Aperture or photoshop elements?

captures.in.time

captures.in.time

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Hi all.

At the moment i use canons dpp for my pp. Im happy with this software but occasionally want to do a bit more with a shot... Without going pp mental.

Basically i want to do
1 selective colour
2 burning in
3 and deleting t odd unwanted person in landscapes

And that really is about it! Will apples aperture program do that or should i move to photoshop!

What are peoples thoughts on t user friendlyness of apples aperture program.

I take it aperture handles raw files just as well as dpp?
 
Doesn't delete unwanted people but does everything else. But foremost it is an essential organisation tool especially if you shoot raw. At £45 it is a no brainer.
 
You can get free one month trials of both iirc and Aperture is now fifty five pounds.
 
Can't u just delete unwanted people using one of t brush tools ?...... Or am I best just going for photoshop elements?
 
Aperture 3 has a clone/repair brush so yes you can remove people.

Aperture Cloning Example

Wirr_24-Version2.jpg
Wirr_24.jpg




PS: I have both Elements and Aperture and can't remember the last time I used Elements with a photograph.
 
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You can download Elements and give it a go for free. Dunno about Aperture but I'd guess that you can trial that too.

I tried Elements some time ago and I was very happy with the results but what ruled it out for me was the fact that there seem to be lots of auto options that you just can't alter.
 
whiteflyer said:
Aperture 3 has a clone/repair brush so yes you can remove people.

Aperture Cloning Example



PS: I have both Elements and Aperture and can remember the last time I used Elements with a photograph.
Click to expand...

Wow I learned something there. Never seen it work that well.

OP don't forget that aperture is a different category of tool compared to photo editors. If you want an alternative to photoshop then something like pixelmator would be good.

But either way you should aperture anyway to manage your catalogue. So try that first.
 
Thanks guys this has been really useful.

I'll try the 30day trial on apature. I really think for me it will be the only thing I need as with photoshop elements I get a whole array of stuff i'll never use.

The main thing for me though is def cloning people out... and I dont even mean such big people like in the example above... and burning in which I know it can do.

I really like to try and get my pics right in the camera... or burn in how I used to in the darkroom... but since i've moved to digital ive never quite got past the basic editor of canons DPP which does 90% of what I need.

Can you do HDR with aperture?
 
Aperture is like Iphoto but with a lot more tools and options, really its a storage system rather than an editor per se... Photoshop is an editor rather than a storage system.

I use both, my workflow being

Load all photos into Aperture,
Discard unwanted shots,
Crop & adjust shots within aperture where appropriate,
into photoshop for specific jobs.
 
As others have said, Aperture is more of an alternative to Lightroom or iPhoto in that it is essentially a tool for sorting/cataloguing photos. What's really great about both Lightroom and Aperture is that they can also be used to carry out fairly advanced processing work. I use Aperture for everything except panorama stiching and HDR and even for those examples, I could download plug ins that would allow Aperture to perform those tasks.

It really is quite a potent piece of software and an absurd bargain right now. Whether you may also want PS/PSE would depend on just how far into editing you want to go. Aperture does not use layers etc so certain operations are better done on PS. Only you could answer that one.
 
Been using Aperture since turning to a mac about 18 months ago - does just about most things for me. Previously used Lightroom and CS3.

I have, however, just recently added Elements 8 for mac for £10 from Currys.... now I can do layers as well:thumbs:
 
Anyone else find Aperture painfully slow?

I have all but given up on it as every adjustment seems to take forever so have gone back to Elements.

I am also trying Pixelmator which seems to be quite good but havnt delved into it properly yet.
 
meehaja said:
Aperture is like Iphoto but with a lot more tools and options, really its a storage system rather than an editor per se... Photoshop is an editor rather than a storage system.
Click to expand...

You certainly can use Aperture in that way but I find that it is an excellent editor and only need to turn to Photoshop when something really hairy involving layers needs to be done - which isn't very often for me :) Aperture's capability with presets and lift and stamp are very handy indeed not to mention all the other editing tools which I must admit are a bit tucked away at first sight.
 
FetterieSteve said:
Anyone else find Aperture painfully slow?
Click to expand...

It's very slow on our 2.0ghz macbook. I now only use it on our iMac which is superfast on. I barely wait more than a second or two for even the most complex of operations. It does have 12Gb of Ram but it seemed to run ok when it only had 4 as well.
 
Don't forget that the brushes are like layers. You can brush them in but also out. Gives great detailed control in for me a more intuitive manner opposed to using layers.
 
dejongj said:
Don't forget that the brushes are like layers. You can brush them in but also out. Gives great detailed control in for me a more intuitive manner opposed to using layers.
Click to expand...

:plusone: I also love the middle selection in each brush what I would call the transition brush which alters now much to blend from one section to the next. You can have the same tool running multiple times, so you could for example have different levels of sharpness or noise reduction applied to different section of your image.

To think of Aperture as just a cataloguing tool is to VASTLY under-estimate what it can do. My dad used a lot of his one-to-one learning on aperture, and often came back with tips and stuff I did not know about, I would say if you have a Mac it's the best £55 you can spend on photo software.

Screenshot2011-10-01at001637.jpg
 
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LOL Me too, I've used a little of my one-2-one on Pages and Keynote advanced stuff, but about 4 session on Aperture. Luckily for me there is a real Aperture expert as a freelancer in the MK store. I still got another years worth of one-2-one :)
 
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