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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Take a look at Adobe Lightroom

Take a look at Adobe Lightroom
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Veltliner
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May 26, 2007, 02:57 AM
 
Those who look for digital photography imaging and library management software have the choice between Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom.

I don't want to add to the endless discussions which is better. I just want to give you the hint: you might be inclined to go with Aperture, as you may think apple software is always best.

I thought so, too, but fortunately read a lot on the web and finally bought Lightroom.

I am very happy with this software. It had been in beta for years, receiving input from professional and dedicated photographers from all over the world.

The following has been said, and I agree: Lightroom is the kind of software Apple is known for: intuitive, and not getting in the way of the work.

It's a true joy to use. Aperture has a steeper learning curve, and is, so many testers, by far not that intuitive.

Also: Apertue is tops in library management, but Lightroom is best for the actual editing and working with the photo.

Also: for Aperture you need a much faster computer and a much faster video card, while Lightroom also runs well on older Macs. And Aperture is best for a dual monitor set-up (which I don't like, I prefer one bigger monitor).

The RAW converter is based on Adobe camera RAW and very good. It also lets you convert any RAW format to the universal DNG format (which was created by Adobe, but is license cost free to use) so you can read your RAW files even in a time when your camera is either in a museum or in a garbage can.

As I said: this is not to ignite the 1000th discussion about which one of the two softwares is better.

It is just to give you the tip: if you want to buy such an application, and you tend to choose apple by preset, check out Lightroom before you buy. It's still, in some places, available at its intro pricing of 200$.
     
JKT
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May 26, 2007, 04:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by Veltliner View Post
Also: for Aperture you need a much faster computer and a much faster video card, while Lightroom also runs well on older Macs.
It might run on older Macs, but it does not run well (from my experience). Better than not running at all, of course, but don't delude yourself into thinking that it doesn't also require a fast computer and video card (and masses of RAM as well) to be worthwhile using.
     
mac128k-1984
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May 26, 2007, 08:08 AM
 
I've tried both and both have their strong points.

All in all though I think Aperture is much better then LR in DAM (Digital Asset Management). Just look at how it handles stacks. LR's implementation is lacking to say the least. Additionally I can have folders, sub-folders projects. Its a little awkward setting up folders and if memory serves me, it doesn't handle sub-folders to well (or at all?). Then there's smart albums and the like. Something that is missing completely in LR. Finally the search capability of aperture is better.

LR can run on a slower machine and produce better performance then aperture. The editing feature I think is probably a little better then Aperture's, printing seems to be a little more flexible.

Workflow is debatable, I like Apertures, but LR's doesn't seem bad, this is truly is a personal preference.

All in all, it depends on what you want, each has their strong points. I wanted a product that has strong DAM capabilities, I really didn't want worry about manually (and physically) moving my pictures around on the hard drive, and then trying to categorize and keyword them in a product. Something you do in LR, even if your in the application and you're creating a folder you're doing it within the finder. Plus the Vault backup does seem to fit the way I do things, so backing up is a snap.

Edit addition:
I cannot confirm this, but I've seen threads/posts in other forums discussing that LR slows down once your library grows, so much so that you may need a higher powered machine to handle the large number of images. Like I said I've only seen some posts regarding this, I gave up using LR before I loaded my 10,000+ images that I have in aperture.
Michael
     
marsbt
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May 28, 2007, 05:07 PM
 
I had one question before I "try" any of those. Is there way to completely uninstall either of them after trying them out? I haven't found any information on the net about uninstalling LR. I don't want either of them to leave cruft on the machine if I decided to not use either of them and try something else.
Firefox: Add Of The Week
     
Mastrap
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May 28, 2007, 05:21 PM
 
I went with Lightroom because it seemed to be stronger in the image development arena, which is what I was interested in and so far I haven't regretted my purchase one bit.

Having said that, I probably would have liked AP as well, for different reasons. They are both very good programs and in the end it's all about personal preference.
     
hmurchison2001
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May 29, 2007, 02:48 PM
 
I've read far more positive posts regarding the superior workflow features of Aperture.(James Duncan Davidson: Aperture vs Lightroom) or
(Lightroom vs. Aperture - What's Best? - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

The two apps are clearly strong in areas. I think Apple will be shoring up the image editing and speed in version 2.0. Leopard will help. I plan on hopping in at version 2.0 of Aperture. I don't think Apple is always best but I do know that I'm going to enjoy much more integration with some of my other Apple apps and that makes Aperture win even when they are in a dead heat with Lightroom.
http://hmurchison.blogspot.com/ highly opinionated ramblings free of charge :)
     
shinykaro
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May 29, 2007, 03:36 PM
 
I'm a happy Lightroom user. Like other folks, I did a lot of reading up because they seemed so similar, and even though I am an Apple fan, I'm also an Adobe devotee. The thing that discouraged me most from picking up Aperture was that many users complained it was a voracious RAM hog. I've only got 1GB on my Core Duo iMac, and didn't want to struggle with the program. I downloaded the trial of Lightroom and loved it. It IS intuitive. It is incredibly easy to use and very fast, and the level of control is fantastic. I'm not a pro photographer and so I'm unlikely to ever take full advantage of its capabilities, but I would like to grow into it.

In the end, I couldn't say no to a sweet academic discount and found way too much negative feedback from folks with consumer-level Macs about Aperture's RAM binges.
     
Veltliner  (op)
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May 29, 2007, 10:32 PM
 
For those interested: also a good read about lightroom vs. aperture

O'Reilly -- Lightroom vs Aperture - The Results

Yes, aperture is tops in DAM, but the Lightroom library soon gets a (free) upgrade of features in 1.1.

That said: a wedding photographer or a photojournalist would be better off with aperture (if he has a computer to match the software.

In the areas of image development Lightroom is just fantastic. It is so intuitive and sheer fun (on top of being a top notch professional software).

There are differences in workflow, and you may want to evaluate that.

My choice was Lightroom because of its intuitiveness and its great color correction and image adjustment tools. And the fact that my iMac g5 iSight is not the fastest machine.

Generally: As many mac users are predisposed to buy mac software a priori, I posted this as a hint: take a look at this, too.
     
mac128k-1984
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May 30, 2007, 11:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by Veltliner View Post
In the areas of image development Lightroom is just fantastic. It is so intuitive and sheer fun (on top of being a top notch professional software).
True enough but if I'm going to do anything involved with image editing I'll use photoshop, so while some of the tools that LR provides is better, I wonder how much better since I'll bounce over to PS to get what I want done, regardless if its LR or Aperture.
Michael
     
Veltliner  (op)
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Jun 1, 2007, 03:12 AM
 
Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 View Post
True enough but if I'm going to do anything involved with image editing I'll use photoshop, so while some of the tools that LR provides is better, I wonder how much better since I'll bounce over to PS to get what I want done, regardless if its LR or Aperture.
In this case it's not about better in a quality sense, but in a workflow sense. Lightroom has, for example, the feature to save all the image adjustments made to one image, and then adjust a whole batch of images the same way with a few clicks.

Photoshop will still be great for manipulations and pixel editing. And, at the moment - as we are waiting for better sharpening tools - many use PhotoShop for sharpening.

Baseline is workflow - and don't forget: Lightroom only costs a third of PhotoShop.
     
Veltliner  (op)
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Jun 1, 2007, 03:14 AM
 
One thing that is still underdeveloped is noise reduction. I'm playing with the idea of buying noise ninja.
     
   
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