Alternatives to Aperture (What are your plans?)

[JDDavis]

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/27/aperture-development-stops/

This seems to all but seal the fate of Aperture, especially if Apple made the statement. I've used Aperture since it's introduction and have enjoyed it. In particular I've become comfortable with my "ecosystem" of Aperture, the NIK plugin, and the Zenfolio plugin. That has defined my prosumer (if you will) work flow for a few years now.

I'm not interested in bashing Apple for dropping Aperture or debating the merits of Ap vs LR vs Photos. What I'm interested in is what everyone is using for post and photo management and in particular what Aperture users are looking at to convert to.

To my limited knowledge (at this point) there seems to be a few options:

1. Continue to use Aperture/NIK for as long as I can.

2. Go back to pre-Aperture, which was hard drive folders and Photoshop

3. Jump on the Light Room bus

4. Is Nikon Capture a viable alternative? Plugins? I read NX-D will be free.

5. Perhaps Photos will be a "prosumer" editor under the hood with some interesting integrated cloud functions?

I would like to hear what long term Aperture users think they will do. I would like to continue to have a similar experience as I have had with Aperture / NIK / Zenfolio. I don't do a ton of post processing and if I do anything heavy it's in NIK. I stopped using Photoshop a while back because I didn't really use many of it's capabilities and the management part was easier in Aperture.

Edit: Oh, also converting my sizeable Aperture library into a new system is a big concern. I know there is a process for that for LR and obviously there will be one for Photos as well.

 

[Bending Pixels]

I've been using Photoshop since I got back into photography in 2000. I've opted into Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography program mostly because at $10 a month for PS CC and Lr with regular updates and new features, it's a decent deal.

Yeah...I'm bummed that Aperture is going away. Time will tell if the Photos app has any features that a serious amateur or pro will want, or of Nik or onOne will provide plug-in support for it.

 

[snerkler]

This news has really p'd me right off. I consistently get better results with aperture than Lightroom and so aperture is my software of choice. I haven't got to grips with photoshop, although am a CC subscriber.

I've been hoping to get RAW support for my EM10 which I now fear I am unlikely to get, likewise I'm considering upgrading my A77 for the A77ii and I won't get support for that either

Does anyone know whether the new app will have proper editing tools? Also, what is the reason for the shift IF the new app does not have pro editing? Do they not think photographers use Macs?

 

[r.harris1]

I guess Razeus won, dang it !

I've always been a fan of Aperture's philosophy of workflow and I don't care for LR's UI or it's own concepts of workflow. I'll probably use Aperture for as long as possible. I'm not interested in Photos, per se, though it will be interesting to see what they have under the hood. What I'm interested in more is what can be added on to the application given the hooks Yosemite is exposing API-wise against the RAW engine and what will happen on that front. Maybe some good stuff on the plugin/extension front.

I own LR, so if absolutely necessary, I'd start doing my project work there, but I also own C1 and DXO Optics Pro but they don't work with my Nik plugins. Ugh. I'll wait and evaluate.

 

[JDDavis]

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/photos/

At least with the info that's available on Photos it seems to be geared towards supporting photography on the iPhone and iPad. I enjoy taking pics with my iPhone so more tools and integration are cool but at least for now I don't think it will meet the needs of those that utilize Ap, LR, or plugin users like NIK or others. Maybe it will by 2015? My feeling is that I'll end up on a non-Apple platform. May not be a bad thing, I just dread the change/conversion.

Aperture won't stop working but eventually you'll probably want to change. I imagine upgrading to a camera where the RAW format is no longer supported by Ap will drive that. I probably won't miss the editing capabilities of Aperture as much as I will the organizing capabilities. I think the NIK plugins do a better job unless I'm just adjusting the curves a little and sharpening.

 

[fcortese]

I guess I'll just wait and see. I have so much time invested in really setting up Aperture for my work flow, navigating through my work flow and I just love the way I have the file system set up. It appears that that would be transitioned into the new Photos. So the KEY question for me is how the plugs ins I use, especially NIK , but also PS, will work with the new Photos and how "robust" the basic adjustments in the new Photos are. I, too, have LR but I'd have to learn and try to modify it's DAM set up to what I am use to and the thought of having to do that troubles me. I may be stuck with hanging onto Aperture for as long as possible. I guess philosophically for an old geezer like me, being forced to learn a whole new storage/processing system may slow down my dementia!

