Lightroom or Aperture for Mac users?

[cameragirl]

Hi everyone, I have downloaded trial versions of both Aperture and Lightroom. Going to play and see what I like. I just got my brandnew imac and need to organize all photos.
Which application do you use, which one you like better?

[Nicole]

I had Aperture 1.5, but never really used it. It just never quite worked how I wanted it to, which may have been because I was used to using Bridge. Then I downloaded the beta of Lightroom 2 and got totally hooked on using it, so I've fully switched over to Lightroom 2. I just found it ran better than Aperture for me, and I liked the way it worked.

[cameragirl]

Does it matter if you are a Mac user? Am not sure if I read somewhere that more Mac-users prefer Lightroom. It is totally for organizing, isn't it? You do editing in Photoshop?

[Nicole]

It actually has more editing functions (and useful editing functions) than I ever expected. I was pretty convinced that it was mostly organizing up until recently when I decided to try out the editing parts of it. I do my more complicated edits in photoshop, but with the adjustment brushes in Lightroom, I'm actually finding there's less I usually have to do in Photoshop in the end.

The guy at the Apple store said people either really like Lightroom or really like Aperture, and that a lot of times the people who bought lightroom said it was because they felt it ran faster I don't know whether or not that's true, that's just the conversation we had, and it was definitely one of my deciding factors when trying to decide if that or Aperture was going to make the final cut. Lightroom just ran better on my machine.

[Rossi42080]

I currently use Aperture 2 and I do not have any complaints with it. If you have Photoshop for your more complex PP, I really like Aperture for the organizational aspect. However I do not have anything to compare it to as I have not used Lightroom.
But my point being, I enjoy using Aperture... if that helps at all.

[Devilsh]

I use Lightroom (I'm on the PC so I don't have Aperture) and I love it!

In fact, for most processing that I do, I find I can do it a lot faster in Lightroom (and batch processing is a snap..) and only use Photoshop for compositing or fixing big problems. For everything temp, exposure, color, tone, contrast, and crop, I'm using LR. The color controls are way more accessible and thusly powerful in my opinion. Plus subtle things like "clarity", "vibrance" and "detail" are like micro-screwdrivers to their "curves", "saturation" and "shapen" counterparts (also available in LR.) I can reduce saturation for red and boost it for orange by grabbing two slider controls (vs PS's RGB model) plus all the edits are non-destructive so I can always go back to my raw format anytime and try again.

Anyway.. Lightroom, yes can't live without it now.

[nicotine]

Originally Posted by Rossi42080

I currently use Aperture 2 and I do not have any complaints with it. If you have Photoshop for your more complex PP, I really like Aperture for the organizational aspect. However I do not have anything to compare it to as I have not used Lightroom.
But my point being, I enjoy using Aperture... if that helps at all.

Seconded, I use Aperture for 90% of my post processing and use Photoshop for the more complex post processing if necessary.

[Cuchulainn]

I will throw in another "me too" for Aperture. I own both Aperture 2 and Lightroom 2 (mainly because I got LR2 for free). Aperture 2 has a far better layout and much better organizational abilities than LR2 in my opinion.

Not that Lightroom 2 is a bad program by any means, it is a fine program. I just haven't found any compelling reason to use it over Aperture. Generally I am round tripping Aperture to NX2, sometimes to CS3.

[Desert Rose]

I have to ask... which one is better for editing photos? Do they basically do the same functions for PP? Being a Mac user, I can see some advantages of Aperture and integrating with other programs. I would like to hear opinions of those who have edited with both formats. I will be purchasing either Aperture or Lightroom in the near future. I just can't decide which one! Please help!

[Nicole]

That is true about integration Desert Rose, especially if you use the media browser for iLife type stuff at all.

If you haven't already, try downloading the demos of both and see which one you prefer working with. One advantage of Aperture that I occasionally wish Lightroom had is the ability to shoot tethered, which is pretty neat. But, that being said, it's not the be all and end all for me. It's a program that you have to work with, and I find that the decision winds up being very much personal preference. Good luck in your decision!