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Poll: Which do you use most - iPhoto, Lightroom, or Aperture?

Which photo management title do you use the MOST?

  • Total voters
    180
Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,572
250
with Hamburglar.
This poll is for a quick snapshot (forgive the pun) of what software title we prefer (pick the one you use the most if you use many) out of these three photo management/editing titles: iPhoto, Lightroom, and Aperture.

(Photoshop is not included because it is solely an editing tool, and is frequently used in conjunction with the above choices. I'm just interested in photo management titles!)

Thanks!
 
tersono said:
I can't imagine many people would have both Lightroom and Aperture...
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I do! :p But I get what you're saying. I actually use all three:

1. The web gallery export on Lightroom was pull enough for me to get it
2. I edit and store everything in Aperture (99% of my workflow is in Aperture).
3. I also made an awesome present for a friend - a "movie" (photo slideshow with soundtrack exported to .mov file) in iPhoto.
 
I've been using Aperture more and more lately but only for photo enhancing. Management and perm organization go into iPhoto.

I use iPhoto for my photo management since that's what the question was
Which photo management title do you use the MOST?
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As far as photo editing, I use Aperture the most (now I do)
 
Grimace said:
kkat69 - out of curiosity - why iPhoto over Aper/LR for management?
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iPhoto management is easier and less intimidating.

Not everyone is software interface savvy, so for my wife's sake and for showing off to family members I use iPhoto.

If I used Aperture to show off photo's people would loose interest and walk away. Aperture is for the more technical person like me.

iPhoto is for my parents to easily gaze through pictures and in my house, my wife to go through them and show them to her friends, etc.

Ease of the interface is the bottom line. It's easier to use than Aperture. I'm not gonna get into "it's not that hard" tit for tat back and forth. For my wife and non-savvy people, it's easier. Besides I just got Aperture about a month ago, I got it and use it with my DSLR. All previous photos were stored in iPhoto so that's another reason. Scrolling through the events, mousing over to quickly see the photos in there is a nice feature as well. Aperture doesn't do that.
 
I tried LR/Aperture for awhile, but the latest version of iPhoto does pretty much everything I need, and feels a lot less "busy".
 
I don't thing "use the most" is not quite the correct wording. I suspect that people would use one or the other and not bounce around. But then it is easy to use both iPhot and Aerture together.
 
Phatpat said:
I tried LR/Aperture for awhile, but the latest version of iPhoto does pretty much everything I need, and feels a lot less "busy".
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Busy.. that's exactly what my wife said about aperture, so I stick with the iPhoto for management. I like it. It does 'most' of what I need, but now with my DSLR I like to get in and really pull all the colors out I can with the pictures. I then 'export' at the highest jpg settings to iPhoto after I've tweak the images so the ones in iPhoto are the best (from my eyes) can be.

I like iPhoto, anything more would be Aperture 3 IMO. Combine the 2 would be nice, maybe have an "Enable Advance Editing Features" selection to enable the 'busy' pieces but leave the easy interface the default.

Some might say "the folder/album/etc is a nice organization" but for people like my wife who want it simple, quick, easy to use, iPhoto can't be beat. For people who want the ability to do more IMO Aperture is the way to go. For those who want even MORE detail, the Adobe products are pretty much the standard.

Myself, I'm the Aperture man. I like enough but not to much. I keep my management in iPhoto, my editing in Aperture, and I guess storage of master files until I need to prune them for space. But I do use both iPhoto for my main management and storage, and Aperture for my editing/secondary storage.
 
None :).. I use Paint Shop Pro Photo x2.

Then again I use the dark side (Windows) and don't have a need for now to make the investment into these applications... give me time and I will likely change my mind.
 
I checked Lightroom, but I've got all 3. I like the file management system in Lightroom as well as the edits just a little better than I do with Aperture. Plus, my photos are mostly catalogued in the field using the macbook, aperture runs like cold molasses on a macbook.

As far as iPhoto is concerned. I keep my favorite photos in there so that I have them with me all the time. But the rest are stored offline and catalogued through Lightroom.

SLC
 
I'm really surprised at all of the Aperture users.

I assumed Adobe products were the standard in digital photography.
 
bonafide said:
I'm really surprised at all of the Aperture users.