 

[Keebler]

Bummer but...

hi folks,

Well, I was disappointed to read the news about Aperture

But, for me, the latest version will serve me for sometime. I'm undergoing a huge re-structured of my photos adding keywords for every photo. Tons of images.

So I'm going with #1 for now and I'll see what happens with this new app.

I may change to LR after that, but for now, I'm not interested in software I don't own. Maybe the new Apple photo app will do that, but I'll wait.

I'm not a professional so it has no impact for my business. This is purely for my family photos.

How AP organizes photos is perfect for my needs (currently).

I can absolutely see how people are p*ssed.

I think it's jumping the gun for folks to claim Apple's dropping from the professionals to the mass consumers. Maybe they are, but without knowing exactly what their new app is, it's ridiculous to assume anything.

I realize the optics aren't great, but hang tight. Maybe they'll come up with something slick.

Cheers,
keebler

 

[glenthompson]

I plan to continue using Aperture until next year. When Photos is released I will look at it and see whether it's a suitable replacement. Until we know more, it's hard to say what the best route is now.

One vital piece of information that we're missing is what support Photos will have for add-ins. If it's an easy task to add extensive editing capability then it could be a solution. I doubt it do everything Aperture can now.

 

[Enrico]

Been using Aperture since day one, thousands of images in my library with corrections applied to them. I was never interested on the laggish iPhoto.

I've been reading good reviews towards Capture One Pro, but wondering how to manage my whole library that Aperture used to do it in a very easy and effective way.

 

[d.steve]

Aperture is the main reason I even use my Mac, anymore. Nearly everything else is done via iPad/iPhone. Crazy.

I have a lot invested in Aperture. A lot. What I will do...I'm not sure, yet. But I'm not going to panic-react. I will likely just stay the course for now and continue using Aperture until Photos comes out and decide whether to commit to LR or not.

I care about workflow far more than I care about editing capabilities, so Aperture will do me fine until more info is available to make an informed choice.

 

[Designer Dale]

,,,That was the sound of my neck snapping in the Adobe noose...

If I load the Lightroom trial, can it import or duplicate my A3 library without messing up what I currently have?

If I accept the performance hit temporarily, can I install LR on a remote drive and have it copy my A3 library for a test like above?

Maybe PhotoShop, NIK and Bridge?

Dale

 

[MCAsan]

If you used Aperture with a referenced library of master/oriignals, Those would be easy to import into LR. But.....you will lose all the non-destructive edits that are typically part of side car files. If the edits created TIFs or JPGs, you should be able to get those files out of the library....but I have not tried to do that.

Since my master files were in LR from years ago, I can simply delete Aperture, its vaults, libraries,...etc.

 

[Designer Dale]

If you used Aperture with a referenced library of master/oriignals, Those would be easy to import into LR. But.....you will lose all the non-destructive edits that are typically part of side car files. If the edits created TIFs or JPGs, you should be able to get those files out of the library....but I have not tried to do that.

Since my master files were in LR from years ago, I can simply delete Aperture, its vaults, libraries,...etc.

Thanks. I wouldn't mind having to do the editing over again, but I wouldn't want to have anything happen to what was already in my A3 library. So I can just import or duplicate the RAW files over into LR to see how it works without disturbing A3?

Dale

 

[Jessica Lares]

I'm waiting until 10.10 comes out to decide. Whoever pushes the first update for Yosemite will most likely get my vote.

 

[ChrisA]

We can hope that done will soon come up with a migration tool. Software that will read an Aperture library and translate it to LR's format.

Adobe would be smart to start work on such a tool ASAP

I'm going to download and try out both Capture One Pro and LR.

 

[robgendreau]

Boy, having a tool to migrate would have been great. But I am guessing, pessimistically, that if it could've been done it would have appeared by now. Adobe may have less incentive to do so now than before. Maybe some independent entity will step in, but since there would be less and less interest ongoing, probably not. You don't see a lot of that with other applications. They did say they're "committed to helping interested iPhoto and Aperture customers migrate to our rich solution"; a cynic would say that means they'll cash your check.

To the OP, you have NIK/Google plugins just as in Aperture, as well as publishing services to Zenfolio (at least two).

