iPhoto vs. Lightroom vs. Aperture?

Question

iPhoto vs. Lightroom vs. Aperture?

I'm pretty new to digital image editing. One of the reasons I actually bought a Mac in the first place was for the ease of getting digital images onto the Internet, with maybe a little bit of editing (cropping, some minor color adjustment mainly). I use the .Mac/MobileMe service for storage after I saw how easy it was to get photos off the camera with iPhoto, tweak them a bit, then upload them to the Internet with iPhoto's Share feature.

Now that I've been doing that for a while, I'm starting to get interested in maybe taking things a bit further. I'd like to be able to do a bit more with some photos than what it seems is possible with iPhoto, such as blemish removal, greater control over color adjustments, etc.

I have been using iWeb to give me better online photo albums than iPhoto's simple Gallery feature, but even iWeb seems very limited with how the templates can be customized.

So I've started to wonder what my other options are. Of course I know the grand-daddy of image editing is Adobe Photoshop, but I'm not ready for the price tag or learning curve, not yet, anyway.

From what I can tell, Adobe Lightroom is basically like iPhoto, being a photo management and minor editing, only with more features and more that it can do compared to iPhoto. Is that assessment correct? Additionally, it also has a publish to web feature, like iPhoto, only even more customizable than what I can do with iWeb, is that also correct?

And from what I also understand, Apple Aperture is basically Apple's version of Lightroom?

Can Lightroom publish photos and albums to the Internet as easily as iPhoto? Including to a .Mac/MobileMe account?

If I were to get Lightroom or Aperture, would I still need to use iPhoto for anything anymore, or would the new program be a complete replacement?

Message was edited by: Justin J. Rebbert

MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 18, 2008 9:36 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 19, 2008 6:32 AM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

This is the iPhoto forum. You would probably get a better response if you posted this in the Aperture forum.

{quote}And from what I also understand, Apple Aperture is basically Apple's version of Lightroom?{quote}

Not exactly. Apple created Aperture to fill the needs of photographers. Adobe also seen the need for such application and created a knockoff of Aperture. So, Lightroom is Adobe's version of Aperture. 🙂

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Answer 2

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Aug 19, 2008 7:19 AM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

If I were to get Lightroom or Aperture, would I still need to use iPhoto for anything anymore, or would the new program be a complete replacement?

I only use iPhoto so can not compare or contrast these products

Aperture and iPhoto will work together although you probably would use iPhoto little or not at all if you had Aperture - Lightroom and iPhoto can not work together at all - you must use one or the other

LN

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Answer 3

Aug 19, 2008 9:54 AM in response to garbageman

garbageman wrote:
This is the iPhoto forum. You would probably get a better response if you posted this in the Aperture forum.

{quote}And from what I also understand, Apple Aperture is basically Apple's version of Lightroom?{quote}

Not exactly. Apple created Aperture to fill the needs of photographers. Adobe also seen the need for such application and created a knockoff of Aperture. So, Lightroom is Adobe's version of Aperture. 🙂

I respectfully disagree that I posted this in the wrong forum. I'm an iPhoto user now, first of all, and secondly, my question is how to other programs compare to iPhoto. My entire question centers around iPhoto. Thus the iPhoto forum.

I also am not certain that your other statement is correct. Lightroom is a knockoff of Aperture? How can that be? Aperture was announced to the public on Oct. 19, 2005. Developers at Adobe began working on the project that turned into Photoshop Lightroom in 2002. In any event, the point of that question was not to imply which came first. I don't care which came first. What I wanted from that question was for someone to confirm (or deny) that Aperture serves the same overall or general purpose as Lightroom, and that both products serve the same overall or general purpose as iPhoto, only with more features, power, and control.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

207,439 points

Aug 19, 2008 4:41 PM in response to Justin J. Rebbert

To get an idea of the benefits of Aperture and Lightroom you might visit the DAM (digital asset management) forum and see what they say about those applications over there.

The DAM Forum

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

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