iMac workflow help

R

Riz

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Edit My Images
Yes
I currently import my photos to iPhoto as iPhoto is easy and it looks nice, plus my wife can quickly flick through it. I only do basic adjustments ;crop,retouch exposure so I don't use Elements 9 very much,which I also have.

I thought my mac was running slow but found out that iPhoto really can't handle raw files very well and it's really slow. So slow that I dread to use it anymore, joeys are a diddle but Raw files just send it haywire.

What's the best workflow? I want it to be easy ,not a lot of duplicates and also organised so my wife can flick through some pics if she wants.
 
Lightroom for processing the Rawls, or aperture if you prefer, then if you have to export the jpgs into iPhoto.
iPhoto was not designed as a raw processor.
 
I've heard Aperture is quite slow for Raw Processing.


I've just found adobe organiser. I might use that now.
 
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I dropped iPhoto long ago when it started the "wheel of death" syndrome. Eventually it became so slow I had to try rebuilds etc as advised by Apple. These did not work in my case. I then found other examples of people having similar problems. I feared I might lose my collection of several thousand images, as some people claimed had happened to them. I decided to go to Lightroom, as that will never corrupt or lose your original images. I understand Aperture will also conserve your originals as well as being as fast if not faster than Lightroom for processing raw images, but I have never used it.
I have now upgraded from LR4 to 5. It is a data based as opposed to folder based system and initially I found it very straightforward to use with my existing folder structure. It does 95% of my needs, and anything else I do in PSE11, which should meet the needs of most amateurs like myself. I use only one catalogue so that I can readily access and add folders as I choose.
 
BrynBoru said:
I dropped iPhoto long ago when it started the "wheel of death" syndrome. Eventually it became so slow I had to try rebuilds etc as advised by Apple. These did not work in my case. I then found other examples of people having similar problems. I feared I might lose my collection of several thousand images, as some people claimed had happened to them. I decided to go to Lightroom, as that will never corrupt or lose your original images. I understand Aperture will also conserve your originals as well as being as fast if not faster than Lightroom for processing raw images, but I have never used it. I have now upgraded from LR4 to 5. It is a data based as opposed to folder based system and initially I found it very straightforward to use with my existing folder structure. It does 95% of my needs, and anything else I do in PSE11, which should meet the needs of most amateurs like myself. I use only one catalogue so that I can readily access and add folders as I choose.
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Thanks, I've tried adobe organiser but it can't edit unless on auto. I am downloading a trial of Lightroom now.
 
LR is cheap enough these days and has oodles of features.

My tip with LR is have ALL images in a main image folder where they can then be allocated into sub folders... if you have folders of images spread throughout your computer, its easy to move something and lose the link.
 
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Remember if you have kids in school you qualify for an educational licence. I just had to email a copy of my sons school report and got lightroom for £57.

Obviously not for commercial use though.
 
Riz said:
Care to expand....
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Simple I actually use aperture and don't just listen to rumors, and I know it's not slow, tried LR and found the work flow a much slower experience having to move from each module.
 
I googled it and aperture had a few bad reviews concerning speed. I have an i3 core duo mac with 12 gb ram its from 2010 but I assume It would be capable.
 
Dont always trust google and certainly not the adobe zealots, that think there is no other way than the adobe way. :D

I'm using 2009 i7 mac with 12gb and it's plenty fast enough, I don't know now different the processing speed of an i3 is to an i7

The real diffrence between Apple and Adobe is there in no free trial of aperture anymore for you to try :(
 
Im in no way a zealot. Ill use whatever is best for me to quickly get m y work don so i make more profit form photography. the main reasons why i use lightroom are as follows.

1. i never liked the way that all the images in arpeture are stored in one large file, I prefer to organise my folders and then dib into them if i need to (on both of these i find it essential to do some outside editing)

2. Lighroom exports directly to my website built in koken, and will export to its own web gallery if needed. very handy.

3. the editing is far better, more involved and more intuitive (for me) in lightroom.

4. the flagging system is great for organising your junk and keepers. I must say though that arpeture is n no way bad in this area.

5. syncing presets across multiple images proves very very handy if editing say a wedding where large groups of photos are in the same place with similar exposures.

6. it does sync with other adobe products easily.

