Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
However, the key reason to choose Aperture over Bridge is that Bridge is really more of a File
Browser that lets you do a couple of basic tasks with your files. Aperture, on the other hand, is a full
asset management tool with a database behind the scenes tracking all your images. With Bridge,
it's still up to you to manage where your files live, and tasks like searching for a particular image
are quite clunky compared to an asset-based tool like Aperture. Furthermore, because Adobe
wants to promote Lightroom over Bridge, Bridge lacks many features that are useful to photogra-
phers, like being able to spell-check keywords and captions. Adobe has explicitly chosen to omit
those features.
Lightroom
While in some ways the Lightroom versus Aperture debate is a bit like a religious Mac versus PC
debate, there are specific reasons that we find Aperture to be a much better choice than Lightroom
for our workflows. The main reason is that Lightroom has different modules that you must switch
between for different tasks, whereas Aperture does not. Practically speaking, adjustments affect
editing decisions, and it's faster to make those decisions in Aperture than in Lightroom. For exam-
ple, you may frequently look at an image and say, “This is good, but if I straighten it, will it be
great?” In Aperture, you can press one keyboard shortcut and then drag the mouse to straighten
the image. In Lightroom, you need to switch from the Organize to the Develop module, adjust the
image, and then switch back to the main module to continue making editing decisions. Less time
having to switch modes to make a decision means more time shooting and having fun!
We prefer Aperture for specific, technical reasons as well. One is that Aperture has a more powerful
hierarchy (we dig into the specific parts of its structure shortly) that you can customize, such as
moving albums wherever you want them to be, whereas Lightroom has a relatively flat hierarchy
with limited customization options. In Aperture 3, like in Lightroom, you are able to brush adjust-
ments onto an image, but Aperture provides far more control over how those adjustments are
applied, such as only affecting the highlights or shadows. Furthermore, only a few adjustments in
Lightroom can be brushed onto an image, whereas most adjustments in Aperture can be selec-
tively applied. Aperture's new curves control is far more powerful than Lightroom's parametric
curves, too. Then there are also features that Lightroom just doesn't have; for example being able
to manage audio files and being able to make a book. Lightroom also lacks any form of Faces and
Places.
We should mention that while we far prefer Aperture to Lightroom, Lightroom is not a bad pro-
gram, and if you have a PC, it's a very good choice. However, if you have a Mac, we enthusiastically
recommend that you use Aperture.
