Aperture vs Lightroom

I have a mac and was wondering which one is better? which one do you pros prefer? i know aperture is for mac's only but LR is for both platforms. they both support .raw which is great because thats all i shoot. they are very similar in $$ if u use the student discount for LR. let me know what u guys think

I don't use a Mac, so I can only boldly say I prefer Lightroom!

But, while you are waiting for others to chime in, I'd suggest that you scroll down to the bottom of this page and look in the "Similar Threads" section. You used the key words Lightroom and Aperture, which triggered a forum mini-search that produced a number of results. Start reading there!

yeh i am doing that right now but wanted to know the current opinions of the two since the other threads were posted a few years ago. how long have u been using LT3? is it a trial-n-error program or do i need to read up on it before messing with it?

They both have free 30 day trials, why not download both and see which one suits you best?

That said, I find Aperture much more powerful for library management and in the latest version, on par with LR for photo editing capabilities.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #11989018
They both have free 30 day trials, why not download both and see which one suits you best?

That said, I find Aperture much more powerful for library management and in the latest version, on par with LR for photo editing capabilities.

+1
They each have their strengths and weaknesses. Try both and see which one you like more. Either way they are both great programs, but since Aperture is on Mac only there is a much smaller crowd.

I have a newer MBP. I tried both and liked LR3 better. When I bought, LR was $300 and A3 was $80. LR wasn't $220 better so I went with A3. YMMV, but I'm running a 2.53 g processor w/ 4g of ram and A3 will sometimes grind to almost a halt on my machine. I'm looking into a memory upgrade (about $150) to see if it helps. During my 30 days, I didn't have this problem with LR.

80 dollars at the apps store for aperture 3, vs the almost 300 for LR3.

They both manage photos well. They both do the same, just go about it in different ways. It is really a personal preference.

Aperture is a good editing program, and has all the latest raw support for canon dslr's. Aperture 3 likes allot of memory, so I spent the 80 bucks for 8gb of RAM upgrade. It does work fine with 4gb, just slow at times when doing allot of process. Forget about 2gb, need a ram upgrade right away. Now my MBP runs great with any of my programs. With the upgrade and A3 you are still saving 120 dollars.

J and R has 8gb memory upgrade for the mac for 100 dollars. During the holidays it was at 40 dollars a stick. You need 2 sticks.

http://www.jr.com/cruc​ial/pe/CRT_51264BC1067​/

or kit form still 100 dollars

http://www.jr.com …264BCK/#product​TabDetails

Seamus69 wrote in post #11990148
I have a newer MBP. I tried both and liked LR3 better. When I bought, LR was $300 and A3 was $80. LR wasn't $220 better so I went with A3. YMMV, but I'm running a 2.53 g processor w/ 4g of ram and A3 will sometimes grind to almost a halt on my machine. I'm looking into a memory upgrade (about $150) to see if it helps. During my 30 days, I didn't have this problem with LR.

$80. Works great in my MBP.

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820231294

I like Aperture. I tried LR but couldn't justify the higher price. I'm an amateur.

I am pretty sure you need to upgrade ram with lr3, it did run a little slow if you have only 2gb.

What you can do is download the free demo of LR3 and try it out for 30 days. And download the free demo off the apple site for aperture and try it out, then choose.

I use Aperture, and have since v2. I've not yet tried Lightroom, though I am tempted.

On the positive side...

Aperture works very well. I can quickly review photos, rate them, and make simple edits. When I make comparisons with DPP, I find the Canon s/w wanting. I still get a better image from Aperture.

But what good is a photo if it isn't printed? As with iPhoto, Aperture has a book creation ability that is much more flexible than iPhoto. Additionally, you can use templates from selected outside vendors. I've made many books from Apple, including a few through Aperture. In Aperture, you can edit existing layouts and create your own page layouts if you wish. While I don't make new pages from scratch, I occasionally make modifications to standard templates.

On the negative side...

Thank goodness I'm a computer geek by nature and profession. Twice now I've had Aperture $&#* me over on "permissions." OS X is Unix. Directories and files have permissions for access, granting or denying access depending on who you are. Twice I've tried to recover libraries from backups. The first involved 12,000 photos. The second incident involved 3,000 photos and just ended this morning. Something on my iMac (OS X itself, Aperture, or Time Machine) added some new permissions to everything in my library. When I tried to restore a library from backup, it said I didn't have permission to do so, and wiped my library. Two. $&#*ing. Times. No joke. The original raw images were fine; what was wiped was all of the edits, the light corrections, the straightenings, and the occasional retouch. This last time started two nights ago. One command line entry (that looks like cartoon swearing) and a day and a half later, and all is once again fine. There was no data loss.

Googling the problem and working with Apple the first time showed me this is an obscure problem. Apple didn't know how to fix it. I was and remain on my own, which is fine. Knowing how I am with s/w, I could have just as easily encountered weirdness with Lightroom. At work they call me when they want someone to break things. I does good at breaking s/w.

Conclusion

I'm sticking with Aperture for now, though I'm going to still try Lightroom. Check online reviews, and you'll see that the comparison between the two is probably similar to the comparison between Canon and Nikon. Take the time to try both Aperture and Lightroom on the 30 day trials. Process images through both of those, and do DPP too. If you like DPP best, then just stick with that.

Recommendation

If you go with Aperture, go with at least 4GB. My iMac has 2GB, and a few days ago (before the aforementioned "issue" occurred), I ordered an upgrade. While my MacBook could also benefit from an upgrade to 4GB, I don't use it enough for photo processing to upgrade it. 2GB will work, but slowly.

Good luck!

well loooks like LR3 it is for now since i only have 2gb ram for now. i messed with LR3 for a few hours last night and although it was amazing the things you can do with photos, i need to read up on the tools and functions it provides. i somewhat fixed a old picture i had taken thru photobooth a few years ago but i still need to figure out how to do a few things to make it better. anyways is there a good all around website/thread i can read to get the basics of LR3? i know experimenting is the best way but i feel like i do random things and make the picture look more fake then real.

can0nn3wb4n0w wrote in post #11992630
well loooks like LR3 it is for now since i only have 2gb ram for now. i messed with LR3 for a few hours last night and although it was amazing the things you can do with photos, i need to read up on the tools and functions it provides. i somewhat fixed a old picture i had taken thru photobooth a few years ago but i still need to figure out how to do a few things to make it better. anyways is there a good all around website/thread i can read to get the basics of LR3? i know experimenting is the best way but i feel like i do random things and make the picture look more fake then real.

This is what I have been referring to. I've had LR2 for quite a while but never really put it to any use. With my work getting busy I finally got around to learning it and then discovered some of the improvements in LR3 so now I'm $99 poorer.

http://help.adobe.com …sing/lightroom_​3_help.pdf

I just downloaded the Aperture trial due to this topic, and I absolutely loathe it. The simplicity and minimalism in iPhoto is transported to Aperture, which makes it look like a really cheap program (well, it ís cheaper than LR . The things I didn't like are functions like 'places', 'faces' and stuff like that, and those Facebook buttons on the top of your screen.
LR just has a much more solid 'feel' to it. It looks more professional and easier to use. I tried editting a photo or two but it just didn't feel nice. I reckon it's personal preference, but I MUCH prefer Lightroom over Aperture.

go to the full screen view and just keep inspector up. And it is a very pro looking view in A3. There is allot you can do with the editing in aperture 3. It just does things a different way. Can not bring photoshop thinking with you. It will mess you up a bit.