Lightroom or Aperture.

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They are almost exactly the same, although Aperture likes a higher powered computer than Lightroom. That being said, I like Aperture better. So if your computer will run Aperture well go for it!
 
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Simply. Which one.
Simply which one....what?
Which one costs more?
Which one has more features?
Which one do people like better?
Which one will make your coffee and toast your bread in the morning?

...Which one what?

Being as descriptive as you can will ultimately get you a better response. ;)
 
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I picked Lightroom over Aperture after test driving both. Lightroom works incredibly smooth with Photoshop and was just easy for me. Plus it has very good image editing capabilities that almost make it so you don't have to ever use photoshop when editing pics. In fact, I only really use PS when there's major work that needs to be done to a photo now.
 
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I tested both, but i like Lightroom the best!
 
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As both are available on 30 day trials, I would download both and try them!

I did this and settled on Light Room, simply because it has far superior RAW support (supporting my Fuji camera) and seems to be slightly quicker on my MacBook.
 
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You might be interested in this article I wrote for my website
Here

I've tried both and there are pros and cons for both programs:

Lightroom

Pro:
Speed
Price
Usability

Con:
Restrictive
No dual monitor support
File managment is poor in comparrison to Aperture
GUI needs more work as there are many things that aren't visually easy to follow, Stacks being just one.

Aperture

Pro:
Immensily powerful
No need to re-build web galleries etc when you add a new photo unlike Lightroom
File Mangement stomps all over Lightroom
Totally flexible
Dual montitor support as standard

Con:
Price
Speed - You need a really beefy Mac to get the same performance as Lightroom on an average spec Mac
Steep learning curve

My personal opinion is that at the moment Aperture is the best program out of the two. However I would also say that Lightroom will almost certainly end up being the better program for the simple reason that it has Adobe and legions of photographers behind it that want Lightroom to improve. Apple and Aperture simply can't compete at the same pace IMHO.
 
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How did you find Lightroom restrictive?

It let's you do everything to photos short of major editing. You can adjust just about everything you need to as far as WB, color levels, and everything else goes. It even let's you adjust the curves.

Also, I like organizing my files by folder and lightroom let's you import them and use them from the folder without having to move the location of the file on the drive.
 
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How did you find Lightroom restrictive?

It let's you do everything to photos short of major editing. You can adjust just about everything you need to as far as WB, color levels, and everything else goes. It even let's you adjust the curves.

Also, I like organizing my files by folder and lightroom let's you import them and use them from the folder without having to move the location of the file on the drive.

It's restrictive in the sense that:

1. It doesnt work with dual monitors so if I tend to find I have to keep zooming in and out to check that the changes I'm making aren't over cooking it.

2. If say I make an web gallery and then decide to add a new photo to it I have to rebuild the entire gallery

3. Have you not noticed that certain controls are only available in certain parts of the program? In Aperture I can decide to crop, straighten, adjust RAW settings, fix spots etc anywhere and at anytime.

4. I don't know about you but I make extensive use of stacks. In Aperture I can instantly see what photos are stacked, how many are in the stack and expand them and still tell which ones are in the stack. In Lightroom in verges on guesswork!

I could go on.

I just found Lightroom kept fighting against me whenever I wanted to do something and that I kept having to adjust my way of working to fit the way Lightroom insist that you work. By comparison Aperture lets me work anyway I want to and when I want to and doesnt make me re-do half my work should I change my mind or want to add to it.
 
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Simply. Which one.

it depends on what you're gonna use it for... I found Lightroom easier to dive in & get working on images, but Aperture is a bit better on the umm 'project organisation' side of things...

