Bye Bye Aperture?
I have always been a huge proponent for Aperture. Always looking to
improve my photography workflow I continue to monitor other tools,
especially Adobe Lightroom. From the beginning I always thought (and
told people) if your primary requirement is photo editing, then
Lightroom is your best bet. If photo management is your primary goal,
then Aperture hands down. Today I finally was able to sit down and work with Lightroom 3 Beta
for longer than a 10 minute stretch. I'm not sure if that was a good
thing or not. At this point I am about to say goodbye to Aperture. I
still think Aperture is the best photo management tool, but by a long
shot. And I still think Aperture's interface is still more intuitive.
However, the photo editing in Lightroom is SO POWERFUL that I believe
I can almost overlook the weaknesses. Yes, it is likely that Aperture will once again close the gap (maybe
even surpass) when it releases its next version. But this leads right
into the many cons of Aperture: no public betas, the secrecy, the slow
releases, the proprietary nature, the low adoption compared to
Lightroom, and the buzz of Apple letting Aperture die. While I can't
imagine Apple letting Aperture die (at least anytime real soon), the
other cons are quite serious for someone who like to be on the
bleeding edge of technology, but in a controlled manner. As a closet
developer, I love to be able to provide a company feedback on their
product and more importantly see my suggestions impact roadmaps. I
just don't see that happening with Aperture, so it may be time to say
goodbye. Denise and I will be using Lightroom 3 Beta for the next few months
before we make our decision final, but it's certainly a solid start
for Lightroom! I will post my experiences and samples when
appropriate. Speaking of which, the two photos in this post are a
comparison of quick edits done by both tools. I spent about 60 seconds
in Aperture and about 90 seconds in Lightroom. I could have still made
Lightroom's photo look better (IMO) with a mere 1-click edit, but went
the extra mile by doing some localized edits (which isn't even
possible in Aperture). Which is which?
improve my photography workflow I continue to monitor other tools,
especially Adobe Lightroom. From the beginning I always thought (and
told people) if your primary requirement is photo editing, then
Lightroom is your best bet. If photo management is your primary goal,
then Aperture hands down. Today I finally was able to sit down and work with Lightroom 3 Beta
for longer than a 10 minute stretch. I'm not sure if that was a good
thing or not. At this point I am about to say goodbye to Aperture. I
still think Aperture is the best photo management tool, but by a long
shot. And I still think Aperture's interface is still more intuitive.
However, the photo editing in Lightroom is SO POWERFUL that I believe
I can almost overlook the weaknesses. Yes, it is likely that Aperture will once again close the gap (maybe
even surpass) when it releases its next version. But this leads right
into the many cons of Aperture: no public betas, the secrecy, the slow
releases, the proprietary nature, the low adoption compared to
Lightroom, and the buzz of Apple letting Aperture die. While I can't
imagine Apple letting Aperture die (at least anytime real soon), the
other cons are quite serious for someone who like to be on the
bleeding edge of technology, but in a controlled manner. As a closet
developer, I love to be able to provide a company feedback on their
product and more importantly see my suggestions impact roadmaps. I
just don't see that happening with Aperture, so it may be time to say
goodbye. Denise and I will be using Lightroom 3 Beta for the next few months
before we make our decision final, but it's certainly a solid start
for Lightroom! I will post my experiences and samples when
appropriate. Speaking of which, the two photos in this post are a
comparison of quick edits done by both tools. I spent about 60 seconds
in Aperture and about 90 seconds in Lightroom. I could have still made
Lightroom's photo look better (IMO) with a mere 1-click edit, but went
the extra mile by doing some localized edits (which isn't even
possible in Aperture). Which is which?
