iPhoto VS. Lightroom?

[kat.hayes]

I'm trying to decide between iPhoto and Lightroom for storing thousands of images. I want to make the images easy to search and find. I know Lightroom is way more powerful for editing, though for just storing and searching images, any thoughts on which program is better/easier to work with?

Thanks.

 

[r.j.s]

Lightroom is better at large libraries than iPhoto, in addition to the editing capabilities.

 

[kat.hayes]

1. In what ways are Lightroom better for large libraries? Is it more stable or does it have more features?

2. What is considered a "large" library? how many photos/videos?

Thanks.

 

[r.j.s]

Faster at finding, displaying and opening photos in libraries with thousands or tens of thousands of photos.

Remember, iPhoto is aimed at the home user while Lightroom is aimed at professionals - and the quality of the product reflects in the performance and features.

 

[kat.hayes]

Any idea if it's possible to start with iPhoto and somehow later export all the metadata for each image into Lightroom if I decide to switch?

The only reason I'd consider IPhoto is for the ecosystem. Synching with my iPhone, iPad, appletv, etc. any thought on how I might somehow use Lightroom and iPhoto together, Lightroom as the primary program and iPhoto just for streaming, synching etc?

Thanks.

 

[r.j.s]

Any idea if it's possible to start with iPhoto and somehow later export all the metadata for each image into Lightroom if I decide to switch?

The only reason I'd consider IPhoto is for the ecosystem. Synching with my iPhone, iPad, appletv, etc. any thought on how I might somehow use Lightroom and iPhoto together, Lightroom as the primary program and iPhoto just for streaming, synching etc?

Thanks.

Most of the metadata will stay with the photo when you export from iPhoto and import into LR. I can't remember all the fields, but tags do transfer.