Aperture on life support, what should I choose?

gazonk · 09-21-2016, 05:19 AM

When I chose Aperture over Lightroom about 5 years ago, I did it for two main reasons: RAW development quality and an interface more to my taste.

RAW quality: I did a lot of comparisions between Aperture, Ligthroom and the Pentax software. My conclusion (with at K10d at that time) was that the Pentax software would deliver the best textures in natural objects like flowers etc., closely followed by Apple's RAW converter, and with much less pleasing results from the Adobe RAW converter.

Interface: This was just a matter of taste, I think. Lightroom 5 years ago felt like a flashback to "CD ROM"-style interfaces to me.

Now Aperture is on life support, user reports say that it just barely works in Sierra, so what to do?

The most obvious is of course to go to LR. I guess I can still buy LR 6 as standalone and don't have to sell my soul and pay monthly dues to Adobe in order to be able to view my own pictures, but still Adobe has always done things that makes me not wanting to buy their products.

Then there's Pentax and Silkypix, but that still means using a really messy UI, doesn't it?

BUT: What about Capture 1 or DxO? Any satisfied users?

**pepperberry farm** · 09-21-2016, 05:22 AM - **2 Likes**

as a Mac user, I use LightZone as my base post-processor, and MacPhun's Creative Kit for just about everything beyond basic processing...

**Tony Belding** · 09-21-2016, 05:49 AM - **1 Like**

I've been through exactly the same dilemma. I looked at a bunch of different options, then finally gritted my teeth and bought Lightroom.

And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features.

pathdoc · 09-21-2016, 06:06 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by gazonk

Aperture on life support, what should I choose?

When I read that, I thought this was going to be another one of those "My K30/K50 is dying" threads.

gazonk · 09-21-2016, 06:22 AM

Originally posted by Tony Belding

And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features.

Yes, I have to admit some of the stuff I see that LR can do, impresses me. For instance, highlights/shadows processing seems to have advanced far ahead of what Aperture can do.

**boriscleto** · 09-21-2016, 06:25 AM - **1 Like**

Aperture isn't on life support, Apple pulled the plug years ago...

I switched to Lightroom CC last year and haven't looked back. Once you get over the non-Mac like interface it is a much better program than Aperture now.

**MJSfoto1956** · 09-21-2016, 06:47 AM - **2 Likes**

I've been using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for the past three months and have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail in the interface as well as the overall speed. They say they will be coming out with an DAM to compete with Lightroom early next year. If you can wait you might want to consider this as an option. In the meantime, you can try AP and AD for 30 days and see if you like them. I will likely stop using Photoshop altogether once Affinity Photo v1.5 comes out (with features that I need).

YMMV

Michael

**BigMackCam** · 09-21-2016, 06:47 AM - **1 Like**

A lot of people starting off with Lightroom are put off by the look of imported RAW files at the default settings, but minor adjustments will - in my view - result in images that are equally as good as with other RAW development tools - and often with much greater flexibility and range of optimisation (especially highlight and shadow correction, and colour noise reduction). The trick is in figuring out the tweaks you need to have your images looking good immediately after import, then saving those as defaults.

6BQ5 · 09-21-2016, 08:14 AM - **1 Like**

I migrated to Capture One. The interface felt very close to Aperture and the YouTube tutorials are excellent. Capture One's claim to fame is their color management and algorithms. I really enjoy the rendering. Give it a try. You can download a free 30 day trial. If you like it then you can subscribe to it or buy it. I bought mine. Coupon codes for 10% off are everywhere and there's a 25% off code during Photokina.

Na Horuk · 09-21-2016, 08:47 AM - **1 Like**

Standalone LR is the obvious choice, and its what I chose. Its just.. so much faster to use. I'm sure SilkyPix could give me a lot of the same functionality, but it just takes me way too long to find things. LR is powerful and user friendly.

Other choices are RawTherapee and FastStone (both free, quite powerful), AftershotPro and CaptureOne. And then there is Darktable? So you have quite a bit of choice, and most of these offer a free trial. RawTherapee is quite powerful despite being free, but it suffers a little from the same problem as SilkyPix, though not to such an extent. I did not try all of them, only Pentax-version of SilkyPix (which is slightly different from the actual SilkyPix available alone), RawTherapee, and LR (version 3 and 6). LR was the best for me, because I can do PP quickly and can find any function in seconds; and it still allows me to take time and go really deep into edits if need be.

**richard_b** · 09-21-2016, 09:08 AM - **1 Like**

I was a long time Aperture user and very disappointed that Apple discontinued that product. I switched to Capture One a couple of years back and have been very happy since. CO provides beautifully rendered raw conversions, and has a strong catalog/metadata features. I tried LR, but found I much preferred the CO interface. For me, the CO interface felt much closer to Aperture than LR.

**lithedreamer** · 09-21-2016, 09:12 AM - **1 Like**

I think you should give Lightroom a second chance with one of their free trials. I was initially wary, but it's been great for my professional and personal photography.

rob1234 · 09-21-2016, 09:16 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Tony Belding

I've been through exactly the same dilemma. I looked at a bunch of different options, then finally gritted my teeth and bought Lightroom.

