Time to make a switch from Aperture.....

UpNorth · 11-23-2015, 03:30 PM

I realize this may have been asked and answered in the past - given that Apple announced about a year ago that they were done enhancing the Aperture program - but searching this thread for things like "Mac" & "Aperture" don't really narrow down the results enough, so.....

I have been an Aperture user since I switched to digital years ago (except for a very brief stint with iPhoto right at the beginning), but now that Aperture will be history I need to find something else for photo management & editing. Since I've never really looked at/for any other programs I'm not sure of a good option.

For those of you that have made the switch now - what did you switch to, and do you like it?
I don't think I need all the bells and whistles (and price tag!) that I associate with Photoshop, so is Lightroom a viable option? Does it do most/all/more than Aperture does?

Any other options that are close to Aperture in terms of what it does? I had Aperture 3 and a couple of Topaz plug-ins, and that got me everything I needed & wanted to do - so I'm hoping to find something comparable to that.

Thanks in advance for any help/insight,

Tim

**NZ_Ross** · 11-23-2015, 03:51 PM

Hi Tim,

I too am an Aperture user with Nik Effects Plug-ins. A few weeks ago I brought a new MacBook Pro and did a completely clean install. I am currently on OS X El Capitan Release 10.11.1. I reinstalled Aperture and Nik Effects which are still working fine. I imported and merged 2 big libraries, and again no particular problems.

So having asked the same questions as you, I am sticking with Aperture and Nik for as long as I can - hopefully until Photos gains enough functionality, and the ability to use my plug-ins.

While I was looking at swapping to Adobe (but I don't want to pay the rent) I came across Affinity Photo which is available for Mac and acts as an alternative to Photoshop. I have purchased this, but not had enough time with it yet (work has been a bit busy) to say how good it is. First impressions are good, but often it is not until you are deep into editing and workflow issues before you can truely say how good software is.

In any case - Aperture with plug-ins still does the job for me, and seems relatively stable on El Capitan.

Cheers

Ross

**boriscleto** · 11-23-2015, 03:53 PM

I made the switch to Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud. There is a tool to import your Aperture Library. It doesn't migrate your edits from Aperture, but it does import the JPEG preview...

10 alternatives to Apple's Aperture ? Photocritic

Want an Aperture Alternative? Mylio Says It Has Best Solution | Digital Trends

**rkappleby** · 11-23-2015, 05:38 PM

I'm getting ready to do the same migration - I watched this video that had some good tips.
I'd be interested to hear how it works out for you.
TheFIX 030: Aperture to Lightroom - This Week in Photo

By the way my son is using Lightroom and I find it is substantial more than Aperture - one of the reasons I'm going to breakdown and make the switch myself.

waterfall · 11-23-2015, 05:43 PM

Macphun Creative Kit is a complete suite that works as plug-ins with Aperture and Photos and also as extensions with Photos. Check out the thread today on Pentax Price Watch.

**pepperberry farm** · 11-23-2015, 05:56 PM

I'll second the mention about Macphun's Creative Kit - it's a great price for some impressive software.. I do my light processing in LightZone, but for anything beyond a simple crop or tweak, Tonality or Intensify are all I need....

UpNorth · 11-23-2015, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by NZ_Ross

Hi Tim,

I too am an Aperture user with Nik Effects Plug-ins. A few weeks ago I brought a new MacBook Pro and did a completely clean install. I am currently on OS X El Capitan Release 10.11.1. I reinstalled Aperture and Nik Effects which are still working fine. I imported and merged 2 big libraries, and again no particular problems.

So having asked the same questions as you, I am sticking with Aperture and Nik for as long as I can - hopefully until Photos gains enough functionality, and the ability to use my plug-ins.

While I was looking at swapping to Adobe (but I don't want to pay the rent) I came across Affinity Photo which is available for Mac and acts as an alternative to Photoshop. I have purchased this, but not had enough time with it yet (work has been a bit busy) to say how good it is. First impressions are good, but often it is not until you are deep into editing and workflow issues before you can truely say how good software is.

In any case - Aperture with plug-ins still does the job for me, and seems relatively stable on El Capitan.

Cheers

Ross

Thanks Ross. It's working fine for me right now too - I was just thinking down the road. I never thought about them making Photos robust enough that it could take Aperture's place. Might have to consider that!

