Lightroom after Aperture - aaargh

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255
Name
Ian
Edit My Images
Yes
With Apple announcing the end of development and (eventually) support of Aperture I decided it was time to take advantage of my Creative Cloud subscription and start using Lightroom instead. After importing my latest batch of photos (which I think I did right - using a folder to store photos, catalogues by Lightroom) I looked at it and realised that Lightroom is nothing like Aperture (and not that similar to workflow in InDesign or Photoshop either) and I have absolutely no idea how to use the damn thing. Tasks that took 2 minutes are now taking so much longer.

Ho hum - time to dig into some tutorials. Feels like starting again :meh: :indifferent:
 
Yup, Lightroom doesn't work like Aperture. There is a Lightroom app for importing Aperture libraries into Lightroom, not used myself , but it does seem to get varied reviews. Adobe have some very good on line tutorials . I'd suggest it's the first place to start. Once you get your head round the Library module, and to be honest it's not that difficult, you'll find Lightroom works a treat.
 
Youtube is your friend, I did the same, after a few weeks it all becomes normal...
 
While it is true that Apple won't continue to develop Aperture you surely don't think that its successor called 'Photos'(?) won't allow you to use your Aperture system library and merely view and edit in the new app, do you?

Lightroom is excellent by all accounts - It's a bit like asking if Nikon is 'better' than Canon. BUT... there are many many accounts online of serious problems migrating an Aperture library to Lightroom. Aperture has a great catalogue structure unlike Lightroom I'm told - That's a Lightroom deal breaker for me and many others.
 
Thanks everyone. I think for now I will start by getting used to it with new images and keep my current Aperture library for old images and work on migrating at another time. One battle is enough!!
 
Thanks everyone. I think for now I will start by getting used to it with new images and keep my current Aperture library for old images and work on migrating at another time. One battle is enough!!

....That seems a very good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that :D - I guess it's the extra expense of buying Lightroom because I'm after a new lens. Afterall, it's exactly what I have done with iPhoto although they now share the same OS base library.
 
....That's a Quick Start Guide but does it include enough practical info on migrating a whole Aperture library to Lightroom?

The OP didn't ask about migrating, he suggested he was looking for tutorials on how to use Lightroom.
 
The OP didn't ask about migrating, he suggested he was looking for tutorials on how to use Lightroom.

....Yes but he did also state that he was using both Aperture and Lightroom and I therefore thought that migration must have been involved and was merely trying to be helpful to others reading this thread re Aperture > Lightroom.

Your posted link is extremely useful and I thank you as I have bookmarked it just in case I migrate in the future (which is doubtful because I believe that Apple's new app will be good and I would rather spend money on a lens than more software).

Cheers :)
 
Robin

Start off with a trial library, say a couple of hundred images maybe less if you like. This will hep you organise the images in the hierarchy that suits you. Plus if you get it wrong you can start over again without to much pain.
 
Hmm... I was going to download The Lightroom Queen's free 76-page free quick start guide PDF which Glenn kindly linked, to check out how LR catalogues images when first imported but I have to subscribe to her mailing list. If I had just bought LR this would all be extremely useful but I'm going to wait and see what Apple serve up after Aperture - Here is some pre-release info....

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/release-date-for-mac-os-x-photos-app-3586301/

Also.... http://www.cultofmac.com/285505/aperture-cloud-photos/

'Photos' is a pretty unimaginative name unless one thinks of it as a Greek word.

The bad news, and which its app name implies, is that it may be a successor to iPhoto and not Aperture. It appears to rely heavily on iCloud and 'Clouds' are things which I neither use nor like/trust as it assumes American internet speeds. Why the heck would anyone cataloging and editing RAW images want to push it all around on various iOS devices! Apple is becoming far too average consumer orientated.

Lightroom is suddenly beginning to sound more attractive but I'm still gonna wait and see what Apple offer - Rumoured to be in early 2015 as it wasn't ready for Yosemite's introduction.
 
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I tend to agree with you re the outlook for the new version of Photo's. Apple deleted a lot of features within their iWork suit to allow the apps to work with iCloud. I didn't like the new layout either. I suspect Photos will be a version of iPhoto with simple adjustments to images to allow cloud sharing to work. I suspect this will satisfy 99% of users. However Apple do have a history of realeasing products that were not the greatest and then improving them over the years. However I would suggest they have accepted that Lightroom is now the image management software, and decided to move on
 
As a result of the discussion on this thread I have considered Lr further but Adobe only seem to be offering a Cloud-based version. Does anyone know if a desktop, one-off payment, not monthly subscription version can be bought, please?
 
Thanks for that Amazon link, Mark @Downton Mini - It would be a serious failing if updates were not available. I now need to establish whether this is so.
 
No worries I'm always cautious with this things.

