PhotoShop Elements, Aperture and Lightroom

I've been trying to make sense of the PR and posts concerning
PhotoShop Elements, Aperture and Lightroom and could use some help. Up
to now, I've been using iPhoto along with GraphicConverter and Adobe
PhotoShop Elements, but am getting a DSLR (Pentax K20D) and will want
to use its RAW capability sometimes. Also, I've been a bit unhappy
with iPhoto's strange way of filing pictures: Original and Modified
folders are higher up the tree than the albums, making it difficult to
figure out which photos are the good ones unless I use iPhoto. While
not usually a problem, sometimes it is, plus I worry more about the
distant future when my kids or grandkids might want to find photos
after iPhoto is long gone.

My biggest question has to do with what editing capabilities Aperture
and Lightroom have. It sounds like they're mostly for organizing
photos and doing batch edits (white balance, etc.). I don't use most
of what's in PSE, but sometimes use the healing brush and cloning tool
to remove distractions. And, of course, moving to using RAW will add
another dimension of needed tools which I haven't yet figured out.

I realize this question is a bit vague, but figure there will be some
kind souls on this newsgroup who will try to provide information.
Where do these various programs fit in the work flow? What are their
advantages and disadvantages? Thanks in advance.

Martin

On 2008-05-23 09:50:11 -0700, hellman.DeleteThis@stanford.edu said:

> I've been trying to make sense of the PR and posts concerning
> PhotoShop Elements, Aperture and Lightroom and could use some help.
> ...
>
> My biggest question has to do with what editing capabilities Aperture
> and Lightroom have. It sounds like they're mostly for organizing
> photos and doing batch edits (white balance, etc.). I don't use most
> of what's in PSE, but sometimes use the healing brush and cloning tool
> to remove distractions. And, of course, moving to using RAW will add
> another dimension of needed tools which I haven't yet figured out.
>
> I realize this question is a bit vague, but figure there will be some
> kind souls on this newsgroup who will try to provide information.
> Where do these various programs fit in the work flow? What are their
> advantages and disadvantages? Thanks in advance.
>
> Martin

Kind souls are hard to find around here. Kindness is a dying virtue.

Aperture and Lightroom have most of the editing capability that you
will ever need. They cannot do layers, however. They have all the
adjustments you would find in the raw processors used in Photoshop. In
fact, Lightroom uses the same raw adjustment software.

Lightroom and Aperture ARE the workflow. They import your pictures,
organize them, edit them, and produce the output, whether it is a web
page, print, or whatever, and then they archive your work. Lightroom
has more powerful editing tools right now, but Aperture is more
intuitive for people coming from iPhoto. Aperture, of course, is
'prettier,' being from Apple. I personally use Aperture, although I
nearly switched when it took Apple nearly four months to upgrade the
program to read Nikon D300 raw files -- and then they charged for a
complete software upgrade, even though they had been issuing Canon
upgrades for free on a regular basis. I really hope they do not pull
that stunt again.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor