Please help me decide... Aperture? Lightroom? OR CS3?

[kris_m.]

Hi all,

 

 

I am finally shooting in RAW and JPEG, hoping to shoot all in RAW. I currently

use photoshop CS2 and the adobe bridge.

 

I am considering using Aperture or Lightroom to help with the RAW process. Or I

was just thinking of upgrading to CS3.

 

Any suggestions or comments would be so helpful.

 

Thanks,

Kris

[astrid_garcia]

Hi Kris,

 

 

I use Lightroom in conjunction with CS3. I can't say that Lightroom alone could completely replace CS3 for my needs. There are a lot of things that I can't do in Lightroom that I need CS3 for. However, for managing large collections of images, applying some changes to many images and creating different versions of the same image without increasing file size (as in virtual copies), Lightroom is my solution. I can't rave enough in regards to how much time it has saved me in managing my events. I love using both programs together. When I need to move to CS3 for more creative control/retouching/layering/masking, I can do so easily and the entire event is managed brilliantly from LR.

 

So it really depends on what you do with your post processing. I can't say for sure that upgrading to CS3 will be your ideal solution. Bridge alone may not be enough (it wasn't for me). And the changes from CS2 to CS3 may not be necessary given your needs of Pshop. If image management and RAW post production is your goal, than Lightroom or Aperture certainly seems better than an upgrade from CS2 to CS3.

 

Hope this helps! I've been with PShop since 4.0 and Lightroom since its Beta version and I love them both!

 

Astrid

[ellis_vener_photography]

Did you know that there is a JPEG already imbedded in your RAW image file?

 

PsCS3 does somethigns better than PsCS2 did. if you are are working on an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, Mac Book or Mac Pro, the big difference for you will be faster speed.

 

If you also need an archiving program as wel las a raw processor it is worth it to consider either Lightroom or Aperture -- but neither have PsCS3's sheer power and versatility. Having said that I do the bulk of my processing these days in Lightroom and tweaking and printing from PsCS3.

[hooman_b]

I have PS CS3, Bridge, and Lightroom - personally, I love LR - it has saved me SO much time, its not even funny. I use LR now for 95% of my work. With LR I can import the raw, have several presets for B&W conversions, sharpening, etc.. pick and flag favorites, covert those specific flag favs to any number of preset web templates (HTML or FLASH) and done. SO nice. I use PS CS3 for minor touchups when people order prints or enlargements, resizing, etc...

[jc5066]

Why don't you download the trials of each and decide which one YOU like?

[wedding-photography-denver]

I use LR to batch from the shoot, but I also dump the catalog/library once the shoot is completely processed. This save the overbearing use of space on the HD. That part of LR is dumb to me but great to others.

 

If the shoot is less than about 100 frames, I use ACR/bridge. LR requires an import that is another time wase.

 

The big advantage of LR is that it has more available global edits and yields (therefore) a better file on the whole. It also does this quickly and the output options are great too.

 

I would not be without it readily, but wish it were more customizable to suit its audience (i.e. drop the import and library/catalog functions).

 

Overall, I am with Ellis as far as the use.

[jill_gately1]

I use Capture One pro from Phase One as my Raw converter. Extremely fast and sophisticated. Seriously improved my workflow. You can get it from the Phase One web site as a bundle with iView Media Pro for $499. I then use CS3 for all of my tweaking.

[edrodgers]

I tried very hard to like Aperture, and spent a month immersed in it. But it wasn't a tough choice to go back to Lightroom. For me, Lightroom is much simpler, more intuitive, faster, cheaper, and cross platform. Lightroom does have a few features that I long for in Lightroom. Not many, but a few.

 

One is that Aperture can be set to "Auto" with user definable bounds. For example, I can set up auto exposure to blow out 5% of the highlight, and loose 5% of the shadows. Or anything else I want to do. In Lightroom, the first black or white pixel is the bounds for the exposure. Then I usually have to increase exposure and blacks to get what I want. Aperture is more flexible in this regard.

 

Lightroom is expanding it's features to stay on top of Aperture, and I'm sure features like this will creep into Lightroom soon.

 

In every comparison article I have read, Lightroom wins.

 

For CS3... Aperture and Lightroom don't do the same things that PS does, and I'd say you will always need PS no matter which image management/RAW processor you choose. CS3 has the benefit of a much better (faster) Bridge application, which is important for me, so I upgraded from CS2.

 

You certainly can get by with ONLY Photoshop, but I think Lightroom is definitely worth the money, jpeg or RAW.

[edrodgers]

David,

 

I create a new Lightroom catalog (database) for each wedding and save it in the wedding folder itself. The cool thing about that is each wedding "folder" can live anywhere.. An external disk, DVD, whatever. Aperture can be done the same way.

 

I too don't need a massive database with all my images in it. When I keep my databases small, everything runs faster.

 

I don't think Adobe will be allowing people to turn off the database part of Lightroom any time soon. It's the core of the software. I think Adobe will say: "If you don't want the database, just use ACR."

[brooke_moore]

I am a major fan of Lightroom.

 

The ability to create subtle transformation of images is better than in any other software I have used. The simple interaction with CS3 is also a breeze. Once you get a handle on how to move around it is easy. There are tons of ways to customize it.

 

It does have a steep learning curve for some things and others are so straightforward that it is just a click to do. Well worth learning and trying.

 

Download the trial and work with a sample grouping of your images and explore the options I think you will have a blast.

 

Brooke

[kellyka]

Lightroom AND CS3

[jasonsmith]

I recently started using Lightroom and Love it!! There is so much you can do to images without even opening Photoshop. That said you still need Photoshop. Lightroom have layers or selection tools so all the heavy lifting is still done in Photoshop.