pretty good. For me, to delete photos, I just hit the 'x' key on a photo which marks it as rejected. Then I move on. Eventually I hit command-delete which will delete ALL rejected photos in the selected folder. It works fairly well.

  • Swith from Aperture to Lightroom?

    Considering switch from Aperture to Lightroom (have used Aperture for 6 years, but also PS). Aperture is giving me "unsuppoerted format" notices on existing files. If I go to Lightroom, will I be able to go back into my old Aperture libraries?

    That article contains a lot of irrelevant details and isn't very clear about the key steps.
    For your raw files, use Aperture's File > Export Masters and make sure that, as you are migrating raw files, that you tick the Create IPTC Sidecar File (the screenshot in that article is misleading).
    That creates a copy of your files - so you will need free disc space equal to the existing disc space taken up by those raw files. You then use LR's File > Import command to bring the files into LR. Just follow the standard import process - ie don't follow that article's advice to Copy as DNG (that's another issue).
    Essentially that is it. Try the above with a few raw files, just to see the basic process for yourself. Then deal with any other complications.
    John

  • Interesting speed test - Aperture vs Lightroom

    Still noodling on the whole Aperture v Lightroom thing and I as I mentioned in an earlier post, I like the corrections (develop) portion of Lightroom but pretty much like everything else in Aperture, especially the workflow and organization. The thing that I find troubling is the SLOW speed of Aperture.
    So, I have Windows running on my 1GB Macbook via Parallels and installed Lightroom for Windows and it FLYS. The speed is the same or faster under Parallels/Windows than Aperture is natively and may be faster then just OSX version of Lightroom. . .wow.
    This leads me to believe (hope maybe) that a performance bump for Aperture is in the works and probably won't be that hard for Apple. It almost seems like some debug/logging has been left on. . .
    Adam

    I totally agree that in real life working conditions that Aperure is a faster program. I think we have to qualify this speed issue...Lightroom has less system requirements that Aperture so it appears to be faster on the surface. The best way to test the program is to run it through its paces with your current workflow.
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    PRoS
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    - Can create and share Presets with other users and apply Presets on Import
    - History - can go easily back to Prior state
    - System requirements not that stringent. Can also Mac & PC
    - Healing Brush/Clone Tool is nicely done
    - More Camera support...
    CoNs
    - File Management (DAM) seems to be the least in depth part of the program.
    - Stacks/Virtual copies could be more intuitive. This seems more to be an after thought in this program and I am not sure what Adobe was doing here. Aperture just does a much better job in its exectuion. People that use both prorams will understand what I mean. Lightroom Also doesn't handle the import of Raw/Jpegs with same name well. Need to do a workaround.
    - Modules (forces you into set way of doing things). The best part of the program is how easy it is to figure out due to the modules, but that is the part of the program that limits you the most once you figure it out. You end up hating the thing you love the most. The modules slows down your workflow to the point that it is counter productive and negates any speed increase the program has on the surface.
    - User Interface is somewhat customizable, but you cannot customize the view as much as in Aperture...I actually found the interface too restrictive with the modules.
    - Email feature and watermark feature not as intuitive. Sends images for email to a folder.
    APERTURE
    - Best FM/DAM Features of the two. Program clearly geared more towards File Mgmt
    - Loupe - This tool alone gives Aperture an advantage
    - Stacks - Extremely well done
    - Versions etc...
    - Can get CLOSE to Canon DPP (colors) conversions when using this program much faster than Lightroom. The best way to describe this is Aperture has less editing tools, but they are all very functional.
    - Faster to Navigate and do things on the fly due to open nature which greatly speeds up your Workflow. Program geared more towards managing large amount of images IMO. The open nature of the program makes it much faster tool to get a final product when working with large number of images.
    - Emailing functions are very intuitive (e.g. adding watermark etc). Click on email and my image goes straight to mail resized and with a watermark just add the persons namde and hit send. This is one feature that illustrates why with Apple you feel as if you are working with one big program, than a bunch of seperate programs.
    - More Customizable UI..Can display images a multitude of ways
    - Presets for each section
    CoNs
    - Learning Curve. The program is daunting at first due to its wide open nature. I suggest buying a book or you will miss out on many of its features. Many folks are not aware of the depth of the program.
    - Focus was on clearly more on File Mgmt features than on editing features. The Editing features needs to be more in depth and improved. E.g. The Lift and stamp Tool is extremely difficult to use. Lightroom also has a few features that Apple should a good look at. I.e. Curves, History, More sliders etc.
    - POWER HUNGRY - The program requires way too much computer (GPU) to run it adequately. I think Apple focused too much on using Aperture in the beginning to promote hardware. The program still cant get pass that stigma.
    - The program locks you out once you start your conversion to Jpegs (you can’t work in the program during this time). Apple has to correct this because it really cuts down your productivity.
    Conclusion
    The best way to figure out if a program works for your particular needs is to test it under your working conditions. I had a week of down time and I decided this was the time to learn and test Lightroom vs. Aperture because I was looking for an alternative to Cannon DPP mostly due to how it handled shadow details and also sorting through pics etc.
    Background: I am a fashion/model photographer and in my field we shoot a lot of photos to ensure we have that Money Shot . A shoot with over 1000 images is quite common. From this I have to narrow down to the best photos to send the presentable sample to the client without overwhelming them. One week turnaround is customary. I shoot only RAW so I have to do some edit to get the pictures to a state where they POP. Photoshop is not used in this phase unless I see a shot that needs something done that my DAM software cannot do and I HAVE to send it to the client because it is a winner.
    After testing both software, I chose Aperture. It has some drawbacks, but I found it t be the better program for my needs. It helped me tremendously to sort through photos, apply keywords and create smart albums. For Example I came up with a key word Submission Package and I created a Smart Album tied to that keyword. I went through the images and tagged all the shots that caught my eye immediately with that keyword. This was while deleting the obvious bad shots, and editing the pictures and lift and stamp. Click over to the smart album titled Submission package and all the shots I want to send was sitting there already edited and ready to go. This made the program much FASTER in getting a final product.
    I tried this with Lightroom, but the modular nature frustrated me because I don’t do things in a set order...For Example I might be applying Keywords, then see a pic I want to crop, then I decide I want to stack a few pics, then I want to tweak a photo. I was so tired of switching between modules and trying to remember what I could do where that I just gave up and went back to Aperture.
    Ultimately I found that Aperture was a faster program in exection. At the end of the day it is all about of getting a great product in the shortest amount of time to my client and Aperture helped me the most to meet this objective...
    Macbook Pro Core Duo 2.16   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

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