Aperture for Imac

[crockers]

Hi
I'm looking at the Imac and was wondering does anyone use aperture for their photo processing? If so how do you find it ? How does it compare to CS4 ?

Thanks

 

[Swozza]

Photoshop is a tool designed for professional graphics designers. As a photo processing tool only its extremely overkill. Aperture I'd say is more on par with Photoshop El and I'd choose Aperture on a new Imac.

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

Isn't Imac something the ladies use to get rid of unsightly hair?

 

[adm]

Aperture is an awesome tool for photo MANAGEMENT, processing and workflow, but it's not a great image editing tool.

It's pretty much aimed at archiving, workflow management, cropping, straightening, resizing, and image adjustments - although that doesn't do it justice at all as it's extremely powerful and has a huge array of plug ins.

However - if you want to do a lot of real creative image EDITING, then Photoshop is the right tool.

The two products are extremely complimentary - I use both a lot. I import batches of photos in Aperture, do all my batch processing, tagging, metadata stuff etc, then anything that I want to mess around with in depth gets punted out to photoshop and then back to Aperture when done.

They are different tools for different jobs, although each one has a limited amount of overlap.


The iMac is a superb platform for both though!

 

[adm]

By the way.....don't forget iPhoto. it's also an excellent tool and will do 99% of most people's photography needs. Comes pre installed on all Macs.

 

[bolide]

Cancom has Photoshop Elements 6 for about £43 with a free upgrade to Elements 8

Nick Froome

 

[219]

I personally don't like Aperture ( or Capture One on which it is based ) I find the user interface cumbersome and awkward . As a pro photographer I have tried most of the photo apps .

Most of the time I use Lightroom for light 'tweaking' and RAW to JPEG conversion to suit end users , Lightroom is from Adobe and a companion app to Photoshop . For more advanced manipulation I still use Photoshop (still running CS3), but not as much as I used to . One of the advantages of running these two apps side by side is they use the same Adobe Camera Raw plugin so update one and you update both for compatibility with new cameras etc .

I agree that iPhoto is an excellent tool for most amateurs and brilliant for a free app !

 

[Spinal]

Another vote for CS4... Aperture is ok for photo management, but Bridge does the job so much better!
M.

 

[219]

I've never used any application to manage my archives - I just have my own system of folders and file naming that I've been using for years . I do use Bridge for browsing through folders sometimes , but mostly I just open folders and I already have my prefs set to give a preview of each file , along with info , so just select a thumbnail and hit space bar to view full screen if required .

 

[crockers]

The reason I asked was -
If I buy the Imac - all my current programs (CS4 included) are MS based so I would have to use boot camp and install Windows 7 OS.
The problem with that, as I see , is that one can't jump from leopard to 7 and back again - it would entail a reboot each time. - please correct me if I am wrong on this.
I know I could use parallels or equivalent - but I think running CS4 within a virtual program will be very laggy.
So I thought instead of buying 7 and going through the reboot systems to use office 07 and CS4 - just buy iworks and aperture.

But beginning to think buying 7 to add in at around £100 ish is the better route...

would the panel agree?

 

[Swozza]

Bootcamp, your not wrong requires reboot.

Parallels works very well, no lag in my experience.

However I have to comment if all your software is windows buy a new PC. Office 2008 and C4 are also on Mac. PM me I maybe able to help.

 

[Spinal]

Or you could just buy CS4 for mac It's only a few grand

 

[219]

iWorks is good .

Also take a look at Lightroom for photo work - not that expensive and should meet your needs most of the time - for the odd occasion you need CS4 , and it won't be often , then go through the reboot .

 

[adm]

The reason I asked was -
If I buy the Imac - all my current programs (CS4 included) are MS based so I would have to use boot camp and install Windows 7 OS.
The problem with that, as I see , is that one can't jump from leopard to 7 and back again - it would entail a reboot each time. - please correct me if I am wrong on this.
I know I could use parallels or equivalent - but I think running CS4 within a virtual program will be very laggy.
So I thought instead of buying 7 and going through the reboot systems to use office 07 and CS4 - just buy iworks and aperture.

But beginning to think buying 7 to add in at around £100 ish is the better route...

would the panel agree?

Parallels or Fusion work great as VM's. You can switch from OSX to Windows with a single keystroke and straight back again the same way. Your directory structure is shared across both OSes too - so it doesn't matter where you save to as all the files are accessible from everywhere. Surprisingly, Windows works blindingly fast in a Mac VM....and it's stable too!

However - if you are going to buy an iMac, I'd say don't bother shelling out for Win 7 unless you really need it. Just use iPhoto and see how you get on first.

If you REALLY need Windows, they just install an existing copy of XP or whatever you have under Parallels and use that. Not much point buying a machine with MacOS and then spending more money on Windows....

If you are tight for cash and of low moral fibre, then there are plenty of places on the 'net you can find "free" copies of CS4 for Mac, Aperture....and pretty much anything else you want as well

 

[spinaltap]

If you contact Adobe you can easily and cost-effectively pay for a 'sidegrade' from the Windows to Mac version of Photoshop.

Alternatively, forget paying for Parallels or Fusion - when you can get Sun's VirtualBox for nothing (which is just as good).

 

[L19 ong]

I use iPhoto, which comes preloaded and I honestly cannot see past it, I use it a lot to edit pics and find it so easy to use, it really is excellent.

 

[crockers]

Had a look at iphoto in the apple store - its ok for basic management - but doesn't allow for RAW file management - aperture does that - but that doesnt allow for changing things (i.e. removing items etc etc) but photoshop elements would do that....

So if I go down this route - its one of 3 choices. Install Windows 7 and use my CS4, install aperture and photoshop elements. Or find someone with a child at secondary school and let them buy cs4 for mac using student discount scheme.

Decisions decisions - will leave it I think until after Xmas - may be better prices in the sales......do apple do after xmas sales??

 

[adm]

iPhoto DOES support RAW files. But it's not the best tool for them. If you are serious about your photography and RAW is a big part of it, then you probably need something else.

Not sure what you mean about Aperture not allowing changing - surely the whole point of a RAW file is that you keep the "digital negative" sacrosanct and make destructive edits on a version.....?

Aperture is excellent for creating versions of RAW files to edit (and then managing those versions, whatever you do with them)...either with it's own (fairly limited) tools, or many of the excellent plugins available.

My personal opinion for a great workflow is Aperture, with PS4 (or Elements depending on what you really need) as the partner tool for anything Aperture can't handle.

Look at the crossgrade options to go from your CS4 win to CS4 Mac, but in my opinion you won't gain anything with the Windows option. Keep everything in OSX for a much better/friendlier/more productive workflow. I'm not sure what the cost would be, but this sounds fairly positive:

"Q. Can I switch my product from Windows to Mac or vice-versa?
A. Yes. Just call Adobe Customer Service (800-833-6687 in the US; 020 7365 0733 in the UK; more country-by-country numbers here) for assistance. The process, as I understand it, involves signing an agreement stating that you've destroyed the product on one platform, and in return Adobe will send you the product for the other platform. According to the service folks, there may be a cost involved; verification of product is required; and restrictions apply. "

By the way - the education idea is a good one! PS4 is £155 on the educational discount, which is probably a fair price. Adobe's regular retail prices are just stupid - no wonder there are so many cracked versions floating about on the web.

 

[crockers]

By changing I meant using the clone tool etc... the guy in the apple store said you couldn't do that in aperture ..or iphoto..(i.e. remove a plane from a sky etc)...