jgleman

Today, Apple released Aperture 3, a new version of its photo management software for professional photographers and enthusiasts. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet but many of the new features look promising. My initial reaction was, “there is enough here to make me consider switching from Adobe Lightroom”.

I first tried Aperture back when version one was out and this was basically a new category of software. Lightroom did not even exist yet. I suppose Adobe’s solution at the time was a combination of Bridge and Photoshop. I am not an avid Photoshop user and I don’t do much to manipulate my photos beyond cropping and adjustments to things like exposure and color that I can make with the Camera Raw plug-in for Photoshop.

When Aperture first came out it was the perfect solution for me. Software to manage my library of photos and to do the type of editing that I like to do in one package. The problem was the early on, Aperture was slow. So when Adobe released Lightroom, it did basically everything I would have used Aperture for and it was faster. When later versions of Aperture came out I didn’t see any features that made me think about giving it another try. Not that the software looked lacking, just nothing powerful enough to convince me to put forth the effort to switch. Aperture 3 may change that, well see after I give it a solid trial. 

While I prefer the photo management and editing capabilities of a professional package like Lightroom or Aperture, I really like some of the consumer oriented features of iPhoto. I like the photo books (Aperture has had these, but I always though the books in iPhoto were more fun.) I like the faces and places feature. I love the maps (if only my camera had GPS). What I don’t love is keeping separate libraries, one for iPhoto and one for Lightroom.

If Aperture 3 is as good as it looks at first glance, Apple may have just solved that problem for me. Now if only I could import all of my edits to Aperture…