And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features.

Ditto, +1

antipattern · 09-21-2016, 09:46 AM - **1 Like**

I'm facing the same dilemma. I'm tempted by Capture One, which seems to have a nice interface and good presets. But whilst I enjoy OS X for now, I'm wonder whether at some point I should switch to Linux, and keep my options. So Darktable seems like a tempting option, too. It's got a good interface and it's free.

Also, my hard disk space is running out on my MacBook and I should really change my workflow towards using an external drive to store the RAWs and only keep the JPEGs on my computer. I really need to sit down and work it out...

**interested_observer** · 09-21-2016, 03:22 PM

Originally posted by MJSfoto1956

I've been using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for the past three months and have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail in the interface as well as the overall speed. They say they will be coming out with an DAM to compete with Lightroom early next year. If you can wait you might want to consider this as an option. In the meantime, you can try AP and AD for 30 days and see if you like them. I will likely stop using Photoshop altogether once Affinity Photo v1.5 comes out (with features that I need).

YMMV

Michael

Hi Michael - I am eagerly awaiting Affinity Photo. I saw your post that you are in the process of trying it over an extended period of time.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-digital-processing-software-printing/3...ml#post3760889

I have been stopping by their website weekly to see if it has dropped yet. Did I miss something? - I know that you AP and AD are out for the Mac, but I haven't seen them available for Windows - yet? I have read possibly in early October. I can certainly wait on the DAM. For me it's either PS or AP. I need the masking, layering and compositing in at least 16 bit color space. Having stacking, and stitching all available together with all the tools, will make things much easier rather than moving across tools with Tiff and the potential differences in color space. I have a number of astrolandscape images that need to be processed (shot as panos - with astrotracing for the stars and long exposures for the landscape element)- and I was just about to buy PS when I read about Affinity on the web - so I have held off.

One question that I have is the RAW converter. How does Affinity compare with Capture One and Adobe Camera RAW along with the rest of them?

09-21-2016, 05:19 AM	#1
gazonk Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Oslo area, Norway Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,746	Aperture on life support, what should I choose? When I chose Aperture over Lightroom about 5 years ago, I did it for two main reasons: RAW development quality and an interface more to my taste. RAW quality: I did a lot of comparisions between Aperture, Ligthroom and the Pentax software. My conclusion (with at K10d at that time) was that the Pentax software would deliver the best textures in natural objects like flowers etc., closely followed by Apple's RAW converter, and with much less pleasing results from the Adobe RAW converter. Interface: This was just a matter of taste, I think. Lightroom 5 years ago felt like a flashback to "CD ROM"-style interfaces to me. Now Aperture is on life support, user reports say that it just barely works in Sierra, so what to do? The most obvious is of course to go to LR. I guess I can still buy LR 6 as standalone and don't have to sell my soul and pay monthly dues to Adobe in order to be able to view my own pictures, but still Adobe has always done things that makes me not wanting to buy their products. Then there's Pentax and Silkypix, but that still means using a really messy UI, doesn't it? BUT: What about Capture 1 or DxO? Any satisfied users?

09-21-2016, 06:47 AM - 1 Like	#8
BigMackCam Digitiser of Film Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: North East of England Posts: 20,674	A lot of people starting off with Lightroom are put off by the look of imported RAW files at the default settings, but minor adjustments will - in my view - result in images that are equally as good as with other RAW development tools - and often with much greater flexibility and range of optimisation (especially highlight and shadow correction, and colour noise reduction). The trick is in figuring out the tweaks you need to have your images looking good immediately after import, then saving those as defaults. Last edited by BigMackCam; 09-21-2016 at 07:18 AM.

09-21-2016, 03:22 PM	#15
interested_observer Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Tumbleweed, Arizona Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,707	Originally posted by MJSfoto1956 I've been using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for the past three months and have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail in the interface as well as the overall speed. They say they will be coming out with an DAM to compete with Lightroom early next year. If you can wait you might want to consider this as an option. In the meantime, you can try AP and AD for 30 days and see if you like them. I will likely stop using Photoshop altogether once Affinity Photo v1.5 comes out (with features that I need). YMMV Michael Hi Michael - I am eagerly awaiting Affinity Photo. I saw your post that you are in the process of trying it over an extended period of time. https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-digital-processing-software-printing/3...ml#post3760889 I have been stopping by their website weekly to see if it has dropped yet. Did I miss something? - I know that you AP and AD are out for the Mac, but I haven't seen them available for Windows - yet? I have read possibly in early October. I can certainly wait on the DAM. For me it's either PS or AP. I need the masking, layering and compositing in at least 16 bit color space. Having stacking, and stitching all available together with all the tools, will make things much easier rather than moving across tools with Tiff and the potential differences in color space. I have a number of astrolandscape images that need to be processed (shot as panos - with astrotracing for the stars and long exposures for the landscape element)- and I was just about to buy PS when I read about Affinity on the web - so I have held off. One question that I have is the RAW converter. How does Affinity compare with Capture One and Adobe Camera RAW along with the rest of them?