I assumed Adobe products were the standard in digital photography.
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I think Aperture was on the market first (before LR) and served a different need than what Photoshop provided. I got accustomed to Aperture and thought it was a great step up over iPhoto and Bridge. There is something to be said about getting to the market first!
 
Aperture for editing and organising all of my photos (the masters of which are on an external hard drive). I export .jpgs of only my fave photos to iPhoto so that they are always on the laptop and travel with me...
 
I use Lightroom for pics from my E-400 and iPhoto for pics from my µ600.

I tried Aparture and Lightroom for a while, and ended up buying Lightroom.

Lately I've used my E-400 much, much more than the µ600, and concequently used Lightroom more than iPhoto. I switch a bit between the 1.4.x and the 2.0 beta, not entirely trusting the beta enough to use it full time... ;)
 
I use Lightroom. I tried Aperture when i first got leopard but there was some wierd xmp bug with files edited in lightroom so i gave up on it and stayed with lightroom (i may give aperture 2 a try though).


my workflow is basically...

Use ImageIngestorPro to get the photos off my D300, from here they go into Capture NX for any RAW work. I then import the resulting tiff into LR and from there it either goes to CS3 for more work or I continue editing it inside LR.
 
Photo Mechanic is number 1 for me

Photo Mechanic supports so many functions, I would have to write a long-winded writeup to mention them all but one of the coolest functions is code replacements... if you shoot sports, this will save you huge time looking up players names.

I ingest, name and add basic captions in Photo Mechanic... color correct and crop in Photoshop then return to Photo Mechanic to tweek the caption and ftp to the paper.

I have iPhoto... its a cool app... great for making books and calenders. I have looked at the other two apps but they don't seem to do all that Photo Mechanic does. PM is "amazing" and I can't see working without it.
 
Grimace said:
Wow - can you describe your usage for each one?
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iPhoto - making edits, not to the images, just to cream the crap from the good and I like the quick email function + for dot mac.

Aperture + Lightroom - for making the actual edits that I find too slow in Photoshop CS2. I use both for my projects as I want to learn both incase a job comes up and they specify either program + to make comparisons between both programs both, I want to use them both just like I use film and digital cameras in my work.
 
Aperture then NX

I manage my photographs with Aperture, but when it comes time to "digital developing" the RAW files, I work on Nikon's Capture NX. If there is any other post-processing that needs to be done, then there's Photoshop CS3.
 
Well,

I'm officially confused here.

I'm not sure I understand what the difference is between them all (Lightroom, Aperture, Elements and Gimp). I get that Lightroom and Aperture are more powerful photo management/editing software then iPhoto but what is the difference between them and Elements? I don't get it.

The reason I'm asking is I got a new dSLR on the way and I cannot really decide what software to purchase. I'd like to keep my SLR photos seperate from my point and shoot. Mostly because my wife will use the point and shoot and I will use the dSLR.

Aside from downloading the trials and playing with them seperately what do you guys suggest?
 
bonafide said:
Well,

I'm officially confused here.

I'm not sure I understand what the difference is between them all (Lightroom, Aperture, Elements and Gimp). I get that Lightroom and Aperture are more powerful photo management/editing software then iPhoto but what is the difference between them and Elements? I don't get it.

The reason I'm asking is I got a new dSLR on the way and I cannot really decide what software to purchase. I'd like to keep my SLR photos seperate from my point and shoot. Mostly because my wife will use the point and shoot and I will use the dSLR.

Aside from downloading the trials and playing with them seperately what do you guys suggest?
Click to expand...

For the wife's point and shoot, I'd stick with iPhoto.

For the DSLR I just got mine about a month ago and I bought Aperture 2. I like the interface but I 'manage' my photo's in iPhoto but keep my RAW's in Aperture. Reason I manage in iPhoto is because that's what the wife uses.

There's subtle differences between Aperture and Lightroom (I have them both and I've tried them both and I stuck with Aperture and gave lightroom away) so it's an opinionated answer as to which one is best.

For me it's Aperture. Easier to use yet still powerful for editing. To me the interface was more friendly as well. Not as busy as Lightroom.
 
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