If you reference files, the transition re the file structure and metadata is pretty easy, at least for the basics. As MCAsan noted. You can just point LR at the folder where you stored your photos, xmps, etc, and have LR import. And there is the folder in LR. I replicated albums by using keywords of the same name, since they reside in the photo metadata. LR has this really cool "Synchonize folder" command that you can use when you have to go back to Aperture for some reason. Eg, I republish/export a tiff or jpg in Aperture, or change the metadata to reflect something in Aperture, then that gets written to metadata. I use synchronize in LR, and it will offer to import the new tiff or jpg, and scan for metadata updates.

Download the LR demo and give it a shot.

 

[lJoSquaredl]

Really upset bout this news since I just purchased Aperture a month or two ago lol. I loathe subscription fees these days. Just like with World of Warcraft, if I feel like i'm not using it 24/7 ill feel like I'm wasting it and it'll drive me nuts. As it's only a hobby right now, altho a big hobby, i'll probably go crazy if I don't take pics or edit for even a week or two

I'll probably continue editing in Aperture for a while, or possibly switch to Capture One. It's a decent program and does a good job, altho I don't like the workflow as much as Aperture...and frankly the controls are lackluster and feel pretty simple. I like simple editing but I feel like it's missing just general things. Also whenever I edit in Capture One idk if its me or the program but my pics always end up being super contrasty

 

[TonyK]

A couple of years back I made the switch to LR from Aperture. There were things I just didn't like and I was using a referenced library structure. Sadly Aperture would still put some images in the library and not save it to disk as I had thought.

With LR I don't worry because it only uses a referenced library approach.

But I can understand why people are upset. It has been years since Apple really updated the product and their secrecy only made it harder for people to make informed decisions.

Good luck with plans on moving to a different system, if you plan to move. As others have noted Aperture will continue to work for the foreseeable future so no reason to jump ship just yet.

Take care,

 

[deirdre]

I'm jumping to Lightroom.

Catch is, Aperture keeps crashing if I try to export with folder structure, so yay.

There are several years more photos than are in the Masters directory, apparently, so using that approach won't bring me all the photos. I think.

I'm going to be really peeved if I can't export everything prior to Nov 2010.

 

[0970373]

I'm on the "wait and see but get ready just in case" boat. Basically, I will prep my files to be able to import to LR if need be. I started researching this as soon as I heard about Aperture's demise. lol. I work with referenced files so it doesn't seem *that* bad. Getting used to a new workflow will be much harder.

I tried to move to LR a couple years ago and it was just not what I wanted. Aperture has given me all that I need and a much much better filing system than LR. So I'm hoping the new Photos app will be built with Aperture philosophies and capabilities to work with raw files, etc.

 

[OreoCookie]

Boy, that sucks. Royally. I'll wait and see what Photos will be like and whether the missing functionality can and will be added via plugins before switching. Right now I'll check out the competition, but I reckon I still won't like Lightroom's user interface.

 

[InfiniteLoopy]

I’m kind of surprised that Apple announced it. I figured they’d wait until their big photo announcement to do so. After WWDC, I stated that this would happen: Apple weren’t going to keep Photos, iPhoto and Aperture. I’m not going to go over in detail what I’ve already said, but Photos seems to offer the option for third-party apps to edit raw files, which Aperture couldn’t. This would be huge and very interesting.

I’m not convinced that Apple is abandoning professional photography users, that’s why I’m waiting to see what Photos has to offer. If it’s a similar DAM (which I believe it will be), and fairly advanced adjustments (which seemed to be the case during the WWDC demo) in addition to native adjustments from third parties, that will most likely be enough for my use.

I imagine Photos as a hub, just a good Aperture-like DAM (keywords, stars, rejects, smart folders...) with the common adjustments (similar to what we see in Camera Raw) and some popular filters. From there, Nik, OnOne, DXO and others can develop apps to expand and enhance the core basic features.

Now, what bothers me in all this is that Apple felt it was necessary for them to warn pros that Aperture would no longer be developed. This indicates to me that they don’t want a repeat of the FCP fiasco, meaning that Photos v1.0 will probably not be enough for pros. The question is what will be be lacking and how long until we get to feature-parity with Aperture.

