aperture 3 and lightroom

[kmcgreg]

I am currently using Aperture 2. I have just had a peek at the latest lightroom. It seems very good. Has anyone got aperture 3? I know there is a demo but its complicated if you already use aperture 2.
I am finding that I need a simplified work flow for my photos at it is getting out of hand.
I have CS4 but really its too much when you have a large amount of photos to wade through.

What is everyone else using?

It goes without saying that I am using a mac.

[MarkW]

I use Aperture 3 and CS3. I don't use LR as its never fitted in with my way of doing things.

I believe the new Aperture 3 (the upgrade for you which is what I purchased) is well worth the money. The new brushes system is worth it alone. I am yet to try the changes to the output printing and I'm still coming to terms with the non-destructive edits.

There are still reasons for maintaining your Photoshop app as Aperture 3 still doesn't have a clone/heel tool nor any of the other heavy duty tools.

Aperture 3 sharpening has been improved - its under the brushes tool.

It still accepts my Viveza plug in which is excellent.

All in all I use more of Aperture now than I did previously which makes my workflow more simple

As for photoshop learn to use the batch menu for basic sharpening, contrast and highlight/shadow. It can whip through 30 images in a matter of about 10 minutes for all the basic hard slog stuff which then leaves you to do the fine tuning.

[kmcgreg]

I am keen to move to aperture 3 when they can get it to work with my nik software plug ins - ie silver effects, Dfine etc

[Calxoddity]

Hi,
I downloaded and installed the Aperture 3 trial and used it for a few days before buying the upgrade license and migrating my Aperture 2 library to Aperture 3. All went well and I'm very happy with the new features - especially the local adjustments. Don't care much for Faces though - now there's an answer in search of a question!

Aperture 2 should have made your workflow simpler already, unless you're doing something really weird. Aperture 3 leaves you with even fewer reasons to use external editors, and after around a month of use, I'm yet to open PS to do additional editing.

Some people prefer Lightroom to Aperture, but I'm not one of them: the cack interface of Lightroom does nothing for me.

What's your current workflow look like?

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

I am keen to move to aperture 3 when they can get it to work with my nik software plug ins - ie silver effects, Dfine etc

Are you sure that the plugs don't work with Aperture 3?, I have Viveza V1 and it worked straight up no problems. I don't know about your other plug-ins but Viveza works by actually going off into its own app environment then returning once the work was done. Since its in its own environment it doesn't really matter a great deal what Aperture version is run.

[coolie21]

There are still reasons for maintaining your Photoshop app as Aperture 3 still doesn't have a clone/heel tool nor any of the other heavy duty tools.

Is this true? It's there in Aperture 2, why would they take it out

[Calxoddity]

I think Mark might be confused - I have been using the clone/heal tool this morning in Aperture 3....

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

No, your right, it is there. I had been trying Acorn at the time and when I wrote that about Aperture I had been thinking of Acorn.

Mark quietly runs and hide for being such a dope.

[coolie21]

Looks like some people have been OK with Aperture 3and Nik plugins but the Nik Software site still has this on their FAQ page so I've been holding off upgrading:

Are Nik Software products compatible with Aperture 3?

We are continuing to evaluate support for Aperture 3. Initial tests have uncovered some issues that we are currently working with Apple to resolve.

The following products are currently not fully compatible with Aperture 3:
Color Efex Pro 3.0
Viveza 2
Silver Efex Pro
Sharpener Pro 3.0

Dfine 2.0 appears to be working in Aperture 3 running in 32-bit mode without issue, however we are working with Apple to perform additional compatibility tests.

We will provide updates to all registered customers as soon as additional information is possible.

[MarkW]

I just knew there was a reason to not go Viveza 2

Actually I couldn't find a reason to upgrade to V2 - there didnt seem to be any enhancements over V1 and there wasnt even a new features page published by Nik. Yet they kept up with sales brochures and offers to ugrade, but why?

