Aperture 3 or stick with elements?

I've always used PS elements with the yearly upgrades. Just basic editing really

I'm booked on a few dslr/photography courses as a Christmas treat so want to improve my digital darkroom skills alongside my photography skills.

Just noticed on the new mac app store that they have Aperture 3 for only £44.99

My question is, is Aperture 3 a better option than elements 9 for me to advance my PP skills? I use an iMac for all editing

Thanks

Aperture is a Raw converter (with some bells & whistles). It's comparable with LightRoom or AdobeCameraRaw (included with Elements*) with the Organiser (I think it's called in Elements).

Photoshop Elements is a pixel editor. It can do things Aperture can not. (Say: Replace a background)

*) Elements 8 for Mac comes with Bridge. You can access the full ACR via Bridge, instead of the crippled version that is usually used by Elements. Not sure wether this is still the case for PSE9.

Why not download a trail version and give it a try.

You could always watch the free apple videos and see what it can do: http://www.apple.com/a​perture/how-to/

Which iMac are you using? Aperture really pushes the gpu so we need to know which one you have.

I have one of the new range i3 imacs, 3,2ghz i3, 4gb ram,1tb hd, 1gb ati radeon hd

Personally I have always used Lightroom and Photoshop. I tried the first 2 versions and never could quite make the transition and felt that Lightroom met my needs a little better. Several friends of mine who also use Macs recommended Aperture 3 to me saying that it had really come into its own but I could never really justify the $200 (US) price tag when I already have Lightroom. When the App Store opened this week I decided to try it at $80.00.

There's a lot to like about it and there are a few places that I think it needs some work. The interface is nice and clean if you have used iPhoto any at all then you will get familiar with it pretty quickly. I like the fact that I can use my Topaz plugins from Photoshop. And there are several other good plugins for it but some of them are very pricey.

As Tony pointed out it is pretty GPU and CPU intense but you should be fine with you i3 iMac. I am running it on an i5 27" and it is smooth and quick. One thing to watch out for if you pick it up is to make sure when delete versions of images that you also empty your Aperture trash or else your library gets really big really fast. I am currently still in my "testing" phase and only have 3 projects with about 75 images (40 from a 1Ds MkII, 30 from a 1DMkIII and 5 from an SD450). I would do some edits just to see how they worked VS. Lightroom and then deleted them. Maybe 5-7 of the images. When I check the Aperture library it was an enormous 25 Gig. Once I emptied the Aperture trash it dropped back to 1 Gig. More along the lines of what I would expect.

The only other thing I wish it would do is multiple external editors like Lightroom so I could make one the Topaz filters and a second Photoshop.

Overall, for the new price in the App Store I am very pleased with the purchase. Well worth that price. I am not sure if that is going to be the new price or if it is just a special to "celebrate" the opening of the App Store.

Aperture App at current price is a STEAL! and it is much more powerful than any version of Adobe PSE.

Apart from much more advanced editing tool, Aperture can handle your end to end workflow including image management and organization. If you have used iphoto, all those features (albums, places, faces and so on) are there in Aperture.

Don't get into LR vs Aperture battle its going on since their births and its more of personal preference. Both tools are pretty capable and help you improve your final output. And at current price aperture is for $80 vs LR for $299 (both OEM prices)

Kid Colgan wrote in post #11598622
I've always used PS elements with the yearly upgrades. Just basic editing really

I'm booked on a few dslr/photography courses as a Christmas treat so want to improve my digital darkroom skills alongside my photography skills.

Just noticed on the new mac app store that they have Aperture 3 for only £44.99

My question is, is Aperture 3 a better option than elements 9 for me to advance my PP skills? I use an iMac for all editing

Thanks

Thanks the tips everyone. This forum is one of the few I've found that offers sensible unbiased views

I guess for £45 I might a well give it a go. I like the idea of using Aperture for the full workflow process and matching my other apple based programs.