Adobe 'Doubling Down' on Lightroom in Wake of Apple's Aperture Announcement

MacRumors · Jun 27, 2014

Following Apple's announcement that it plans to cease further development on its professional photo editing software, Aperture, Adobe has released a statement encouraging Aperture users to check out its Creative Cloud plan or its standalone Lightroom app, a longtime Aperture competitor. The company says it is committed to helping former Aperture and iPhoto customers transition to Lightroom.

Put simply we're doubling down on our investments in Lightroom and the new Creative Cloud Photography plan and you can expect to see a rich roadmap of rapid innovation for desktop, web and device workflows in the coming weeks, months and years. We also continue to invest actively on the iOS and OSX platforms, and are committed to helping interested iPhoto and Aperture customers migrate to our rich solution across desktop, device and web workflows.

Known as Aperture's biggest competitor, Lightroom is another solution for professional photo editing. Adobe has a Creative Cloud subscription plan aimed specifically at photographers, offering access to both Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99 per month. While this plan used to be temporary, Adobe recently made it a permanent addition to Creative Cloud. Adobe also offers access to its full suite of Creative Cloud apps, including Lightroom, for $49.99 per month.

Adobe has developed Lightroom mobile apps for both the iPhone and the iPad, both of which seamlessly connect to the desktop version of Lightroom, allowing users to edit and manage their library of photos on any device.

While both Aperture and Lightroom offer similar professional photo editing capabilities, Lightroom has enjoyed regular updates as part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, while Aperture has been falling behind for quite some time now. Lightroom received an update earlier this month, while Aperture was last updated in November of 2013.

Article Link: Adobe 'Doubling Down' on Lightroom in Wake of Apple's Aperture Announcement

NY Guitarist · Jun 27, 2014

<SIGH> does it work without the 'cloud'?

spaceballl · Jun 27, 2014

I'm happy to give Lightroom a shot, and I'd even pay $50, $100, or more for it if I enjoyed it, but even at only $10 / month, I don't love the idea of adding yet another "small" fee to my monthly recurring expenses. These things add up. I know saas is the future business model all these companies want, but I'd rather just pony up some $ and have everything working, free of monthly charges.

Agent OrangeZ · Jun 27, 2014

Doubling down... not! Your biggest competitor pulls out. No competition means higher pricing and dragging your feet when it comes to innovation.

maelstromr · Jun 27, 2014

spaceballl said:
I'm happy to give Lightroom a shot, and I'd even pay $50, $100, or more for it if I enjoyed it, but even at only $10 / month, I don't love the idea of adding yet another "small" fee to my monthly recurring expenses. These things add up. I know saas is the future business model all these companies want, but I'd rather just pony up some $ and have everything working, free of monthly charges.

I agree, though it's still a pretty smart capitalization on a poorly timed announcement from Apple. Should have waited till people could at least see what Photos could do...

sputnikv · Jun 27, 2014

my understanding was that lightroom was offered stand-alone without having to subscribe to their creative cloud. are they changing this now that they know they can get more subscribers out of it?

that's dirty

Sasparilla · Jun 27, 2014

Wonder how long Lightroom will be standalone?

Doubling down on Creative Cloud...after Apple's exit here I wonder how long Adobe will keep Lightroom available outside of a subscription?

It may be viewed as mainstream enough (like Elements) that they have to sell it standalone, but that seems a stretch.

taptic · Jun 27, 2014

Had Apple given the loop information as a company? Or was it just inside info?

Traverse · Jun 27, 2014

How about doubling down the price!

As a more causal/prosumer user I have a hard time justifying $10 a month indefinitely (120 a year) for an app I use maybe once a week.

And the stand alone is $140...

*sigh*

$10 bucks isn't a lot, but when you're in college with other bills it is harder to justify...

Codyak · Jun 27, 2014

Hmm, doubling down, where have I heard that phrase before?

John.B · Jun 27, 2014

DShap5 said:
Had Apple given the loop information as a company? Or was it just inside info?

Confirmed by TechCrunch.com and others.

nwcs · Jun 27, 2014

Honestly, Lightroom has been better than Aperture overall for quite some time. But LR is not the only one out there. For those who do not want to use Adobe there are other possibilities:

1. Iridient Developer
2. Photo Ninja
3. Bibble Pro
4. Capture One
5. DXO
6. RPP
7. SilkyPix

And that's just off the top of my head. There are others out there. Each slightly different. And Nikon's new Capture NX-D will be free and should work with Nikon files and it's based on SilkyPix.

It's not the end of the world. The only "bad" thing is if Apple stops with any future raw file support. Inconvenient but not unsolvable.

thenightwatcher · Jun 27, 2014

I don't like this. What's next? Logic?

chfilm · Jun 27, 2014

Nice to hear, I wish there was ANY way to translate the Aperture Library to Lightroom though. My lub is HUGE and I don't see how I'm supposed to get all the data over (raw adjustments can be baked, ok, but ratings, Facial Recognition doesn't even exist, location etc..)

cashxx · Jun 27, 2014

How about fixing your software so it doesn't corrupt over a network share Adobe??? Worry about that!

djnewlin · Jun 27, 2014

Ironic "Doubling Down" Server Performance!