[darkc]

I have been toying with the idea of updating to Aperture 3 (currently using Aperture 2) I mainly use Aperture for it's library to store and find photos easily and also the easy backup features. I use CS4 for editing. I don't really see any reason to update, however using CS4 to edit from Aperture does mean more space id required on your hard drive as it makes a completely new version instead of just a set of edit instructions on the master in Aperture. And is a bit time consuming.

Are the new editing tools in Aperture 3 worth the upgrade, it would make it easier and more efficient not to have to go to CS4 all the time? I mainly jst add some sharpening and contrast to my shots. Do you need to be running now Leopard to get the most out of the program? I have heard the new full screen browser is good also?

[MarkW]

I havent made the jump to SL yet. I still need to update my Fusion VM yet.

That reminds me I must do that before midday

[Calxoddity]

Hi,
I installed the A3 trial on Leopard, and it worked fine. Some things to be aware of:

- you can have the A3 trial and A2 installed at the same time, but make sure you read the instructions on the Apple website before installing the A3 trial, as it may affect you if you don't decide to upgrade.

- to preserve the integrity of your A2 library, the A3 trial doesn't use it - you create a new library for trial purposes. I just imported a folder's worth of pikkies for this purpose.

- if you're happy with the A3 trial version, you leave it installed, go to the Apple Store, and buy the upgrade. Apple sends you an upgrade license key that you then use to activate the trial to full version status.

- You can now access your A2 library and choose to migrate it to A3.

***** BEWARE!!! The A3 is not trivial, and is sensitive to corrupt photos and erroneous database entries. A library repair before upgrading to A3 is highly recommended. Also, go to your A3 preferences and turn Faces OFF - it's a real memory hog and can freeze things up.

- Ensure you have lots of disk space free, close all open applications, and prepare for many hours of migration/reprocessing if you have a large library. You can reprocess the images later by folder instead if you like.

The migration went fine on Leopard, so I then upgraded the iMac to Snow Leopard. A3 continued to charge along happily, except the Activity Monitor now shows a bunch of 64-bit processes operating.

I've stopped using PS altogether now - everything's done in Aperture. I guess if I wanted to do a gradient filter I'd probably use PS.

One of the cool things about A3 apart from the local editing is the ability to create presets and save them for later use. So, if you accidentally discover an arty processing combination, you can save it to impress you friends later....

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

For those that use managed libraries on an external HDD, asuming that you have a backup of your library, just creat a small libaray on your main HDD with just a few small images. Now do your upgrade to Aperture 3. As soon as possible turn off the "faces" option.

Once the Aperture app is all comfortable being Aperture 3 change libraries (hold option key when re-starting Aperture 3) and convert your external library to Aperture 3 version. Once all is good change all your backup to V3 or carry out a vault backup. It may even pay to to delete all your vault backups and data as they are no longer valid.

[coolie21]

Just read the last 2 posts. Whew - apple's reputation of simple installs may be lost with this one

[MarkW]

What I've done is broken the install into two separate stages. One of the biggest complaints about installing Aperture 3 was the time it took when it became encumbered with very large libraries. Many people ran the system over night or even longer. By separating the library out, you get the system up and functioning first.

[Calxoddity]

Just read the last 2 posts. Whew - apple's reputation of simple installs may be lost with this one

I don't know what you mean! The install is dead simple (as long as you don't mind wearing the risk of it not working properly...).

FYI, my install and migration was completed inside 40 minutes for 10,000 images (referenced) with no preparation. Mind you, I did sacrifice 3 chickens and a goat...

[MarkW]

FYI, my install and migration was completed inside 40 minutes for 10,000 images (referenced) with no preparation. Mind you, I did sacrifice 3 chickens and a goat...

Ah yes but yours are reference which are relatively simple when compared to managed.

There are lots of threads in Mac Forums which talk about many many hours of wait for managed systems.