looking to replace aperture 3 with best photoediting software for macbook pro

Thanks. Luminar, as you describe it , seems to offer the editing features that I am looking for. What do you think of my using the new Apple Photos app for my photo library and photo management in conjunction with Luminar for editing?

That is what I am currently using - Photos to manage the library (plus plenty of handmade Apple Scripts to add bit of batch changing for metadata) and I am calling Luminar as a photo editing extension.

Photos will give us keywords, albums, smart albums, folders and many predefined smart albums to structure the library. but it supports less metadata than Aperture did. By now the Finder is showing more metadata for a photo than Photos ever did.

I’d recommend Pixelmator Pro or Affinity Photo, which also comes in the iOS App Store. (click on either of them for links to the App Store). They are both about $50 and are pretty great for the price.

Or if you are a crazy editor, just get photoshop.

Use Photos as your asset manager, it also has editing capability, not to different from what Aperture offers. If you find that you need more powerful editing software, then try Photoshop, Photoshop elements, or Pixelmator Pro.

Please search this forum. This question has been asked and answered numerous times over the last 4 years or so. It's not worth the effort to rehash things.

Photo Management software (Primary purpose is organizing and storing photos, some editing capability) examples:

Aperture

Lightroom

Photos

Luminar

Photo Editing software (Primary purpose is photo editing) examples:

Photoshop

Pixelmator Pro

What are you looking for: a Digital Asset Manager or a Digital Darkroom? Aperture sat very comfortably at the mid-point between those two roles. Not many other apps do.

The closest match is Adobe's Lightroom or CaptureOne. Mylio is well worth a look.

Other apps with reasonable DAM features include OnOne Photo Raw and Photo Supreme. DxO is an excellent Digital Darkroom but not really a DAM, more a file browser attached. Luminar's efforts at a DAM are, to be nice about it, in the very early days and nearly a match for DxOs at this point. As a Darkroom it's better, but nowhere close to LR, CaptureOne or DxO.

No, don't do that. Both Aperture and iPhoto are dead. Neither is under development, and haven't been for more than three years now. They are the past. Sooner or later an OS update will come along that may even stop them working at all. Of those three, Photos is the one still in development, still updated and the only one with a future.

Luminar 3 has been released as a successor to Luminar 2018. It is free for Luminar 2018 users.adds a photo library to the editor.

The editing tools are very flexible and it is easy to define new presets.

The catalog is indexing the files in the Finder. Luminar folders are mapped to folders in the Finder. So it has all the advantages and disadvantages of a referenced library.

The support for metadata is very poor. We can assign ratings, flags, color labels, but I have not seen any support to add titles, descriptions, keywords, copy right notices. The Finder in Mojave is showing more metadata than Luminar 3.

We can create albums, but no smart albums. With respect to a thematical structure of the library it does not offer much.

So far, I could not find any tools to structure my photos in Luminar 3 thematically, other than creating albums.

Which programs?

Photos will open both iPhoto and Aperture libraries.

Lightroom has a tool that will migrate Aperture and iPhoto Libraries with some limitations.

Otherwise: export the raws to the Finder and then import them to the new app.

No I've only used Aperture (and iPhoto before Aperture, but iPhoto is no match for Aperture).

And I must say that the user interface of Aperture is still unsurpassed. A shame Apple wouldn't

maintain it.

/gsf1

I am afraid I have asked a question but my knowledge base is so limited that I am getting lost in much of the literature I am reading about the options available to me. I just know that at this point I have three photo management programs in my computer (iPhoto, Aperture III, and the new Photos all from Apple). They are taking up too much space. I think I should get merge my iPhoto library into Aperture and delete the new Photos software. Maybe that will make the Aperture program work better.

There is no point in deleting the Photos.app. It is a part of the system and cannot be trashed, unless you disable the system integrity protection. That is not recommended and will not save much storage. The Photos.app is just a wrapper for system calls and has a size of on 54.6MB, not larger the a large RAW file. You can safely ignore it.

Your Photos Library may need some storage, but delete it only, if you saved your photos elsewhere.

All of these applications have trial periods so you can test them out. Also, search both the internet and especially YouTube for the hundreds upon hundreds of review and help videos for these different apps. From a capability stand point there are few differences between apps like CaptureOne and Lightroom, and there is no way to say that one gives "better" results. What can be said is that you may prefer the results you get with one or the other, or you may find one or other easier to learn, and that means you have to try them out and see for yourself.

Terence, I am currently using Photos as primary editing tool, but in Aperture and iPhoto, I have used Adobe Elements to edit for years. I wonder if I even need Elements, since I export Photos pics to both after editing. Question is, I have saved many pics in PSD through Elements, and if I uninstall Elements, will those PSD pics be deleted from my libraries?

Thanks,

Gary

Uninstalling an app will not remove files created by the app.

I wonder if I even need Elements, since I export Photos pics to both after editing

Why are you doing that? If you're only using Photos to edit images then you're making a needlessly complex workflow for yourself.