I was looking at CS6 but in the end I went with CC as I didn't need to find £500 or £600 in one lump by 'renting' CC and Lightroom
 
I have got a registered copy of CS6 but not a package which includes Lightroom. Ironically I was offered a free registered copy of Lr as a thankyou when I was a pre-release tester for CS6 but I took a different gift. 'Renting' a CC version of Lr might sound as if £9 per month is cheap but multiply it by 12 and then several years and it becomes more and more expensive by comparison.
 
I am a member of the Adobe community and have now learnt that I can buy a standalone copy of Lightroom for £57.64 incl wretched vat.

A standalone Lr is dot.updatable free of charge but version updates such as Lr5 to Lr6 (when it comes) will need a new upgrade licence paid for. Adobe currently aren't planning to change that.

Buried because Adobe are keener on pushing the CC rental versions - Not surprisingly as rentals add up to greater income for them.

I still want to wait to see what Apple Photos does, or rather doesn't do but am tempted to buy Lr standalone for £57.64 while I can. There's no doubt that Lr is very good indeed for RAW post-processing.

I use onOne Software's Perfect Photos Suite 9 as well as Photoshop and they overlap considerably - It's horses for courses and every image is different and can benefit better from one app than another or a mixture of them.

I'm attracted to the Lr controls and the wealth of helpful books etc. I'm not dissatisfied with Aperture though.

But rather than talk about photography, it's bright and sunny outside (and cold) so I think I'll pop out and see what wildlife is lurking - Saw a brief glimpse of a Kingfisher and a Kestrel on Saturday but no shots possible.
 
I have a CC subscription as it makes sense from a cash flow perspective for my business - the expense is annualised and goes out as a direct expense not a capital purchase with depreciation. Also - it means I always get the latest software I use daily (InDesign, Illustrator etc) and it works out the same as upgrading every few years if I bought it anyway. LR is just an added bonus for me!
 
Yep, I can see how CC subs would make sense when you are a business but I have retired from the design business back in 1999 and I am now an amateur photographer, Ian.
 
In hanging in tight. Aperture works great with Yosemite. I've tried Lightroom several times and bought a Kelby book and tried online tutorials. But I'm really struggling why they make so many things so complicated, so hidden away and so not integrated.

So far all indications are that Photos is actually more powerful than Aperture was with things like lens corrections integrated. However library management is key, and if it retains what aperture does so well in that aspect without forcing anyone into the cloud then I'm staying out :)
 
In hanging in tight. Aperture works great with Yosemite. I've tried Lightroom several times and bought a Kelby book and tried online tutorials. But I'm really struggling why they make so many things so complicated, so hidden away and so not integrated.

So far all indications are that Photos is actually more powerful than Aperture was with things like lens corrections integrated. However library management is key, and if it retains what aperture does so well in that aspect without forcing anyone into the cloud then I'm staying out :)

....Me too! I have decided to hang on in there and wait to see what Apple's Photos app offers.

I have never used Lightroom and so I can't meaningfully criticise it but word on the street is that its weakness is lack of a user-friendly library management system.

Currently I use Aperture (on Yosemite) integrated with Photoshop CS6 and with onOne Software's Perfect Photo Suite 9 and it offers a very simple to use flexible workflow. Lightroom could be easily substituted into my workflow but as it all currently works well, why mend it?

I hope you are right about Photos being even more powerful than Aperture, JP - I would be happy even if it maintained the same power. Out of interest, where have you heard this, please @dejongj ?
 
It is apple own press releases on it. And reading between the lines when you view what has been added to the core frameworks for developers regarding image manipulation. Think of it like the raw support. Under OS X that is system wide, not just regarding particular applications. Likewise the way it integrates with the apple media browser. That integration allows you to search and view directly into the Aperture library. There is no need to open Aperture nor to export files from it. All directly from the finder and file/open dialogs. After all Rhodes year it is not something that Adobe has ever bothered implementing, you all have to do it manually and by hand.

Where there hasn't been much information about is the library management. That I'm anxious about, but Aperture is working well for now and has plenty of life left.
 
With Apple announcing the end of development and (eventually) support of Aperture I decided it was time to take advantage of my Creative Cloud subscription and start using Lightroom instead. After importing my latest batch of photos (which I think I did right - using a folder to store photos, catalogues by Lightroom) I looked at it and realised that Lightroom is nothing like Aperture (and not that similar to workflow in InDesign or Photoshop either) and I have absolutely no idea how to use the damn thing. Tasks that took 2 minutes are now taking so much longer.

Ho hum - time to dig into some tutorials. Feels like starting again :meh: :indifferent:

I hated LR the first time I trialed it, mainly because I didn't do any research to grasp how it works first. Now I wouldn't think of using anything else. It's simple, fast and gets the job done for >99% of my images.

You can always do the trial subscription for Lynda.com which I believe gets you access to their site for about 10 days (they need your cc information to sign up for the trial, but they are very reputable). You can run through all of their best LR courses easily during the trial period. Other than that Adobe's Julieanne Kost has a very good library of free videos that are really helpful: http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
 
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