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The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop news and software updates, Photoshop tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.
THURSDAY - APRIL 27 2006
Aperture, Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop And iPhoto
There are so many different workflows available for digital photographers right now that we decided we would ask Aperture expert Scott Bourne some questions about how he sees the different software coexisting.
You do not seem to be a big fan of Lightroom, but being totally objective, do you see it as going into a different direction than Aperture, or competing head on?
I am not a fan of Lightroom in its present form. And I don't think anyone can honestly say what Lightroom's future direction will be. It's in beta so we don't know which commands, interfaces, functions, etc. will survive the beta period. In my opinion, there's no question that Adobe sees Lightroom as Aperture competition. And that's fine by me. I think the more software we see, the better it will all become. Each company will force the other to get better and better and as photographers we'll all benefit.
What does the drop in Aperture's price from $500 to $300 tell you about the product launch? Are pro photographers the ones who are being stand-offish, or is the price reduction an attempt to get a share of a wider, non-pro user base?
The price drop tells me that I was right when I said Apple's marketing and position of Aperture was all wrong from the start. In my earliest reviews I said I thought it was too expensive. Maybe Apple listened to me for once:)
I am guessing that their sales numbers were below expectations so they reduced the price to open the market. That's just a guess on my part. I have no inside information. As for non-pros using Aperture, even though Apple targeted the program at professionals, it's obvious from the Internet forums that many amateurs were using the program so if they want to buy it, I guess Apple decided to push it more in that arena.
A lot of our users are sitting on the fence and are confused. Why so many choices? How would you differentiate Aperture, Lightroom, iPhoto and Bridge, and what advice would you give to a digital photographer who wants to simplify their workflow and not have a variety of apps open all the time?
As for choice, I find Bridge to be utterly useless since I began using Aperture. While I loved Bridge when it came out, I hadn't been exposed yet to Aperture and for me, there's no going back. I look at Lightroom as Aperture Light. And once again, until it's out of Beta, I just don't think it makes sense to get started using it knowing that everything could change.
Is iPhoto going to be enough for most Mac users? Some ask "Where do I draw the line and say, ok, now I need Aperture?" Can you give us some rule-of-thumb buying advice here?
Now iPhoto is an interesting title to throw into the mix. Since Apple updated iPhoto to version six, I have to tell you I am very impressed with it. The biggest reason I'd recommend against iPhoto is that its RAW conversions are subpar and the cataloging features minimized. But if I were just a JPEG shooter or an hobbyist who wanted a powerful yet easy software program to manage my images, I'd take a long look at iPhoto. It's really quite good especially given the fact that it's free with every new Mac.
If you have lots of images and shoot RAW, I think you'd be better off with Aperture. Otherwise, try iPhoto since you already have it and see what you think. The new photocasting feature is fun and there's even full screen editing now in iPhoto.
Are you planning on any Aperture books?
I just finished serving as technical editor for the new Sybex/Wiley title, Aperture Exposed by Josh and Ellen Anon. And I am working with my pal Derrick Story to author a DVD-based, online training Aperture tutorial for lynda.com. I'll be in California next month recording that series and it should be available by late summer or early fall.
I have tossed around the idea of an Aperture 2.0 book but right now, I am not certain I will have the time to write one. I am also spending a great deal of time podcasting these days. My Photofocus.com podcast has 25,000 listeners and I'm just about to start a show with Chris Breen the editor of MacWorld and Derrick Story, co-author with David Pogue of the iPhoto Missing Manual. The show is called the iLifeZone and deals with the entire iLife suite of products, including iPhoto. That show will be produced by PixelCorps, the same folks that do TWIT and MacBreak so I am pretty excited about it — but it will take a great deal of my time. Between my field workshops, my blog, dukeofdigital.com and writing for sites like Macdevcenter.com and doing the podcasts, I don't have tons of free time anymore.
Thanks for the interview!
Scott Bourne has also posted a review of Aperture 1.1 on the Mac DevCenter. From the intro:
- On April 13, Apple made good on its promise to deliver Aperture 1.1, the Universal Binary version of its groundbreaking professional photo workflow software. The update is free to all existing Aperture owners through the Apple Software Update menu.
The first thing you'll notice is that Aperture uses a new Library structure. Upon opening the program for the first time, you'll be presented with a warning that advises you that once you convert your image Library to 1.1, there's no turning back. I made the conversion, and it was fast and flawless.
There are new RAW adjustment controls in the Adjustments Inspector and Adjustments HUD that improve the quality of RAW decodes via custom tuning of parameters. Most noticeably, you can control contrast (using the new Boost tool) and sharpness, as well as color noise reduction (using the Chroma Blur and Auto Noise Compensation tools) from the RAW decoder. And each of these is specifically tuned to your camera if it is supported by Apple.
And to quash the cry for a real-time color meter, Apple gave us a new Color Meter tool that quickly and easily samples any area of an image for RGB, CMYK, or LAB color values. You can use this as a stand-alone tool or as part of Aperture's Loupe tool. Photoshop users who like to sample specific color ranges will feel right at home in Aperture due to this new tool.
For those who never felt comfortable with Aperture's printing parameters, the new version has updated image resolution controls. You can specify output resolution in dots per inch (dpi) when exporting images or sending images to an external editor, such as Adobe Photoshop.
Read the full review at the Mac DevCenter. And make sure to visit Scott's Apple Aperture site ApertureTricks.
For more on Lightroom, see our Lightroom Resource Center.
For more on Aperture, see our Aperture Resource Center.
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