What to move to from Aperture

[jaz9090]

Hi,

I've been using Aperture as my raw converter and photo management/editing (+ a dab of Photoshop) for the last few years, and now that Apple are scrapping it looking at moving to either Lightroom or Capture One Pro, looking for advice/experience with the two.

Features I have liked with Aperture are that it makes it easy to import files, deals with the file management for me and smart albums makes it east to have albums of 'picks' for best photos/print photos from any album/all albums. The full screen mode is great for editing photos and making adjustments with the panels auto hiding. The noise reduction in the raw converter was pretty poor however and I did use ACR on an old copy of Photoshop for some photos as I did for extra editing/adjustments when the tools in aperture weren't sufficient (although I do prefer to stay just in aperture where possible).

I'll prob end up either getting the adobe lightroom+Photoshop subscription or the Capture One Pro subscription and if needed use my older copy of Photoshop.

I'm wanting to move from aperture now as I can only see apple dumbing is down with the new Photos App and don't want to add any more photos to aperture now I know I'm going to have to move.

Thanks
James

 

[Light Guru]

I'm wanting to move from aperture now as I can only see apple dumbing is down with the new Photos App and don't want to add any more photos to aperture now I know I'm going to have to move.

I would not move now I would wait and see what the new Photos App will offer. I don't think it will be a big dumbing down. As i see it Apple is making this move not to simplify what the app can do but to simplify how many photo apps apple has and how well they integrate with their mobile devices. Having to develop two separate photo apps like iPhoto and Aperture along side each other just adds more work for Apple then having just one app.

I actually think that the upcoming Photos App has the potential to be much more powerful at editing then Aperture because of the introduction of extensions. Third party app makes can make editing extensions that will work seamlessly within the Photos App.

I say hold off until you actually know how good the Photos App is or isn't going to be.

 

[ronlane]

I was under the impression that Apple was getting out of the game for photo editing apps.

I have not used the Capture One software, but I have heard that the noise reduction piece is supposed to be excellent. I currently use LR4 and am waiting to replace my laptop before going to the photographer's package of CC (LR and CC).

I think that LR is very easy when it comes to importing and file management (one of it's strong suits). I plug in my card reader and it automatically calls up LR and the import module.

 

[Ysarex]

I'd recommend the switch to LR. Here's some help to consider: Adobe releases new 'Aperture Importer' plugin for Lightroom: Digital Photography Review

Capture One is an excellent raw converter. I use it regularly because the image quality and tool set are so good -- superior to what Adobe provides.

However, and this is a big however, C1's cataloging and DAM functions do not compete with LR. Any single choice of a raw converter + DAM has to be a compromise and the best overall compromise if both functions are important to you is LR.

So given the options you noted:
Best IQ = C1
Best DAM = LR
Best overall compromise = LR

Joe

P.S. Sorry to see Aperture go -- a very unfortunate move by Apple and it has me pretty upset. I hope Photos will be an appropriate replacement but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Light Guru]

I was under the impression that Apple was getting out of the game for photo editing apps.

Nope just rebuilding it from the ground up.

I'd recommend the switch to LR. Here's some help to consider: Adobe releases new 'Aperture Importer' plugin for Lightroom: Digital Photography Review

Unfortunately that Aperture to Lightroom importer from Adobe is far from seamless and it does NOT keep import image adjustments. Not keeping image adjustments is reason alone to hold off on moving to Lightroom until we see what the Photos App has to offer.

According to this article Apple itself is working on a way to transition from Aperture to Lightroom and I'm betting that the Apples tool will move image adjustments which would be big considering Adobe's tool does mot import image adjustments.

Here ia s nice article about the upcoming Photos App
Photos for OS X Yosemite: Explained | iMore

 

[jaz9090]

If Apple really are wanting to 'stay in the game' then they have really done a poor job on the PR side as announcing you are getting rid of a piece of software and not announcing the feature set of the replacement is pretty dumb, also I can't see them investing as much in the pro/prosumer side once it becomes a free application.

As I understand it the comment about Aperture to LR is rubbish, either way it is very unlikely that adjustments will transfer, for obvious reasons.

Not transferring changes is one of my main reasons for wanting to move sooner TBH, I don't want to commit any more photos to Aperture changes.

 

[Gary A.]

Capture One is my move.

 

[Designer]

As I understand it the comment about Aperture to LR is rubbish, either way it is very unlikely that adjustments will transfer, for obvious reasons.

Not transferring changes is one of my main reasons for wanting to move sooner TBH, I don't want to commit any more photos to Aperture changes.

I don't understand what "transferring changes" means.

My current level of understanding is that once a file is created, either JPG, TIF, or PNG, why wouldn't it just stay that way?

I know I am missing some information, so help me understand this.

 

[Ysarex]

As I understand it the comment about Aperture to LR is rubbish, either way it is very unlikely that adjustments will transfer, for obvious reasons.

Not transferring changes is one of my main reasons for wanting to move sooner TBH, I don't want to commit any more photos to Aperture changes.

I don't understand what "transferring changes" means.

My current level of understanding is that once a file is created, either JPG, TIF, or PNG, why wouldn't it just stay that way?

I know I am missing some information, so help me understand this.

The reference is to raw files. You can't actually alter a raw file when you make adjustments in a raw converter. Aperture is a raw converter. The editing adjustments you make in Aperture to a raw file are stored as instructions and typically those instructions are unique to the program that creates them. The most typical way to store those instructions is in a sidecar file. Adobe for example creates an XMP file that's saved along with the raw file.

So the problem folks are having is they may have thousands of raw files in an Aperture catalog that they have edited. The editing is not saved to the raw files but stored as an editing instruction set. Their catalog and database tags etc. can be transferred but it's a much more difficult problem to transfer the editing instructions if for example the two software programs don't use similar editing tools. Aperture for example has hung on to an adjustment they call highlight recovery while Adobe used to have a similar adjustment but abandoned it in more recent versions of ACR/LR. How do you then transfer the editing instructions? What if I had 8,000 edited raw files in an Aperture catalog? Big ouch there. And it begs the question what's going to be available in the new Photos app.

Joe

 

[Designer]

Thanks, Joe!

 

[KmH]

By the same token, ACR (LR Develop module/Camera Raw) alone has 3 different process versions that are not directly compatible.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 * Process versions

It's been mentioned many times in the forums that each Raw converter application produces edits that have it's own 'look', and that look will change if the photo is opened in a different Raw converter.