Tim

---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:16 PM ----------

Originally posted by boriscleto

I made the switch to Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud. There is a tool to import your Aperture Library. It doesn't migrate your edits from Aperture, but it does import the JPEG preview...

10 alternatives to Apple's Aperture ? Photocritic

Want an Aperture Alternative? Mylio Says It Has Best Solution | Digital Trends

Thanks Ben - I'll give it a look.....

Tim

---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:23 PM ----------

Originally posted by rkappleby

I'm getting ready to do the same migration - I watched this video that had some good tips.
I'd be interested to hear how it works out for you.
TheFIX 030: Aperture to Lightroom - This Week in Photo

By the way my son is using Lightroom and I find it is substantial more than Aperture - one of the reasons I'm going to breakdown and make the switch myself.

Thanks for the video. I'll give it a look see tonight.....

Tim

---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:24 PM ----------

Originally posted by waterfall

Macphun Creative Kit is a complete suite that works as plug-ins with Aperture and Photos and also as extensions with Photos. Check out the thread today on Pentax Price Watch.

Originally posted by pepperberry farm

I'll second the mention about Macphun's Creative Kit - it's a great price for some impressive software.. I do my light processing in LightZone, but for anything beyond a simple crop or tweak, Tonality or Intensify are all I need....

Thanks guys.
Never heard of it - so I'll take a look.

Thanks for the info everyone!

Tim

**pepperberry farm** · 11-23-2015, 06:33 PM

here's the link for Macphun:

Photo editing software for Mac, edit your pictures and images with Macphun

Qwntm · 11-23-2015, 11:46 PM

I replaced PS CS6 with Paint Shop Pro X7 and just upgraded to X8. I never liked Lightrooms file management, and fine the "manage" option in PSP x8 very useful. For $79 for the full meal deal you really can't go wrong. I actually like it better than PS. Just another alternative.

**Oakland Rob** · 11-24-2015, 10:28 AM - **1 Like**

It would really help if you could describe your workflow in Aperture in more detail. There is nothing much, if anything, in Aperture that can't be done in other applications. But (a big BUT) is that how those things are done matters. For example, the selecting and stacking options in Aperture and Lr are so similar as to cause confusion and distress, even though at the end of the day you can more or less accomplish the same thing in each.

Also, users who have a managed library in Aperture as opposed to a referenced library will have more difficulty transitioning to another product. Look those terms up if they aren't familiar, because it's important: Lr ONLY does a referenced library. Many applications have to use some sort of import process to get stuff out of a managed Aperture library (like Lr) and that can be problematic. Look at Aperture Exporter; it's a bit of software that can make getting stuff out of a managed library MUCH more efficient and troublefree (note it's an EXPORTER, not an importer like Lr's tool). It might be a good time to reconsider whether you should be using a managed library at all, or indeed what you should do overall with your photo organization. For example, since many of the alternatives use referenced libraries/catalogs, it might be time to consider your filesystem's structure, where you put photos in the Finder. And whether keywording is a better way to go, or date-based folders, etc. You may have to do a lot of moving around anyway so it's a good opportunity to clean house.

In addition, it seems to me many didn't really need a tenth of what Aperture does. These days a photo BROWSER might be a better choice than a DAM like Lr or Aperture that is a parametric image editor, something that stores info about the photos. A browser is like the Finder, only optimized for photos. And it can be faster and easier to use. Download XnViewMP for a free example.

If you do want a non-destructive editor and do RAW, then the RAW conversion of the alternatives matter. Some, but not all, alternatives will have their own RAW conversion algorithms; Aperture/iPhoto/Photos all use the same Mac system-based RAW conversion. Lr uses the same conversion as Ps; Capture One has theirs, etc.

Check out the alternatives' educational materials and plugins too. Lr is far and away the king here; aside from all the free and paid lessons, most every school uses Adobe stuff. But some smaller developers may have enough, and it may actually be less difficult to learn. Again, depends on what workflow in Aperture you're coming from. Lr has some plugins that are unbelievably awesome, like most anything from Jeffrey Friedl or John Beardsworth. And that's just housekeeping stuff; most any image processor (Nik, DxO, Macphun, Topaz, OnOne, etc) is gonna produce Lr and Ps plugins. Not all produce plugins for other applications. And many standalone applications work great with Lr, and can even see into Lr catalogs for accessing images: stuff like HoudahSpot Geo for geotagging, PhotoSweeper, Snapselect, Fotomagico, etc.