7. It is faster (well it is on my machine - i7 16gb ram )

8. the export options.

9. i find both poor for making photo books however.


I used arpeture for about 2 years before stumbling across lightroom, once id used it is struggled to bond with arpeture again so i switched :) now im sure acetone will disagree but i felt i should post to justify my choice :)
 
1) You don't have to let apeture store images in one large file, store then were and how you like and set them as referenced file, all mine are on an external drive in a year/ month/event folder system.

2) somehing I've not used, but I think your correct and apeture is not great at exporting to external websites, but it will do its own web gallery if you want something simple and easy.

3) that always going to be a personal preference and will be different for everyone.

4) flagging and sorting out the junkers is something I find very easy in aperture, can't really see there being much to chose between the two.

5) absolute doddle in aperture , edit one image then lift and paste those edits ( or a selection of those edits ) to all other images you select in a batch.

6) well LR would, wouldn't it :)

7) ? Hard to quantify without a lot of testing

8) export options on both are very comprehensive , I can't really think of anything either programs can't do.

9) totally agree (y)

I have no problem with anyone choosing LR, Aperture or any other program ( which there are plenty ) each to there own, but I have an issue with the LR or your wrong crowd
 
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acetone said:
1) You don't have to let apeture store images in one large file, store then were and how you like and set them as referenced file, all mine are on an external drive in a year/ month/event folder system.

2) somehing I've not used, but I think your correct and apeture is not great at exporting to external websites, but it will do its own web gallery if you want something simple and easy.

3) that always going to be a personal preference and will be different for everyone.

4) flagging and sorting out the junkers is something I find very easy in aperture, can't really see there being much to chose between the two.

5) absolute doddle in aperture , edit one image then lift and paste those edits ( or a selection of those edits ) to all other images you select in a batch.

6) well LR would, wouldn't it :)

7) ? Hard to quantify without a lot of testing

8) export options on both are very comprehensive , I can't really think of anything either programs can't do.

9) totally agree (y)

I have no problem with anyone choosing LR, Aperture or any other program ( which there are plenty ) each to there own, but I have an issue with the LR or your wrong crowd
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I agree ace. There's no right and wrong g, just what works best for you. I'd try em both if you can.

I didn't know arp did referenced files, dies it move them to a centralised Pont a la lr too? If so that's one of the biggest reasond I changed
 
I pretty much agree wit all Acetone has said. I use Aperture with PSE10 and don't have any issues. I think that you use best what you know and I know that combo better than LR/PS.

I did not notice any significant slow down on my previous '09 iMac with 4gb.

I'd suggest whichever solution you end up with, you learn how to use it. I have found www.lynda.com (no association) very useful and tend to buy a 1 month gift subscription for myself to learn in some sort of structured way. The £15 is well spent.
 
Tulipone said:
I'd suggest whichever solution you end up with, you learn how to use it.
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Probably the best bit of advice yet, both programs are complex and so feature rich that will take time to learn to get the best out of them.
 
Aperture bought.

Superdrug had £5 off iTunes vouchers.

Really like its integration with iPhoto and it doesn't seem slow!!
 
Riz said:
Aperture bought. Superdrug had £5 off iTunes vouchers. Really like its integration with iPhoto and it doesn't seem slow!!
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Lightroom trial was good but I wasn't keen on the interface.
 
I'm sure you'll be happy with your choice, time to play and learn now :)

I hadn't see the Lynda site before, and looked at a couple of the free videos. I must say it does look very good and as Chris say a months gift sounds a very good idea every now and again.

Never really understood curves properly myself, but much better idea after the short vid I've just seen.
 
I know videos are available on youtube and other places, Lynda gives you a more structured approach. I tend to start at the beginning and work my way through even when I 'know' how to do the item being discussed.

PSE works well as an external editor and directly accessed through Aperture. I also found, despite doing some videos, LR was not as simple to use for swift tasks as aperture.

I'd also disagree about photo books not being as good also. The finest photo book I ave produced was using apple - it certainly was not cheap but I thought the quality was there. Better than Crewe, truprint etc. What do I know - I'm just a hobbyist.
 
another vote for apeture 3 from me ,do the basic editing in it ,then export as a 8 bit tiff file to elements 10 for finishing .VERY QUICK and easy to use once you take the time to learn it properly
 
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