Adobe Lightroom Vs Apple Aperture

Which is better, Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture? Both these photography applications promise to help you edit and manage your photo collection. But to choose one among these two intelligent photography applications calls for some smart work on the research front.

Adobe Lightroom Versus Apple Aperture – The Comparison

Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom – The Similarities

Both Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom offer similar photo editing and photo management programs. Beside these two amazing programs, they also offer various other similar features.

• They come from technological giants in the industry, Apple and Adobe.
• Both are designed to cater to the demands of professional photographers and serious amateurs.
• They offer advanced editing features for sophisticated users.

Since both Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom have similar features it is best to list out each feature so that you can decide which one suits you better.

Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom – The Differences

• The RAW converter in Adobe Lightroom is far better than that in Apple Aperture. The converter available in Adobe Lightroom manages to convert RAW images with less noise. Even the colors are accurate to the original.
• In both Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom, you can paint on certain selected areas. But Apple Aperture does a better job in helping you create presets for the paint brushes. This way the software remembers the brushes you have used.
• While both these applications let you retouch cloned areas or irregularly shaped areas, Apple Aperture does a good job in letting you decide the degree of blending and the softness of retouches when compared to Adobe Lightroom.
• With Apple Aperture, you have the option of assigning hotkeys to various editing actions. Adobe Lightroom is still a bit left in this regard.
• Adobe Lightroom edges out Apple Aperture in its ability to save all the developments in chronological manner. You can simply access the History panel to copy or reorder previously used adjustment steps.
• Apple Aperture is more flexible in allowing you to search and filter than Adobe Lightroom. Apple Aperture not only lets you relocate your master image files and master database, it also lets you consolidate all your files from the application in your library. Whereas in Adobe Lightroom you have to first use the Finder tool to move the master files and then inform Adobe Lightroom about the change of place.
• In Adobe Lightroom, you can keep the sequence number that your camera assigned to that particular photo. Even though Apple Aperture also allows you to retain the sequence number, you have to manually key-in the starting number.
• Apple Aperture also lets you create your own books. For this purpose, you can select from an array of layouts. You can also submit it to Apple from within the application. You can also make use of Apple’s printing service to get your photos printed. As you would have already guessed, neither does Adobe offer any printing service nor does Adobe Lightroom let you create custom-made books.
• Adobe Lightroom lets you create any number of watermarks. Unlike Apple Aperture that needs the watermark to be a graphic image created using another application, Adobe Lightroom is more flexible in this regard. Adobe Lightroom lets you create even text-based watermarks giving you the freedom to edit and save watermarks.

Of course the plug-ins, the interface, and the platforms availability for both applications are different. Since both Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom applications have redefined digital dark room in many ways, the answer to the question of which application is better may lie with the user.