And right now two of the best plugin developers have big sales going on: Macphun for their Creative Kit (awesome; better than Nik IMHO), and DxO (the best of all IMHO).

Finally, there's the issue of connectivity. Aperture and Apple obviously want you to subscribe to iCloud Photo Library, which is nice, but pricy. And very inflexible. Some folks can use an Aperture alternative in combo with Photos to make that work (Photos not being an Aperture alternative really). But there are other tools to accomplish getting your stuff out there. Lr has many more publishing options, especially if you use available plugins (like Friedl's). And Lr Mobile is very good, but it's chiefly a Lr-Mac OS TO iOS solution. Another very good alternative is Mylio, which is a synching system based on what are essentially watched folders, more like Dropbox without the cloud storage. So if you change one photo on one device its automagically changed on ALL devices. And like iCloud it can pass adjustments and edits around if you use Lr, and has some decent editing functions itself.

All the stuff I've mentioned (and there is much much more) has free demos. You should absolutely try before you buy; don't get anything that is only available in the MAS since you're stuck if you don't like it.

6BQ5 · 11-24-2015, 11:34 AM

I switched over to Capture One. The interface feels like it is close to Aperture's. Just imagine what Aperture could have become if Apple invested into it. I didn't think the learning was as steep as it could have been. The DAM and cataloging is poor if you do a lot of advanced sorting, storage, and data tagging. I don't do much of that so I am OK with a simple structure. Oh, and the price is high but still lower than narcotics.

@Oakland Rob is right. You can do nearly everything and anything on any program. It's all matter of the mechanics (i.e. what to click on where and in what order) and what the image processing engine is like. There is no right or wrong and maybe not even good or bad except for extreme cases. Most programs have a 30 day free trial. Download them all and give 'em a whirl. You ought to be able to see which programs click with you and which ones rub you the wrong way. I tried LR, DxO, ACDSee, darktable, etc for about an 30-60 mins each and I didn't ponder them very long.

11-23-2015, 03:30 PM	#1
UpNorth Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Minnesota, U.S.A. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 714	Time to make a switch from Aperture..... I realize this may have been asked and answered in the past - given that Apple announced about a year ago that they were done enhancing the Aperture program - but searching this thread for things like "Mac" & "Aperture" don't really narrow down the results enough, so..... I have been an Aperture user since I switched to digital years ago (except for a very brief stint with iPhoto right at the beginning), but now that Aperture will be history I need to find something else for photo management & editing. Since I've never really looked at/for any other programs I'm not sure of a good option. For those of you that have made the switch now - what did you switch to, and do you like it? I don't think I need all the bells and whistles (and price tag!) that I associate with Photoshop, so is Lightroom a viable option? Does it do most/all/more than Aperture does? Any other options that are close to Aperture in terms of what it does? I had Aperture 3 and a couple of Topaz plug-ins, and that got me everything I needed & wanted to do - so I'm hoping to find something comparable to that. Thanks in advance for any help/insight, Tim