Some sites (including MR) indicated that Apple is working with Adobe to help transition users over to Lightroom. Has anyone seen a direct quote from Apple on this, as it seems to me that this is what Adobe said, not Apple. I’d be surprised if Apple actually were doing this considering their stretched engineering resources and fairly strained relationship with Adobe (well under Steve anyway). I’m also not that keen on paying a monthly fee to Adobe. If Photos is inadequate for my needs, meaning that I have to start looking at alternatives, I’d like to see a commitment from Adobe that Lightroom will always be standalone. At this point though, why should they?

 

[maflynn]

Lightroom is really the only alternative to Aperture. There's also Capture One though I haven't tried that.

I had used LR in the past but preferred Aperture's UI, design and integration so I went back. I now need to switch gears and start transitioning my images from AP to LR.

I've progressed beyond the shock, though I'm still pretty pissed at apple for the abandonment of the professional segment (clarification I'm a hobbyist and not a pro).

 

[r.harris1]

...
Some sites (including MR) indicated that Apple is working with Adobe to help transition users over to Lightroom. Has anyone seen a direct quote from Apple on this, as it seems to me that this is what Adobe said, not Apple.
---

I'm pretty sure MR was quoting TechCrunch who now say that there's no official transition plan between Apple and Adobe (they specifically clarified the statement). It now reads (TechCrunch):

"Apple will also provide update paths that help users transition from Aperture and iPhoto to Photos for OS X".

My guess is, similar to your thoughts, that Apple doesn't want another FCPX kerfuffle on their hands or even an iWork because it is definitely "rip and replace" and perhaps some (or most) functionality won't be there. However, the Core Image API changes from WWDC indicate that many powerful non-destructive components are possible in the RAW workflow which affords Apple and third-parties the ability to bring some good stuff to the table.

And the screen shot of Photos on Yosemite (particularly on the right of the screen) indicates at least some basic adjustments will be there at the get-go with both macro and micro controls.

After having "slept on it", I'm actually a little more optimistic on Apple's Photos app. While I own LR, I've just never been able to warm up to it and have been much happier with Aperture+plugins and roundtrips to Photoshop (and increasingly, Pixelmator).

I'm definitely interested to see what Photos brings.

 

[jms969]

I’m kind of surprised that Apple announced it. I figured they’d wait until their big photo announcement to do so. After WWDC, I stated that this would happen: Apple weren’t going to keep Photos, iPhoto and Aperture. I’m not going to go over in detail what I’ve already said, but Photos seems to offer the option for third-party apps to edit raw files, which Aperture couldn’t. This would be huge and very interesting.

I’m not convinced that Apple is abandoning professional photography users, that’s why I’m waiting to see what Photos has to offer. If it’s a similar DAM (which I believe it will be), and fairly advanced adjustments (which seemed to be the case during the WWDC demo) in addition to native adjustments from third parties, that will most likely be enough for my use.

I imagine Photos as a hub, just a good Aperture-like DAM (keywords, stars, rejects, smart folders...) with the common adjustments (similar to what we see in Camera Raw) and some popular filters. From there, Nik, OnOne, DXO and others can develop apps to expand and enhance the core basic features.

Now, what bothers me in all this is that Apple felt it was necessary for them to warn pros that Aperture would no longer be developed. This indicates to me that they don’t want a repeat of the FCP fiasco, meaning that Photos v1.0 will probably not be enough for pros. The question is what will be be lacking and how long until we get to feature-parity with Aperture.

Some sites (including MR) indicated that Apple is working with Adobe to help transition users over to Lightroom. Has anyone seen a direct quote from Apple on this, as it seems to me that this is what Adobe said, not Apple. I’d be surprised if Apple actually were doing this considering their stretched engineering resources and fairly strained relationship with Adobe (well under Steve anyway). I’m also not that keen on paying a monthly fee to Adobe. If Photos is inadequate for my needs, meaning that I have to start looking at alternatives, I’d like to see a commitment from Adobe that Lightroom will always be standalone. At this point though, why should they?

It has been obvious for two years that apple was winding down aperture, I switched a year ago and couldn't be happier.

Apple has no interest in the pro or prosumer software segment, the segment is just to small (I am actually blown away that they did a mac pro). Apple is a consumer products company and photo (with minor editing capabilities) will work to lock people into the iOS/icloud ecosystem. Think a slick version of picasa.

As I have mentioned before it would be great if pixelmator acquired the aperture source and rights. At least there would be a decent competitor to LR other than capture one.