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09-21-2016, 05:22 AM - 2 Likes	#2
pepperberry farm amateur dirt farmer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 41,679	as a Mac user, I use LightZone as my base post-processor, and MacPhun's Creative Kit for just about everything beyond basic processing...

09-21-2016, 05:49 AM - 1 Like	#3
Tony Belding Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Hamilton, Texas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 781	I've been through exactly the same dilemma. I looked at a bunch of different options, then finally gritted my teeth and bought Lightroom. And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features.

09-21-2016, 06:06 AM - 1 Like	#4
pathdoc Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2015 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,381	Originally posted by gazonk Aperture on life support, what should I choose? When I read that, I thought this was going to be another one of those "My K30/K50 is dying" threads.

09-21-2016, 06:22 AM	#5
gazonk Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Oslo area, Norway Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,746 Original Poster	Originally posted by Tony Belding And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features. Yes, I have to admit some of the stuff I see that LR can do, impresses me. For instance, highlights/shadows processing seems to have advanced far ahead of what Aperture can do.

09-21-2016, 06:25 AM - 1 Like	#6
boriscleto Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: North Syracuse, NY Photos: Gallery Posts: 16,475	Aperture isn't on life support, Apple pulled the plug years ago... I switched to Lightroom CC last year and haven't looked back. Once you get over the non-Mac like interface it is a much better program than Aperture now.

09-21-2016, 06:47 AM - 2 Likes	#7
MJSfoto1956 Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Boston Posts: 1,305	I've been using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for the past three months and have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail in the interface as well as the overall speed. They say they will be coming out with an DAM to compete with Lightroom early next year. If you can wait you might want to consider this as an option. In the meantime, you can try AP and AD for 30 days and see if you like them. I will likely stop using Photoshop altogether once Affinity Photo v1.5 comes out (with features that I need). YMMV Michael

09-21-2016, 08:14 AM - 1 Like	#9
6BQ5 Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Nevada, USA Photos: Albums Posts: 3,348	I migrated to Capture One. The interface felt very close to Aperture and the YouTube tutorials are excellent. Capture One's claim to fame is their color management and algorithms. I really enjoy the rendering. Give it a try. You can download a free 30 day trial. If you like it then you can subscribe to it or buy it. I bought mine. Coupon codes for 10% off are everywhere and there's a 25% off code during Photokina.

09-21-2016, 08:47 AM - 1 Like	#10
Na Horuk Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Slovenia, probably Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 11,186	Standalone LR is the obvious choice, and its what I chose. Its just.. so much faster to use. I'm sure SilkyPix could give me a lot of the same functionality, but it just takes me way too long to find things. LR is powerful and user friendly. Other choices are RawTherapee and FastStone (both free, quite powerful), AftershotPro and CaptureOne. And then there is Darktable? So you have quite a bit of choice, and most of these offer a free trial. RawTherapee is quite powerful despite being free, but it suffers a little from the same problem as SilkyPix, though not to such an extent. I did not try all of them, only Pentax-version of SilkyPix (which is slightly different from the actual SilkyPix available alone), RawTherapee, and LR (version 3 and 6). LR was the best for me, because I can do PP quickly and can find any function in seconds; and it still allows me to take time and go really deep into edits if need be.

09-21-2016, 09:08 AM - 1 Like	#11
richard_b Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 36	I was a long time Aperture user and very disappointed that Apple discontinued that product. I switched to Capture One a couple of years back and have been very happy since. CO provides beautifully rendered raw conversions, and has a strong catalog/metadata features. I tried LR, but found I much preferred the CO interface. For me, the CO interface felt much closer to Aperture than LR.

09-21-2016, 09:12 AM - 1 Like	#12
lithedreamer Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2013 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,799	I think you should give Lightroom a second chance with one of their free trials. I was initially wary, but it's been great for my professional and personal photography.

09-21-2016, 09:16 AM - 1 Like	#13
rob1234 Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Wiltshire/Hampshire Photos: Albums Posts: 1,760	Originally posted by Tony Belding I've been through exactly the same dilemma. I looked at a bunch of different options, then finally gritted my teeth and bought Lightroom. And you know what? It's been great. I had no idea how much farther Lightroom had advanced over the years while Aperture languished. It was an easy transition for me, and it's only gotten better since then as I've learned more about Lightroom's features. Ditto, +1

09-21-2016, 09:46 AM - 1 Like	#14
antipattern Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Berlin, Germany Photos: Albums Posts: 232	I'm facing the same dilemma. I'm tempted by Capture One, which seems to have a nice interface and good presets. But whilst I enjoy OS X for now, I'm wonder whether at some point I should switch to Linux, and keep my options. So Darktable seems like a tempting option, too. It's got a good interface and it's free. Also, my hard disk space is running out on my MacBook and I should really change my workflow towards using an external drive to store the RAWs and only keep the JPEGs on my computer. I really need to sit down and work it out...