11-24-2015, 10:28 AM - 1 Like	#10
Oakland Rob Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Bay Area California Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 798	It would really help if you could describe your workflow in Aperture in more detail. There is nothing much, if anything, in Aperture that can't be done in other applications. But (a big BUT) is that how those things are done matters. For example, the selecting and stacking options in Aperture and Lr are so similar as to cause confusion and distress, even though at the end of the day you can more or less accomplish the same thing in each. Also, users who have a managed library in Aperture as opposed to a referenced library will have more difficulty transitioning to another product. Look those terms up if they aren't familiar, because it's important: Lr ONLY does a referenced library. Many applications have to use some sort of import process to get stuff out of a managed Aperture library (like Lr) and that can be problematic. Look at Aperture Exporter; it's a bit of software that can make getting stuff out of a managed library MUCH more efficient and troublefree (note it's an EXPORTER, not an importer like Lr's tool). It might be a good time to reconsider whether you should be using a managed library at all, or indeed what you should do overall with your photo organization. For example, since many of the alternatives use referenced libraries/catalogs, it might be time to consider your filesystem's structure, where you put photos in the Finder. And whether keywording is a better way to go, or date-based folders, etc. You may have to do a lot of moving around anyway so it's a good opportunity to clean house. In addition, it seems to me many didn't really need a tenth of what Aperture does. These days a photo BROWSER might be a better choice than a DAM like Lr or Aperture that is a parametric image editor, something that stores info about the photos. A browser is like the Finder, only optimized for photos. And it can be faster and easier to use. Download XnViewMP for a free example. If you do want a non-destructive editor and do RAW, then the RAW conversion of the alternatives matter. Some, but not all, alternatives will have their own RAW conversion algorithms; Aperture/iPhoto/Photos all use the same Mac system-based RAW conversion. Lr uses the same conversion as Ps; Capture One has theirs, etc. Check out the alternatives' educational materials and plugins too. Lr is far and away the king here; aside from all the free and paid lessons, most every school uses Adobe stuff. But some smaller developers may have enough, and it may actually be less difficult to learn. Again, depends on what workflow in Aperture you're coming from. Lr has some plugins that are unbelievably awesome, like most anything from Jeffrey Friedl or John Beardsworth. And that's just housekeeping stuff; most any image processor (Nik, DxO, Macphun, Topaz, OnOne, etc) is gonna produce Lr and Ps plugins. Not all produce plugins for other applications. And many standalone applications work great with Lr, and can even see into Lr catalogs for accessing images: stuff like HoudahSpot Geo for geotagging, PhotoSweeper, Snapselect, Fotomagico, etc. And right now two of the best plugin developers have big sales going on: Macphun for their Creative Kit (awesome; better than Nik IMHO), and DxO (the best of all IMHO). Finally, there's the issue of connectivity. Aperture and Apple obviously want you to subscribe to iCloud Photo Library, which is nice, but pricy. And very inflexible. Some folks can use an Aperture alternative in combo with Photos to make that work (Photos not being an Aperture alternative really). But there are other tools to accomplish getting your stuff out there. Lr has many more publishing options, especially if you use available plugins (like Friedl's). And Lr Mobile is very good, but it's chiefly a Lr-Mac OS TO iOS solution. Another very good alternative is Mylio, which is a synching system based on what are essentially watched folders, more like Dropbox without the cloud storage. So if you change one photo on one device its automagically changed on ALL devices. And like iCloud it can pass adjustments and edits around if you use Lr, and has some decent editing functions itself. All the stuff I've mentioned (and there is much much more) has free demos. You should absolutely try before you buy; don't get anything that is only available in the MAS since you're stuck if you don't like it. Last edited by Oakland Rob; 11-24-2015 at 10:34 AM.

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11-23-2015, 03:51 PM	#2
NZ_Ross Kiwi Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Timaru Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,225	Hi Tim, I too am an Aperture user with Nik Effects Plug-ins. A few weeks ago I brought a new MacBook Pro and did a completely clean install. I am currently on OS X El Capitan Release 10.11.1. I reinstalled Aperture and Nik Effects which are still working fine. I imported and merged 2 big libraries, and again no particular problems. So having asked the same questions as you, I am sticking with Aperture and Nik for as long as I can - hopefully until Photos gains enough functionality, and the ability to use my plug-ins. While I was looking at swapping to Adobe (but I don't want to pay the rent) I came across Affinity Photo which is available for Mac and acts as an alternative to Photoshop. I have purchased this, but not had enough time with it yet (work has been a bit busy) to say how good it is. First impressions are good, but often it is not until you are deep into editing and workflow issues before you can truely say how good software is. In any case - Aperture with plug-ins still does the job for me, and seems relatively stable on El Capitan. Cheers Ross

11-23-2015, 03:53 PM	#3
boriscleto Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: North Syracuse, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,475	I made the switch to Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud. There is a tool to import your Aperture Library. It doesn't migrate your edits from Aperture, but it does import the JPEG preview... 10 alternatives to Apple's Aperture ? Photocritic Want an Aperture Alternative? Mylio Says It Has Best Solution \| Digital Trends

11-23-2015, 05:38 PM	#4
rkappleby Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Crowsnest Pass Alberta Posts: 648	I'm getting ready to do the same migration - I watched this video that had some good tips. I'd be interested to hear how it works out for you. TheFIX 030: Aperture to Lightroom - This Week in Photo By the way my son is using Lightroom and I find it is substantial more than Aperture - one of the reasons I'm going to breakdown and make the switch myself.

11-23-2015, 05:43 PM	#5
waterfall Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Northern Minnesota Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,812	Macphun Creative Kit is a complete suite that works as plug-ins with Aperture and Photos and also as extensions with Photos. Check out the thread today on Pentax Price Watch.

