I thought it was a decision between PSE and Aperture...

Hi, and please go easy on my first post 🙂

I'm a hobbyist photographer, so my requirements for digital photography are relatively minimal. I shoot with a EOS400D, but use nice L glass that gives some nice results. I work in JPEG, although sometimes in RAW, just because I can.

Up till now I'd been using Photoshop elements 5 on my PC. Additionally I used the EOS tools supplied with the camera. PSE was used to edit images, and cut out people to put into cards and other frivolous fun. PSE was also used to retouch and correct DSLR photos, with varying results.

Since moving to the Mac, I incorrectly assumed from uninformed discussions that Aperture was the apple equiv. of PSE. And after downloading the trial I was immediately disappointed. Where were the painting. lasso and editing tools? However, after 30 minutes of persistence, my opinion had swung 180, and I was totally blown away, especially after importing a few RAWS and editing the exposure. I now see the point of RAW.

The UI is simply amazing, and correcting and enhancing photos is such a simple process its unbelievable. Yes, iPhoto can do some of the simple stuff like shadow and highlight manipulation, but results in comparison look grainy and poor.

Now for the real question.

My choice is now whether or not to purchase Aperture2 and PSE, or to just go the whole hog and purchase Photoshop CS4 (without aperture).

I'm expecting answers saying that of course it it, once costs £400 more than the other 2 put together... but is it worth it?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 23, 2009 3:52 AM

Reply
7 replies

Jan 23, 2009 6:16 AM in response to Rob BW

Welcome Rob BW

I agree with David: You're already comfortable with PSE, and it appears that it does what you need Photoshop to do. With CS4 you'll be paying for graphic design tools that you're unlikely to use.

Also, Aperture will allow you to seamlessly "round trip" an image to PSE and back so they will play nice together.

Using CS4 in concert with Bridge and ACR, you can do most of what you can do in Aperture, but it's not nearly as intuitive and is more work. Also, no books and no web tools.

CS4 has far more powerful masking tools than PSE, but is that worth £400 to you? It is to me, but I use the afore mentioned graphic design tools too.

Aperture2 and PSE appear to be the Rx for your workflow.

DLS

Jan 23, 2009 7:43 AM in response to Rob BW

Group A
Aperture is Apple's pro app for RAW images capture management. Lightroom is Adobe's pro app for RAW images capture management. iPhoto is Apple's free entry-level app for images capture management.

Group B
Inexpensive Adobe Photoshop Elements is for basic to intermediate image editing, adequate for most photogs. Very expensive full Adobe Photoshop is for pro graphics work and very advanced image editing.

Two apps are needed. Digital photographers ideally should own and learn reasonable competence with one app from each of groups A & B above. Note that Aperture and PSE are in different groups.

IMO the evolution of a digital photog is to start with iPhoto and quickly outgrow it. After that I recommend that the next step is to own both Aperture and PSE.

If one advances to the point of doing really advanced graphics work the upgrade from PSE to full Photoshop is easy enough, just expensive and with very substantial additional learning curve. I use the full Design Premium Creative Suite, and the upgrade to CS4 from CS3 is so expensive I am staying with CS3.

Bridge is Adobe's pro app that comes with full Photoshop and manages files handling within the Creative Suite. I do not include it in Group A above because it is far inferior to Aperture and Lightroom for digital photographers and managing DSLR image capture. The folks who like Bridge are usually very experienced Photoshop graphics folks (often coming from a long history with film scans) rather than primarily digital photogs.

-Allen Wicks

Jan 23, 2009 7:53 AM in response to Rob BW

Thanks for your opinions folks. It looks like Aperture2 and PSE6 should last me a while without being restrictive then.

What annoys me is that PSE should be able to achieve the results I get in aperture without as much effort as the PRO package, but thats simply not the case. I can see me buying aperture and not using the organisation or workflow functions (even though I have gigs of digital), just to get the nice UI and the nice adjustment sliders that are present. I know the same features are present in PSE, but it just takes so much longer, and the results look far less polished.

Thanks again for your comments,
Rob.

Jan 23, 2009 8:40 AM in response to Rob BW

Rob -- I think you're making a good decision. And I bet you'll find yourself creeping into and appreciating the workflow and organization tools so you get at your photos more. My use of the organization tools has grown over time, and I'm now setting up smart albums that sort by lens type!

(And, SierraDragon , excellent Group A/B characterization. Thanks.)

Jan 23, 2009 2:16 PM in response to SierraDragon

Excellent post, SierraDragon, with one little addendum, maybe:

Bridge is Adobe's pro app that comes with full Photoshop and manages files handling within the Creative Suite.


It also comes with Photoshop Elements for Mac, and except for not being able to launch the Adobe Raw Converter without going into Elements (the way you can process raw directly from bridge in CS), is identical with the CS version.

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I thought it was a decision between PSE and Aperture...

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