Apple Aperture: I am a casual, but serious, photographer. I am not into PP much, just want to clean images up and file them properly. I am an Apple guy and now use iPhoto. I am...

tor24tor Loc: Caldwell, NJ

I am a casual, but serious, photographer. I am not into PP much, just want to clean images up and file them properly. I am an Apple guy and now use iPhoto. I am interested if anyone uses Apple Aperture as I have decided to follow that route instead of LR5 mainly for the ease of transition. From what I have read, and experienced with the LR free 30 day demo, it IS a superior program, but more so for the truly serious photographer and PPer! Just looking for some thoughts and opinions.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

tor24tor wrote:

I am a casual, but serious, photographer. I am not into PP much, just want to clean images up and file them properly. I am an Apple guy and now use iPhoto. I am interested if anyone uses Apple Aperture as I have decided to follow that route instead of LR5 mainly for the ease of transition. From what I have read, and experienced with the LR free 30 day demo, it IS a superior program, but more so for the truly serious photographer and PPer! Just looking for some thoughts and opinions.

BTW, all serious photographers PP.

I don't know what you mean ease of transition? Both programs have a learning curve as does any program. I would say LR is more popular, both cost about the same LR may be a little more expensive. Both have similar features.

LR is for the serious photographer as Word is for the serious typer.

jwenz Loc: Northern Wisc.

I'm an Apple guy as well. Used iPhoto for years and liked it, but about 3 years ago went to Aperture. I love it. I'm sure there are more advanced programs, but I can get around it and it works great. there are a number of good youtube videos that will get you up and running in no time. I think the program costs only $79. Just download it from the ap store. I'm a happy user. Good luck on your decision.

Up-Side-Down Loc: Glasgow, Scotland

tor24tor wrote:

I am a casual, but serious, photographer. I am not into PP much, just want to clean images up and file them properly. I am an Apple guy and now use iPhoto. I am interested if anyone uses Apple Aperture as I have decided to follow that route instead of LR5 mainly for the ease of transition. From what I have read, and experienced with the LR free 30 day demo, it IS a superior program, but more so for the truly serious photographer and PPer! Just looking for some thoughts and opinions.

I can't fault the program and use it professionally in conjunction with Nik plug-ins day in day out.

Get a good external hard drive of 1 or 2 TB to make use of the vault feature (back up). You'll be surprised how quickly storage space fills up!

Can't wait 'til the new version comes out which for existing owners will be a cheap, quick and simple upgrade.

saxkiwi Loc: New Zealand

tor24tor wrote:

I am a casual, but serious, photographer. I am not into PP much, just want to clean images up and file them properly. I am an Apple guy and now use iPhoto. I am interested if anyone uses Apple Aperture as I have decided to follow that route instead of LR5 mainly for the ease of transition. From what I have read, and experienced with the LR free 30 day demo, it IS a superior program, but more so for the truly serious photographer and PPer! Just looking for some thoughts and opinions.

I have several PP programs but aperture is what I use mostly. Its great and when I want to further my pp I send the image to another program and finally it will be sent back to my folder in aperture.

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

I only use Aperture.
I shoot RAW and Aperture handles them very well.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

Not wanting to hijack this thread but if one was to purchase Aperture and download from the app store can you use it on both the laptop and desktop or do you need to purchase it twice? I think already know the answer and that would be purchase twice. TIA

cuzinvin Loc: Reno, Nevada

Aperture and NIK are a great combo to use, but the real key to effectiveness is - if you happen to live close to an Apple Store - their One-To-One program, which is the bargain of the century. Good Luck!

fishmaven Loc: Ohio right now

Dave R. wrote:

Not wanting to hijack this thread but if one was to purchase Aperture and download from the app store can you use it on both the laptop and desktop or do you need to purchase it twice? I think already know the answer and that would be purchase twice. TIA

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4007
"How many computers can I install Aperture 3 on?

You may download and use Aperture 3 for personal, non-commercial use on any Apple-branded products running Mac OS X (Mac Computer) that you own or control.

If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download Aperture 3 for use by either (a) a single individual on each of the Mac Computer(s) used by that individual that you own or control or (b) multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single employee may use Aperture 3 on both the employees desktop Mac Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially use Aperture 3 on a single Mac Computer located at a resource center or library. For the sake of clarity, each Mac Computer used serially by multiple users requires a separate license."

Kentski Loc: Michigan

I also triied the LR free trial and decided on Apeture because of the easy transfer ability between Apple products. I have only been using Apeture for a few months and are still in the learning phase. So far it fills my needs.

There are a few features I hope would be in the new release when and if it happens. There are plugins for HDR fo example...but seem to be $$.

jkatpc Loc: Virginia Beach

I use Aperture as well, and have no complaints. I mostly want to bring out what is already in the photo and am not too interested in making it something it never was (e.g., green screen stuff). I have started to integrate DxO Optics Pro 9 suite since it was available at a good price, but the jury is still out on that.

TWAhouston Loc: Katy Texas

Aperture and Nik plugins are a great combination, very happy with them

SquashFan

I have used Aperture since it was first released. It is an excellent program for doing the sort of PP work that you describe. If you find that you want to do more, then there are lots of plug-ins that can add extra capabilities, and you can always use photoshop as an external editor.
Lightroom and Capture One, both offer slightly more features within them, but not I think, ones that you will miss, with the possible exception of perspective correction. DxO ViewPoint 2 is an excellent plug-in that will allow you to correct sloping verticals or other distortions from within Aperture, returning the modified image back into Aperture to maintain your workflow.
If you are someone who always buys the latest and greatest camera to come out and shoots raw, you may find Lightroom or Capture one better for you as both of these tend to support the latest raw formats earlier than Aperture which has historically been somewhat slow to release updates.

Up-Side-Down Loc: Glasgow, Scotland

SquashFan wrote:

I have used Aperture since it was first released. ... (show quote)

Algernon Loc: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I too use Aperture and the Nik plugins. I love Aperture and do 99% of my PP work there. In my opinion Aperture allows superior controls for color and contrast.

The remaining 1% is a rare need for layers or perspective distortion correction (and I use PS Elements for those situations).