11-23-2015, 05:56 PM	#6
pepperberry farm amateur dirt farmer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 41,700	I'll second the mention about Macphun's Creative Kit - it's a great price for some impressive software.. I do my light processing in LightZone, but for anything beyond a simple crop or tweak, Tonality or Intensify are all I need....

11-23-2015, 06:14 PM	#7
UpNorth Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Minnesota, U.S.A. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 714 Original Poster	Originally posted by NZ_Ross Hi Tim, I too am an Aperture user with Nik Effects Plug-ins. A few weeks ago I brought a new MacBook Pro and did a completely clean install. I am currently on OS X El Capitan Release 10.11.1. I reinstalled Aperture and Nik Effects which are still working fine. I imported and merged 2 big libraries, and again no particular problems. So having asked the same questions as you, I am sticking with Aperture and Nik for as long as I can - hopefully until Photos gains enough functionality, and the ability to use my plug-ins. While I was looking at swapping to Adobe (but I don't want to pay the rent) I came across Affinity Photo which is available for Mac and acts as an alternative to Photoshop. I have purchased this, but not had enough time with it yet (work has been a bit busy) to say how good it is. First impressions are good, but often it is not until you are deep into editing and workflow issues before you can truely say how good software is. In any case - Aperture with plug-ins still does the job for me, and seems relatively stable on El Capitan. Cheers Ross Thanks Ross. It's working fine for me right now too - I was just thinking down the road. I never thought about them making Photos robust enough that it could take Aperture's place. Might have to consider that! Tim ---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:16 PM ---------- Originally posted by boriscleto I made the switch to Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud. There is a tool to import your Aperture Library. It doesn't migrate your edits from Aperture, but it does import the JPEG preview... 10 alternatives to Apple's Aperture ? Photocritic Want an Aperture Alternative? Mylio Says It Has Best Solution \| Digital Trends Thanks Ben - I'll give it a look..... Tim ---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:23 PM ---------- Originally posted by rkappleby I'm getting ready to do the same migration - I watched this video that had some good tips. I'd be interested to hear how it works out for you. TheFIX 030: Aperture to Lightroom - This Week in Photo By the way my son is using Lightroom and I find it is substantial more than Aperture - one of the reasons I'm going to breakdown and make the switch myself. Thanks for the video. I'll give it a look see tonight..... Tim ---------- Post added 11-23-15 at 07:24 PM ---------- Originally posted by waterfall Macphun Creative Kit is a complete suite that works as plug-ins with Aperture and Photos and also as extensions with Photos. Check out the thread today on Pentax Price Watch. Originally posted by pepperberry farm I'll second the mention about Macphun's Creative Kit - it's a great price for some impressive software.. I do my light processing in LightZone, but for anything beyond a simple crop or tweak, Tonality or Intensify are all I need.... Thanks guys. Never heard of it - so I'll take a look. Thanks for the info everyone! Tim

11-23-2015, 06:33 PM	#8
pepperberry farm amateur dirt farmer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 41,700	here's the link for Macphun: Photo editing software for Mac, edit your pictures and images with Macphun

11-23-2015, 11:46 PM	#9
Qwntm Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Eastern Oregon Posts: 856	I replaced PS CS6 with Paint Shop Pro X7 and just upgraded to X8. I never liked Lightrooms file management, and fine the "manage" option in PSP x8 very useful. For $79 for the full meal deal you really can't go wrong. I actually like it better than PS. Just another alternative.

11-24-2015, 11:34 AM	#11
6BQ5 Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Nevada, USA Photos: Albums Posts: 3,348	I switched over to Capture One. The interface feels like it is close to Aperture's. Just imagine what Aperture could have become if Apple invested into it. I didn't think the learning was as steep as it could have been. The DAM and cataloging is poor if you do a lot of advanced sorting, storage, and data tagging. I don't do much of that so I am OK with a simple structure. Oh, and the price is high but still lower than narcotics. @Oakland Rob is right. You can do nearly everything and anything on any program. It's all matter of the mechanics (i.e. what to click on where and in what order) and what the image processing engine is like. There is no right or wrong and maybe not even good or bad except for extreme cases. Most programs have a 30 day free trial. Download them all and give 'em a whirl. You ought to be able to see which programs click with you and which ones rub you the wrong way. I tried LR, DxO, ACDSee, darktable, etc for about an 30-60 mins each and I didn't ponder them very long.