I am trying to decide whether to buy Aperture or Lightroom.

My photo library is about 4,000 images right now and I have heard that Lightroom can cave under a lot of images being imported/manipulated/moved. Has this been experienced by anyone?

I went to the Apple Store last night to play with Aperture (before deciding) and it had some great features but seemed to have a super steep learning curve.

So, what do you all prefer? Why?

I'm not a Mac user, so I can't compare LR to Aperture.

I currently have ~10,000 images in a single LR library on my PC (2.6GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM) and it doesn't seem to cause a problem. I've heard anecdotal feedback that once you're over 25,000 images, it can get flaky.

However, with the 1.1 release, LR supports multiple libraries and makes it easy to switch between them. So, I could just have a library for 2002-2006, 2007-?, etc. if I needed.

I'm not a Mac user, so I can't compare LR to Aperture.

I currently have ~10,000 images in a single LR library on my PC (2.6GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM) and it doesn't seem to cause a problem. I've heard anecdotal feedback that once you're over 25,000 images, it can get flaky.

However, with the 1.1 release, LR supports multiple libraries and makes it easy to switch between them. So, I could just have a library for 2002-2006, 2007-?, etc. if I needed.

Do you keep your libraries on external harddrives? I am planning on using a couple of FireWire drives to hold my library and do backups.

I have used both. I too hear that LR would groan if the library was over 3000 images. Mine's been more than twice that and chugged along without a hitch.

For a second I thought of switching to Aperture. SO I downloaded the trial, installed, started importing and after several hours it still hadn't indexed or done anything. I forcequit it right then and there and deleted the installation.

LR pro's:

Filehandling and image storing. Waaaay better than Aperture.

The new update to 1.1 has a pretty good noise handling as well (out goes noise ninja) and sharpening (hardly ever start up cs3 these days).

I have issues with printing to my ip4200 from LR so use Canon's Easy Photo Print utility instead.

I know complete mac heads who will not use anything else than apple software and even they say LR is better.

In the beginning I though Aperture was the better of the two until I realised how intuitive the interface of LR is. You really don't need a manual to get going. All buttons are quite self explanatory. Get in to Aperture and you need a week in school.

Still, it pays to get Scott Kelbys book on LR. The little secrets in LR is unlocked and available to you if you know where to look for them.

I was first introduced to Lightroom by a professional photographer (Eric Meola) who I heard give a presentation at a lecture/training series they do at Adorama. He recommended Lightroom strongly and it is what he used. The learning curve was the issue. He sounds like he might do close to 4000 shots a day when on location ;). I have several thousand in Lightroom, and am planning on bringing another 6000 or so in that are sitting on drives. At least with the couple thousand I have now not a bit of trouble. Im guessing the hardware matters. A 5 year old Power PC Mac with 512 megs of RAM is a very different beast than a dualcore 2 MacBook or MacBook pro with 2-4 gigs of RAM. Personal experience after using them both is Lightroom without a doubt. I felt like I had experienced a wonderful revelation after using Lightroom. It is to me, sooooo much more intuitive and user friendly than is Aperture.

Thank you for both of the comments.

As far as hardware goes, I think I am good, I have a MacBook Pro (Core2 Duo) with 2GB RAM.

It sounds like LR is the way to go.

So do you both use external drives to hold your libraries?

Do you keep your libraries on external harddrives? I am planning on using a couple of FireWire drives to hold my library and do backups.

I keep my stuff on a local hard drive, backed up to an external drive. As it fills, I'll pull the hard drive out to an enclosure and put in a new internal drive. I like whatever I'm working on actively to be fast.

If I were going to be working on a live project from an external drive, I'd want it to be eSATA.

I have about 7000 pictures in a LR library, and had about 5000 at the time in my aperture library. Imac intel mac v1.0

aperture before 1.1, DID get a bit bogged down, AND the LR beta had some issues too, mostly around the thumbnail files.

but, I have not had a problem with either since 1.1, on both. I DO prefer LR though, I like the workflow and desktop better than aperture.

I have about 7000 pictures in a LR library, and had about 5000 at the time in my aperture library. Imac intel mac v1.0

aperture before 1.1, DID get a bit bogged down, AND the LR beta had some issues too, mostly around the thumbnail files.

but, I have not had a problem with either since 1.1, on both. I DO prefer LR though, I like the workflow and desktop better than aperture.

The Kelby book about Lightroom, which I highly, highly recommend, talks about performance tips and what steps are relatively big computes and how to avoid them, or at least know what the tradeoffs are with some of the settings.

The Kelby book about Lightroom, which I highly, highly recommend, talks about performance tips and what steps are relatively big computes and how to avoid them, or at least know what the tradeoffs are with some of the settings.

My order of LR is on its way (can't wait). I will definitely check out Kelby's book. Thanks for the STRONG recommendation.

My order of LR is on its way (can't wait). I will definitely check out Kelby's book. Thanks for the STRONG recommendation.

you know, you can always just download the product from adobe. You'll have it in about five minutes! The reg code works the same

I literally just started using Lightroom today. I downloaded the 30 day trial. I had been using Aperture for about a year. I found that with RAW files, Lightroom gives me much more control over the things that are actually important to me. I also like that it allows me to leave the files where they are and access them through LR.

I'm a little nervous to hear that it might choke under a large library.

Aperture does have the book making feature which is pretty nice, since you can output your layouts as .pdf files.

I actually like the layout of aperture better, but I think that I like the tools in LR better. It also seems "faster" to me.

I wish I could figure out how to utilize both screens like I can in Aperture... hmmm..


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www.jasonatenphotography.com (http://www.jasonatenphotography.com)

you know, you can always just download the product from adobe. You'll have it in about five minutes! The reg code works the same

Just downloaded the 30-day trial version before I read your post. And now, my LR arrived. After a little test drive, I like it a lot. Also found quite a few tutorial videos on LR. ^^

So what is everyone's workflow?

Do you import, organize, edit in Photoshop, then export to an external?

There was a discussion of individual workflows here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=712355 - starting at post #12

So what is everyone's workflow?

Do you import, organize, edit in Photoshop, then export to an external?

Im still working on mine and the thread mentioned by CPRich is a good place to start. But I just want to add that my intention is to NOT use Photoshop as a routine part of my workflow. I have it, but only plan on using it in rare cases to do extensive manipulations on single images. For routine stuff I plan on doing it all in Lightroom.

Im still working on mine and the thread mentioned by CPRich is a good place to start. But I just want to add that my intention is to NOT use Photoshop as a routine part of my workflow. I have it, but only plan on using it in rare cases to do extensive manipulations on single images. For routine stuff I plan on doing it all in Lightroom.

Same here.

Fact is, that with all the info you get on each image I find that I do most editing in LR when needed, croping as well. I hardly ever do any editing in PS at all now. Unless I start working with layers and stuff.

I learn what I do wrong in the camera by watching the exif in LR and improve the camera work each time.

Less PPing for each shoot.

Then there is the odd shot I really want to work with because there is something in the image that catches my attention and I will give it more PPing.