Aperture 3 over iPhoto

[jeremyblake]

I like Aperture 2 better. For me, Aperture 3 always lagged like crazy and wouldn't even update to 3.0.1 or 3.1 (whatever it was that came out right after release)

 

[fleurya]

90% of the software on ebay is fake or a chinese knockoff. If you dont care you can snag it, but it causes issues with upgrading and other stuff occasionally. plus if your serial gets flagged your SOL which *may* happen eventually.

Its hard to call if its legit too because many times the serials on some of these if you call Adobe will actually check out. for now.

Ebay/Paypal are pretty good about protecting buyers, so much so that it now makes me weary of selling due to shady scamming buyers. I may buy one of the "new factory sealed in retail packaging" copies after reconfirming with the buyer that it is legit via ebay email. When I get it I'll immediately confirm with Adobe that the copy is original and clean. If it isn't I immediately demand a refund based on selling not as advertised and get my money back.

Worth a shot to save $100 or more. As I said ,I think there's a chance that some of them are legit from people who bought on the "$99 if you own Elements" and after looking to turn it for a quick buck. Whether that makes it not legit to resell I'm not sure.

 

[Doug b]

Have you at least tried both LR and Aperture trials yet? It would be a lot less of a hassle for you to purchase Aperture through the App Store (and cheaper and legal) if you wind up liking it better than LR. Just sayin'..

Doug

 

[Sawday]

Can I just add that some cameras, eg my D90, can shoot jpeg and RAW and save both simultaneously, so I've got my pictures (jpegs) and RAWs should I need to edit further.

 

[schweb]

FWIW, I actually switched back from Aperture to just use iPhoto '11. Aperture was just overkill for me 90% of the time and it's definitely a huge resource hog.

 

[RavingMac]

FWIW, I actually switched back from Aperture to just use iPhoto '11. Aperture was just overkill for me 90% of the time and it's definitely a huge resource hog.

I like Aperture but I agree that in most cases iPhoto (especially if you add iPhotoLibraryManager--a free download) is more than sufficient for most people (and probably me too). Add to that Adobe PSE or other photo editing software if you want and you are good to go.

 

[schweb]

Yep, I find between iPhoto and Pixelmator I can pretty much do everything I need to do.

 

[fleurya]

Have you at least tried both LR and Aperture trials yet? It would be a lot less of a hassle for you to purchase Aperture through the App Store (and cheaper and legal) if you wind up liking it better than LR. Just sayin'..

Doug

I'm actually trialing both right now. From everything I've read they both provide very similar functionality, which is in Aperture's favor. But on the other hand there is a lot more users, books and tutorials available for Lightroom than Aperture. I think those kinds of resources are worth a price premium. Also, the price premium is a one-time thing after which I can buy the upgrades much cheaper that will be much closer to future Aperture pricing if all prices hold constant.

I still haven't done a lot with both programs yet, so I still don't know for sure which I'll go with.

 

[Deckyon]

I have been a Photoshop user since v2 for Windows. Back in 1996. I love it and know it like the back of my hand. I have Adobe CS3 for Windows and have it installed on my Bootcamp'd Win7 install along with some other video processing apps that are not Mac compatible. For hard core editing of photos, I will always use CS3. I have my own filing system for photos and dont need a photo library management app.

Now, that being said, I threw down the $80 for Aperture last week. I added (for testing) a bunch of photos from my last Scotland trip; 1200 give or take. I sat with Aperture and have gone through and fixed horizons and some color correcting in quite a few, including reballancing of the luminosity of the purposefully underexposed landscapes that were taken to preserve cloud cover. While I was able to do this pretty easily (most of the apps out there work the same when you get down into the meat of them) there were some things I missed. While doing the luminosity editing in levels, I miss the dropper to pick out Black, Gray, White points that is part of Photoshop. However, on the other hand, the fixing of the horizons was so easy in Aperture, I was quickly able to run through the whole 1200 in about 45 mins.

I got Aperture in order to make those quick edits on the fly for proofing and it is doing its job. Considering it is so much cheaper through the Mac App store than it was in the Apple Store or at the time I got my MBP, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

Will I replace Photoshop? Not on your life.
Will it make photo management easier? Yes, for quick edits.
Will it find its way into my daily workflow? I do not know yet, but a quick guess, no.