Aperture 2 vs Photoshop CS3

SC
Posted By
Sam_Casey
Aug 24, 2008
Views
226
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I’m currently looking to upgrade to a Mac and I use CS3 on a Windows XP Pro machine now. I don’t know much about the Macs, but I’ve been impressed with in store demos and online discussions with ease of use.

What I’d like to know from other users is "does Aperture 2 provide any value in a workflow set up?" Since a cost of moving to the new platform will bring some other costs (new software in various areas), I’m trying to limit my investment costs. Does Aperture (at least the way I understand) only provides a light table type approach with basic editing capability? How powerful are the editing tools?

How easy is it to set up a Mac on a home LAN that contains several other Windows machine (my thought here is a "sharing" between the Mac where I’ll download and do Aperture processing of files and use the Windows CS3 machine for the "heavy" post processing – since I rarely get an exposure that doesn’t need post processing).
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B
Buko
Aug 24, 2008
Aperture 2 vs Photoshop CS3

Is like comparing Bananas to Fish.
NK
Neil_Keller
Aug 24, 2008
Sam,

does Aperture 2 provide any value in a workflow set up?

Yes, depending on how you prefer to work, what kind of image adjustments you need to make, and how you organize and present your images. Please read Aperture’s features at apple.com. And compare with Photoshop Lightroom, not with Photoshop. One difference is that Aperture has heftier computer requirements than Lightroom does.

How easy is it to set up a Mac on a home LAN that contains several other Windows machine

It should not present any insurmountable problems, and ideally should not be much more than a quick setup. Aperture and Lightroom both play well with raw images and can do exposure correction.

Neil
L
Lundberg02
Aug 24, 2008
Can I suppose that Aperture is better integrated with the OS, and Lightroom is better integrated with Photoshop? Or is the question meaningless?
C
Cindy
Aug 24, 2008
The Mac is much easier to set up on a LAN than a Windows machine.

And why would you use your Windows machine for heavy post processing? Get a Mac Pro. It will handle all your needs.
CC
Conrad_Chavez
Aug 24, 2008
Can I suppose that Aperture is better integrated with the OS, and Lightroom is better integrated with Photoshop? Or is the question meaningless?

That’s a reasonable supposition. Some prefer Aperture because Apple lets you access the Aperture photo library directly from iWork/iLife apps like Keynote and iDVD. Aperture also gets its raw support from OS X itself, which means most (but not all) of the time, owners of new cameras have had to wait not for an Aperture update but for an entire OS X update before their camera was supported. This has often meant that Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw users got their camera updates first.

Lightroom 1 was sort of integrated with Photoshop, but Lightroom 2 is much more smoothly integrated with Photoshop, also tying in better with Photoshop automation tools like PhotoMerge (panoramas).

I’m using Lightroom, but a reasonably competent Bridge+ACR user may have no need for Lightroom or Aperture.
B
Buko
Aug 24, 2008
If you are shooting thousands of images a week Lightroom or Aperture will be much better than Bridge + ACR.
AW
Allen_Wicks
Aug 25, 2008
Can I suppose that Aperture is better integrated with the OS, and Lightroom is better integrated with Photoshop?

Not really. Both integrate well with the OS and with Photoshop.

Photoshop and Aperture/Lightroom are totally different apps. For advanced image editing one needs an app like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If one does substantial DSLR image capture an image management app like Aperture or (less good) Lightroom are invaluable. Aperture requires strong MacIntel hardware but LR will run on PCs and weak Macs.

I strongly recommend that every digital photog with adequate computer hardware first spend $33 and work through the tutorial CD Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2 (Apple Pro Training Series) by Ben Long, Richard Harrington, and Orlando Luna (Paperback – May 8, 2008), Amazon.com. Step one with Aperture is to have at least 3-4 GB RAM on a MacIntel box. After adequate RAM is on board do the free Aperture trial

Note that the value is in diligently working the tutorial, not in using the book as a manual. The time spent learning modern digital image capture workflow via the tutorial is invaluable.

IMO a cursory examination of Aperture usually turns out to be mostly a waste of time, or leads to bad workflow habits or folks simply do not get it. Carefully working the tutorial is by far the best way to learn this new killer app category.

Good luck!

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