P.Beau Loc: EG.RI

All Mac users who do Post Processing work what have you moved on to after Aperture is no longer supported or upgraded by Apple? I still use it, back up all my work on hard drive but feel limited. Adobe seems very complex or requires a high learning curve. Thanks for any help and ideas on how and what you use to file and pp. your shots. paul

jmsail365 Loc: Stamford, Ct

I moved over to Lightroom when I bought the Sony a6300. Aperture recognizes the JPEG's from the a6300 but not RAW. Adobe sends you a couple of videos introducing users to Lightroom and for the basics you will find it similar to Aperture.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Michael48 Loc: South Jersey

Lightroom was my choice and after Apple stopped supporting Aperture. After you get through the learning curve you'll enjoy the flexibility that Lightroom offers.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I made use of Aperture for a few years, actually since 2011, I had looked at Lightroom, but opted for Aperture - I just did not get it about Lightroom at that time I guess.

When Apple announced that they were dropping support for Aperture though, I switched right away to Lightroom using Adobe's Creative Cloud Subscription.

Since I was using Aperture, which also requires importing before editing, switching to Lightroom suddenly seemed much easier - editing became second nature, and all of the troubles I thought I had with Lightroom were gone.

I had used Aperture in Managed mode, but if I had used it in Referenced mode it would have been easy to switch to Lightroom by just importing my images where they were sitting on disc, as such in managed mode, I needed to export image from Aperture then import them into Lightroom - started out doing a few at a time, then did larger and larger batches - ended up not taking very long at all anyway - NOW Lightroom has a plugin that talks to Aperture and iPhoto to transfer images, so its a little easier.

Editing was not difficult to grasp with Lightroom for me, I have advanced my knowledge of Lightroom quite a bit, but am still learning after 3 years of CC annual subscription membership.

I was always befuddled by Photoshop too - but now am very comfortable finishing images.

FWIW -

Time spent Learning new tools is not a bad thing sometimes, and well worth the effort you put into it.

I removed Aperture from my Mac awhile back, deleted my image library and live in Lightroom now - no looking back at, or need to go back to, what "used to be" for me. I always run the latest Operating System on my Mac and love all the benefits of current programming with the Adobe subscription.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

I never used Aperture. I use Photoshop and Lightroom and a number of plug-ins.

P.Beau Loc: EG.RI

thank you all. I guess Lightroom is the way I need to move. Dngallagher your comments are what I wanted to hear as I have the same issues you had on changing over. I am not secure/confident on moving years of shots over now. It does give me the chance to edit out a lot but time consuming. Can you or someone tell me about the Creative Cloud?

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Photos for OS, which is what Apple has replaced Aperture and iPhoto with, isn't bad. If you don't want to use that, look at Macphun Luminar, and Creative Kit.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

In my opinion, Creative Cloud is fantastic.

For $10.00 a month you can sign up for the Photographer's package, thats Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop, all installed and running on your computer, your images remain on your computer - nothing is really in the cloud for software or images, only licensing.

I believe that currently, you can have the system installed and running on 2 computers, if you add a third at some point you will need to deactivate one, if even temporarily.

Every time there is a new update or version, you get a notice to download/update. Sure is nice having all the bells and whistles right away at no additional outlay of dollars.

The CC package can be paid for annually, or billed on a per month basis. Annually it saves a little more, but I like the $9.99 a month - the monthly cost has been 9.99 a month for my three years so far, even though the naysayers are quick to point out the monthly costs will rise - so far, they have not.

If you quit the subscription at some point, Photoshop will cease to function, but Lightroom will function for image access, but not for most of the editing - so you never lose access to your images, even though your subscription lapses.

There are plenty of tutorial videos on Lightroom and Photoshop all over the internet - such as You Tube and Adobe TV - good stuff for learning whatever you need to some subscription learning sites like Lynda.com and many many free sites/tutorials.

cmoroney Loc: Pasadena, California

Lightroom is the way to go. I love the flexibility that I have in organizing my images: I can dream up literally *any* folder structure I want and LR just handles it. I find it far superior to Aperture in pretty much every way. My advice is to read the "Quick Start" guide to LR by Victoria Brampton (free on the internet) to get yourself going and then you can learn by doing. There are a few gotcha's but they're simple to learn and remember.

And I highly recommend getting the "Aperture Exporter" software from the App Store for about $15. That makes the task of moving all your files over to LR a lot easier and allows you to totally reorganize your file structure while you're doing it. From my understanding, the importer built into LR does not allow you any flexibility in how you structure your new folder system.

Another bonus is that pretty much every 3rd party piece of software out there works seamlessly with LR. Not just Photoshop, everything including Aurora, MacPhun, Topaz, Nik and even the Franzis stuff.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Lightoom is the path of least resistance since so many use this product However, I am not an Adobe fan and looked for alternatives. I chose Phase One's Capture One Pro about 3 years ago. The import of Aperture libraries is seamless and most edits are recognized. Your workflow from Aperture is an easy transition into CP1. You can learn new editing techniques at your pace and not be forced by LR's requirements. All of this aside, there are people at CP1 who actually respond to questions. The company is constantly updating and improving the software based upon feedback from their community. Their processing engine is 2nd to none. And those of us who loved Aperture, for many reasons, not the least of which was our ability to 'talk' to someone at Apple, will find CP1 the closest experience to that of Aperture. Phase One cares about their customers. Adobe cares about market share and this is reflected in their attitude to their customers. At one time Adobe was the only option for professionals, and their needs were never met by other developers of editing software. And today, that is still the case for most professionals. But I am not a pro, and I have been more than happy with my choice.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

Once Apple made the announcement to drop support for Aperture I signed up with Adobe. Never tried Lightroom, but rather used Bridge, ACR and Photoshop. I shoot 100% RAW. When I purchased my Canon 5DIV, Bridge and ACR did not support the new file formate for that camera. I started using DPP4 and importing into Photoshop as TIFF files. In my opinion, the image quality coming out of DPP4 is better than the same file coming out of ACR. For DPP4 users, would you agree?

Regarding Photoshop, yes the learning curve is steep, but worth it. Don't let the 1,000 page manuals scare you. Once you get used to the few steps in Photoshop to get where you want to be with an image you will be surprised how straight forward it is. But it takes a little investment of you time to to get there.

leftj Loc: Texas

Yes - according to Apple everything that was in Aperture is now in Apple photos. I can't vouch for that because I never really used Aperture. I now use Apple Photos and Macphun Luminar (which can be an extension to Apple Photos). I am really starting to like Luminar. It has caused me to shoot more RAW than I ever have before.

bweber Loc: Newton, MA

I switched to Capture One. I think it is great. Check it out. also look at some of their videos that describe many of its features. You can try it for 30 days for free.