Aperture or Photoshop

Pilotwannabe1123

Pilotwannabe1123

New Member
Hey JC,

I was wondering what you guys think I should get as a new photo editing software. Aperture or Photoshop? Who knows the pros and con? Any good recommendations?
 
Unfortunately you're kind of comparing apples to oranges. Aperture, in my mind, is more of a photo management program than a photo editing program. Sure, it has the ability to edit photos, but it's nowhere near as capable as Photoshop is. Conversely, Photoshop is the standard by which all other photo editing software is measured, but its photo management is non-existent which is why Lightroom exists.

If you're serious about photography, then you may want to consider Aperture+Photoshop or Lightroom+Photoshop. If you're just looking to do rudimentary editing, then you can most likely get away with using Aperture alone. If you couldn't care less about photo management, then Photoshop alone is your answer.

Ask 10 photographer's what they use and you'll get 12 answers. So, good luck.
 
Perfect answer b.a.c.

I've been playing around with Aperture 3 lately and while I think it's a better manager than lightroom, Lightroom also has many 3rd party plugins that do those things as well. Where I think Aperture has the leg up is with the faces function but right now the way LR integrates with PS it's still my primary workflow....

... of course my workflow is all out of whack right now because I need to wait for both Adobe and Apple to come out with an update that will read my T2i raw files so at the moment I'm using Canon Photo Professional to do my raw processing, import the converted TIFF into PS then organize and export to flickr/smugmug with LR
 
As a retoucher I only use Photoshop but you may want to consider Photoshop Elements. It might meet your needs and they have a trial you can download and use free for 30 days.
 
badasscrustacean said:
Unfortunately you're kind of comparing apples to oranges. Aperture, in my mind, is more of a photo management program than a photo editing program. Sure, it has the ability to edit photos, but it's nowhere near as capable as Photoshop is. Conversely, Photoshop is the standard by which all other photo editing software is measured, but its photo management is non-existent which is why Lightroom exists.

If you're serious about photography, then you may want to consider Aperture+Photoshop or Lightroom+Photoshop. If you're just looking to do rudimentary editing, then you can most likely get away with using Aperture alone. If you couldn't care less about photo management, then Photoshop alone is your answer.

Ask 10 photographer's what they use and you'll get 12 answers. So, good luck.
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For certain things, I love Lightroom. Photoshop + Lightroom is a good combination.
 
photoshop, but don't use it as a crutch. too many people take blah pics with poor composition, terrible exposure, and then go over the top with photoshop trying to turn the picture into something it's not.
 
If you're just looking for something cheap (free) try IfranView. Its free and it takes care of small issues. Did I mention its free? lol
 
Pilotwannabe1123 said:
**UPDATE** Just purchased Photoshop and Lightroom as a package.Now the learning begins!
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Awesome. My advice: start with lightroom and only go into photoshop when lightroom can't do what you want it to do.

Think long and hard about what you want your directory structure to look like inside of lightroom. I personally use Year -> Month -> Day, because there are far better ways to catagorize and sort images inside of LR than you could ever do in a directory structure. Also, a custom renaming scheme is a good idea, and LR will do this very easily.

Depending on how much you shoot, think about storage. I personally use Western Digital Mirror Edition drives and have been very satisfied with them.

Check here for lots of Lightroom goodies. I can personally attest to the fact that the Facebook and Smugmug export plugins work very well. LR3 is supposed to support these features even more fully.

I'm a fan of the Martin Evening books for LR and PS. Kelby just really doesn't do it for me. Also, the DAM Book is a very good read.

Always keep your serial numbers close at hand because Adobe copy protection schemes are a real PITA.

Any questions, just ask!
 
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