Lightroom vs. Aperture (1 Viewer)

[Ted Todorov]

Any words of wisdom out there?

I am a longish time Aperture user: I bought it because I need to merge a bunch of iPhoto libraries and kept using it because I knew how to use it (and owned it) and eventually got to be really fast and good at using it. Tight integration with PhotoStream is also supremely helpful.

I'm now trying to migrate to Lightroom (5.6 -- I always run the latest-greatest), as Apple sunset Aperture and its upcoming Photos app sounds like one of their patented one step forward, two steps back kind of things. Also, with Aperture splitting up libraries once they get too big is a painful/scary thing. Lightroom which just uses the file system for photo storage seems like a less painful approach.

That said: I was expecting way better performance from Lightroom -- the general consensus I've seen is that Lightroom is vastly superior. However on my maxed out 2013 retina MacBook Pro the simple act of selecting pictures for editing which I do by flipping through my shoot in full screen mode and flagging the ones I like for later editing, Lightroom presents the its spinning wait thing if anything more than Aperture does its "loading" thing. I am also bother by its non-Mac like interface for things like going into full screen mode, its in window menus, etc. IMO: Cross platform UIs are never a good idea.

Does anyone have a different experience? Any tips on easily using PhotoStraem with Lightroom? Would love to hear from other users.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sounds like you are out of memory, what else ya got running? you should not be beachballing at all.

 

[Ted Todorov]

It's not the OS X beach ball, it is the software's own spinner with "loading". Maybe performance varies due the size of the photos: these are 22 megapixel photos on a retina display?

 

[Sam Posten]

It has to build previews each picture that takes a little time but should be mostly unnoticeable.

 

[Raul Marquez]

Just read that Apple is removing Aperture from the App Store once Photos for OSX launches......

 

[Sam Posten]

That was always the plan but Apple confirmed today it will do so.

 

[Raul Marquez]

Sam,


Now I wonder how Photos and Lightroom will compare against each other.


I started using iPhoto and then had a hard time deciding between Aperture and Lightroom, finally settling on Lightroom.


Haven't seen the new Photos, have you?


Raul

 

[Sam Posten]

No, I only use photos and Aperture for phone pics, everything else goes through Lightroom.


I continue to believe anyone serious about DSLR shots should be using Lr.


I did use the new editing tools on the iPhone tho, they are really slick and useful. Phone photography is really here to stay.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I am not an Apple user, but agree with Sam that Lightroom is a power tool. If you are shooting in RAW, it is difficult to beat for all of the features and quality of it's output. I started out using Canon's RAW processing software several years ago, and saw a significant difference in the quality of my photos when I switched to LR. And the more time you spend learning all the controls that are available to you, the better the results.