When I clicked on the link in the posting, the adobe server gives the following error message. I guess they forgot to Double Down

=============================================
This section of Creative Cloud is experiencing unexpected server errors.

We're working quickly to resolve the issue and we're sorry for the delay. Please check back or see our status site for updates. Also, help is available in the Creative Cloud forums.

Thanks for your patience!

HelpTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyCookiesLanguage: © 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

nwcs · Jun 27, 2014

spaceballl said:
I'm happy to give Lightroom a shot, and I'd even pay $50, $100, or more for it if I enjoyed it, but even at only $10 / month, I don't love the idea of adding yet another "small" fee to my monthly recurring expenses. These things add up. I know saas is the future business model all these companies want, but I'd rather just pony up some $ and have everything working, free of monthly charges.

You can buy Lightroom as a perpetual license still. Presumably LR 6 as well. I've been seeing it for around $80. A lot of places like B&H are bundling it in with certain purchases.

Sasparilla · Jun 27, 2014

chfilm said:
Nice to hear, I wish there was ANY way to translate the Aperture Library to Lightroom though. My lub is HUGE and I don't see how I'm supposed to get all the data over (raw adjustments can be baked, ok, but ratings, Facial Recognition doesn't even exist, location etc..)

Supposedly (according to that first article) something is being worked on...

Gizmotoy · Jun 27, 2014

Aperture was little competition for Lightroom, at least in the past year or two. It was really behind, so I'm not surprised they killed it.

Unfortunately, this is terrible news for Lightroom users. It's pretty widely-thought that the only reason Adobe sells Lightroom stand-alone is because of competition from Aperture. All Adobe's other Creative Suite apps are now cloud-only.

With the Photoshop/Lightroom cloud offering and Apple killing Aperture, expect the next version of Lightroom to be cloud-only.

laurihoefs · Jun 27, 2014

Traverse said:
How about doubling down the price!

As a more causal/prosumer user I have a hard time justifying $10 a month indefinitely (120 a year) for an app I use maybe once a week.

And the stand alone is $140...

*sigh*

$10 bucks isn't a lot, but when you're in college with other bills it is harder to justify...

Student version of the full Lightroom license is $79.

Gizmotoy said:
Aperture was little competition for Lightroom, at least in the past year or two. It was really behind, so I'm not surprised they killed it.

Unfortunately, this is terrible news for Lightroom users. It's pretty widely-thought that the only reason Adobe sells Lightroom stand-alone is because of competition from Aperture. All Adobe's other Creative Suite apps are now cloud-only.

With the Photoshop/Lightroom cloud offering and Apple killing Aperture, expect the next version of Lightroom to be cloud-only.

I'm not sure that is true. Aperture has had a fairly small share of the whole market, and Adobe still has competition from DxO, SilkyPix, Corel, etc.

Gizmotoy · Jun 27, 2014

Sasparilla said:
Supposedly (according to that first article) something is being worked on...

There are a lot of articles covering this already. Essentially you want to export your entire Aperture library, which is a built-in feature. If you have RAW or are worried about losing metadata, make sure to export with XMP sidecars. Lightroom will read those in and make the same adjustments.

Still, you'll lose facial recognition. No such feature in Lightroom, unfortunately.

wheelhot · Jun 27, 2014

I thought some features in Lightroom CC is not available in Lightroom 6?

Though TBH, I prefer Aperture workflow any day over Lightroom. Now I'll have to consider going to LR which has the added benefit of vast 3rd party plugins support or go for ID which has the best RAW converter in the market. Hmmmm

mozumder · Jun 27, 2014

nwcs said:
Honestly, Lightroom has been better than Aperture overall for quite some time. But LR is not the only one out there. For those who do not want to use Adobe there are other possibilities:

1. Iridient Developer
2. Photo Ninja
3. Bibble Pro
4. Capture One
5. DXO
6. RPP
7. SilkyPix

And that's just off the top of my head. There are others out there. Each slightly different. And Nikon's new Capture NX-D will be free and should work with Nikon files and it's based on SilkyPix.

It's not the end of the world. The only "bad" thing is if Apple stops with any future raw file support. Inconvenient but not unsolvable.

The problem is is that those are Raw converters & processors.

That's the LEAST important part of a pro photographers workflow. Photoshop fills the role just fine, and photojournalists don't even shoot raw. Additionally, people don't buy photos because of picture quality. They buy photos because of their relevance.

The strength of Aperture was it's asset management, of which Lightroom isn't going to work.

joejoejoe · Jun 27, 2014

I love lightroom.

I hate the way they price it.

nagromme · Jun 27, 2014

Hopefully they will continue to offer unlimited plans: plans where your cost has no limit, whether their updates are of any use to you or not, and where on a regular basis they will exchange old bugs for new ones, keeping your user experience fresh and engaging.

(I'm burned by Photoshop... but Lightroom is newer and I've heard good things. I hope it's the exception to the rule of a Adobe's recent miserable offerings. I hope even more that it allows you to access--but of course not edit--all of your own creations even after you stop paying. Unlike with all of their other apps.)

Adobe 'Doubling Down' on Lightroom in Wake of Apple's Aperture Announcement

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