Aperture For mac OSX

Hi guys i am looking into buying a mac and use photoshop for editing my images i also use a wacom drawing tablet for cutting.

my question is dose Aperture have photo editing tools like clone and cutting.
or is more for organizing and sharping images real quick. I'm not sure what program i should but photoshop for mac or Aperture

thank you
Jason

I've been thinking about making the switch as well and have the same question.

If i were you I'd by Photoshop, as in my opinion aperture is headed for the can.

Photoshop and Aperture are completly different tools.

Photoshop is an image editing tool.

Aperture is a raw/image managment tool.

Watch the videos on Apple's page, they make it pretty clear what Aperture is intended to do. It's not intended to replace anything in Photoshop (in fact the two go quite well together).

And example of where Aperture shines (and is really intended for) is managment and sorting of a large number of raw images. I shot a wedding (and two days of events leading up to it) and generated over 3500 images (for all three days). I was able to sort and rate the 2000+ images from the day of in a bit over an hour. These were shot on a 1Ds2 and 5D, so none to small of images. After they were rated, my photo partner did some color correction work on the images in a few hours. Since it's all batchable, and groupable this process is far faster on Aperture than any other tools I have experance with. It also is non destructive, so any corrctions you make are stored as a series of commands for raw interpretation. Make changes later and the raws are reopened with the different settings. It's not without it's limitations, but as a raw manager it's a great tool.

This is the exact reason why I'd like to go with Aperture. It's hard to deal with a large number of RAW photos, so if it can streamline the workflow process... that's got to be a good thing.

Adobe Lightroom is FREE at the moment (BETA)... but very usable.

My problem with Aperture is it insists on keeping all your RAW files in it's own "package" database.

Lightroom allows you to reference files in it's original location on your hard drive... very convenient especially if you have all your photos stored on a network drive, SAN, Firewire drive, etc... it stays there.

Aperture WILL NOT replace or stand in for Photoshop. It is resource intensive and Adobe Lightroom is much better at the moment. I've used all three. I need Photoshop and Lighroom is like icing on a cake. Aperture is a also ran and it needs a lot of work. For older Macs you even have to buy a new and faster video card just ro run Aperture!

i happen to really like aperture, of course, i never used photoshop so i really dont know what i am missing out on

not everyone is going to like the same editing tools, aperture will be good for some people and not good for others.

but i do know that they were trying to market aperture and photoshop side by side as a complete kit.

there are going to be better versions of aperture out probably within the next year. its only in its first version isnt it? as with all software, there are significant changes and improvements as they go along.

if you have a chance to stop at an apple store - go into the studio and let someone show you, in person, just what aperture can do.

and

if your a professional and going to be using aperture software, i highly recommend the training course they hold at apple stores, its well worth the money!

I use Aperature - and I have been running the beta of Light Room, and from what I can tell so far Apple has no fears from LR. The abiltiy to modify large number of files works so much more smoothly the light room, it is hard to think what the heck adobe was invisioning with their product. It is still beta, so I give it a little slack, buted at this point I would not even think of dumping Aperature. The 1.1 version really improved speed too. It does have your basic editinig tools, like crop, sharpen, color correct...but no heavy editing.

Aperture and PS are not competing apps. What makes you think Aperture is "headed for the can"?

I concur with your assessment. LR seems a bit clunky at this point. Perhaps when it gets out of beta it will be a better app. I'm sure Adobe has a lot of traps in it to localize bugs that might occur.

Although Aperture's not supposed to run on a Mac Mini, I have it on my Core Duo and its performance is quite adequate.

I would love to use Aperture... maybe when they allow referencing of RAW files from it's original network/drive location, instead of importing it into it's own proprietary format/database/packag​e.

thank you all for all your inputs i will Waite to buy the new photo shop when they support the new Intel mac's. i am a pc user right now but want to buy a mac not sure if i will buy the 20 inch imac or the new mac pro. but i wont get one till i buy adobe photoshop universal support i here photoshop runs real slow on the new Intel mac's

thanks
Jason

my take on a fast-changing situation:

aperature & lightroom -- main strength is ability to manage RAW files, and converted files. old way: RAW & each separate conversion counts as a separate image, eats disk space, slow to work with, hard to keep track of. A & L -- each conversion only saves the instructions on how to convert (exposure, color balance, B/W conversion, etc...), and you can group derivatives of the same image and handle all together.

aperature is in a troubled spot in development, and may or may not survive in the marketplace. current versions use a non-relational database, so you can't split file locations (say, some on one hard drive and some on another), you can't move files to other computers & track them, etc....

lightroom is way ahead as a database program. it's as good as cumulus, which is a pure database without image management options. lightroom has the basic RAW options (exposure/color balance/sharpening) and also tilt/crop and very good slideshow/title management.

iPhoto is catching up -- version 6 has some RAW management abilities. doesn't have versioning, doesn't allow you to group images. but not bad as a holding option until the marketplace shakes out.

photoshop is not a database program. it's value is in advanced image editing (clone stamp, layer masks, smoothing wrinkles, that sort of thing).

with the new intel-macs, none of the big-three programs will run native.

My advice: get the new mac, but wait on the expensive software. Use iPhoto and gimp until native x86 versions come out. If aperature improves its database operations, consider it, otherwise go with lightroom. stick with gimp until you need full photoshop.

iPhoto is catching up -- version 6 has some RAW management abilities. doesn't have versioning, doesn't allow you to group images. but not bad as a holding option until the marketplace shakes out.

Gimp is free, and has most of the image enditing of photoshop (lacks layer adjustments and some esoterica), but is very serviceable. with google you can find a build for the intel mac. you also need an x-windows client, which is also freeware.

the macs are great. the software will soon catch up to the new hardware, and you'll be in computer heaven.

The current Aperture is universal.