I gave Aperture a try, but it didn't give me anything that I needed, that Lightroom wasn't already doing.. I also found Lightroom runs quite a bit speedier on my mac (the 24" 2.16 iMac) than Aperture...

so I stuck with Lightroom.. it's a little more user friendly than Aperture, although I bet Aperture is more suitable & powerful for people who like to read manuals and have some patience :) they're not polar opposites (like, for example, the difference between iMovie08 and Final Cut Pro), but they definitely occupy different positions on that continuum :D

but like the others have said, give the trial versions a whirl and decide for yourself... either is great
 
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I've heard that Lightroom is a bit more snappier and read a few articles in Mac magazines that stated Lightroom is the better choice...and vice versa...I guess it depends on your taste.
Saying that note that I don't have any experience in both applications since I only take a few pictures and usually just let them print out at a photo shop near the corner:)
But I can imagine if someone is a heavy photoshop user Lightroom might be the better choice because it might be better integrated with the other Adobe products?

kuchiki
 
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Peakoverload lists price as a pro for Lightroom and a Con for Aperture. I hope you all know that the retail price for these two products is $299. I don't see how that could be construed as a pro for one and a con for the other.

I'm beginning to get into photography professionally now and I find that Lightroom is so much quicker and easier to work with. I think the final result is better as well, but that is just my opinion.

SLC
 
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Peakoverload lists price as a pro for Lightroom and a Con for Aperture. I hope you all know that the retail price for these two products is $299. I don't see how that could be construed as a pro for one and a con for the other.

Indeed you are correct, well Aperture in the UK is £219 whilst Lightoom is £205. I hadn't taken into account the recent pricing restructure that both products have gone through. It used to be the case, in the UK at least, that Aperture was considerably more expensive than Lightroom but then it does offer a lot more.

As it stands I personally feel that Aperture is correctly priced but Lightroom is over priced for what it offers and for the many bugs an gremlins that still exist in the code.
 
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Yeah, Lightroom was initially only $199 here in the states. But it was always understood that that price was temporary.

I find Lightroom to be more versatile than Aperture, I did the 30 day trial of Aperture before being given a free copy of Lightroom by Adobe. I liked using Aperture but I love using Lightroom, it's so much more straightforward for me.

SLC
 
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I currently use Lightroom on Windows and its great, I will continue to use it on the Mac when it arrives.

My concern is how to manage my photos so that they can be accessed both through iPhoto and Lightroom.

any ideas?
 
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I got Aperture over Lightroom after reading reviews extensively. I was stupid and did not download the demos though. Aperture is SLOW...I'm running a 2.2ghz Santa Rosa 15" MBP with 4 gigs of ram and a 7200rpm hard drive and it's still slow. Not ridiculously slow, but a few seconds per picture to load...every other image app I've used on this machine is instant. It's really annoying, but the organizational capabilities of Aperture can't be beat. I wish they would just combine the two, or else have Google port Picasa to OS X since I really don't like iPhoto lol.
 
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I use lightroom for 2 reasons:

1. when I first got my mbp I only had 1gb of ram so aperture ran ridiculously slow, it was almost unusable. I switched to lightroom immediately and it was a lot faster. I tried aperture again a few weeks ago (now that I have 2gb of ram) and it was a lot better, though still slower than lightroom. I loved its organizational features and overall I think it's better than lightroom, but it's too late to switch now that I have all my pictures in lightroom and all the edits in its database.

2. I plan to build a desktop solely for photographic purposes (a mac pro is WAY too expensive, and please don't try to convince me otherwise, I've already checked), and aperture unfortunately isn't compatible with windows.

with that said, I really do like lightroom a lot. aperture has been around longer and I hope that adobe learns from apple. hopefully adobe gives the next version of lightroom the DAM capabilities of aperture.
 
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As both are available on 30 day trials, I would download both and try them!

I did this and settled on Light Room, simply because it has far superior RAW support (supporting my Fuji camera) and seems to be slightly quicker on my MacBook.

I agree, its free give em both a try you may not like the same program as the rest of us.

I also went with lightroom over aperture.
 
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Try looking at http://www.luminous-landscape.com

A couple of professional landscape photographers who really rate using Lightroom. Looking at what's new on the site, in describing his recent trip one talks about using his MacBook 13" to sort/select all 5000 photos before even landing home so I think the organisation point is covered. He then uses a properly calibrated screen and various programs to edit including NoiseNinja and PS
 
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I liked using Aperture so much, it drove my decision to switch to Mac. :)
 

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