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Farewell Aperture
- Thread starter MichaelK81
- Start date
Daniel Bliss
Senior Member
DiploStrat
Leading Member
Seems that the reports of Apple working with Adobe are incorrect.
In any case, it is way too early for any of us to speculate. If Lightroom gives you better results, today, then use it.
I am going to sit tight for a while. None of my images disappeared, my copy of Aperture still runs very fast on a 2007 MacPro. When the dust settles, in a year or two, it will be time to consider everything, up to and including a new Mac.
PAX!
robgendreau
Forum Pro
It was Adobe that was quoted as working with Aperture users to make the transition easier. Don't know that you can read much of anything into that, as Adobe has been competing with Aperture to gain users for years.
Since many users here are either people who make at least some income from photos, or are heavily invested in photography as a hobby, I find the comments about sticking with Apple rather strange. Reread the OP and comments before the Aperture obituary: the common thread is that Apple doesn't seem to be interested in the dpreviewer niche market. She doesn't love you anymore; move on.
The choice of one particular software program for a DAM is not analogous to the choice of an editor: you can use PS, Pixelmator, Photogene, ACD, GIMP, etc etc for that and produce interchangeable files and it doesn't matter much if one goes kaput. You might have to relearn some stuff, and maybe lose some settings and plugins. But if you commit tons of edits to a database that cannot be migrated to another database, you are seriously painting yourself into a corner. You can export edited product, but you still lose a lot in the process.
So LR fans should take this as a warning as well. I began moving over a long time ago, and accelerated that a year ago when it became clear Aperture was either going nowhere or possibly morphing into something completely different, but even now I wonder if that was smart. I don't think it very likely that LR would disappear. But what if a DAM product came by that was superior to LR, or that added a key functionality that I absolutely had to have, but didn't exist in LR (multiuser, storage on a NAS, speed, etc etc)? What if you have to move to a different operating system (another reason why I had to start making the switch a while ago? Sheesh, I may end up moving a bunch of stuff into Photos on Yosemite even if it isn't a superior DAM, just for all the stuff I accumulate on my iPhone, or for editing or sharing purposes.
No software is guaranteed permanence (occasionally it may resurrect itself, however, cf ACD's Canvas for Mac). The best you can do is create workflows, backup plans, and archive that take this kind of disruption into account. So you don't get caught out again.
Since many users here are either people who make at least some income from photos, or are heavily invested in photography as a hobby, I find the comments about sticking with Apple rather strange. Reread the OP and comments before the Aperture obituary: the common thread is that Apple doesn't seem to be interested in the dpreviewer niche market. She doesn't love you anymore; move on.
The choice of one particular software program for a DAM is not analogous to the choice of an editor: you can use PS, Pixelmator, Photogene, ACD, GIMP, etc etc for that and produce interchangeable files and it doesn't matter much if one goes kaput. You might have to relearn some stuff, and maybe lose some settings and plugins. But if you commit tons of edits to a database that cannot be migrated to another database, you are seriously painting yourself into a corner. You can export edited product, but you still lose a lot in the process.
So LR fans should take this as a warning as well. I began moving over a long time ago, and accelerated that a year ago when it became clear Aperture was either going nowhere or possibly morphing into something completely different, but even now I wonder if that was smart. I don't think it very likely that LR would disappear. But what if a DAM product came by that was superior to LR, or that added a key functionality that I absolutely had to have, but didn't exist in LR (multiuser, storage on a NAS, speed, etc etc)? What if you have to move to a different operating system (another reason why I had to start making the switch a while ago? Sheesh, I may end up moving a bunch of stuff into Photos on Yosemite even if it isn't a superior DAM, just for all the stuff I accumulate on my iPhone, or for editing or sharing purposes.
No software is guaranteed permanence (occasionally it may resurrect itself, however, cf ACD's Canvas for Mac). The best you can do is create workflows, backup plans, and archive that take this kind of disruption into account. So you don't get caught out again.
Easier said than done. How do you suggest one creates a workflow that is independent from the software used?
robgendreau
Forum Pro
The idea of a workflow independent of the DAM software is, unfortunately, to negate one of the nice features of a DAM: its ability to do non-destructive editing and store versions in a database. Not the only nice feature of a DAM, however.
That means that you do what people have been doing forever with computers: you store a whole version of a file in the file system, rather than simply a set of instructions about how to edit that file.
Yes, it takes up space. And there is some duplication. But even though photo files keep getting bigger, storage keeps getting cheaper. My acquisition of an SSD meshed with this; the use of virtual editions of images and smart previews and whatnot, coupled with a DAM on the SSD, gave me a bit more speed. But since I needed to offload big files to save space anyway, it wasn't that tough to now export all the time, rather than just leave the data in the DAM.
Of course easy for me, as you note; I had to work with most images outside Aperture anyway, so I already did tons of exporting in place. Someone with everything wrapped up only in Aperture has some work to do, and I don't mean to minimize that.
In short, it means I use LR more as a photo processor, and Finder alternative, not as storage receptacle for the majority of edits.
That means that you do what people have been doing forever with computers: you store a whole version of a file in the file system, rather than simply a set of instructions about how to edit that file.
Yes, it takes up space. And there is some duplication. But even though photo files keep getting bigger, storage keeps getting cheaper. My acquisition of an SSD meshed with this; the use of virtual editions of images and smart previews and whatnot, coupled with a DAM on the SSD, gave me a bit more speed. But since I needed to offload big files to save space anyway, it wasn't that tough to now export all the time, rather than just leave the data in the DAM.
Of course easy for me, as you note; I had to work with most images outside Aperture anyway, so I already did tons of exporting in place. Someone with everything wrapped up only in Aperture has some work to do, and I don't mean to minimize that.
In short, it means I use LR more as a photo processor, and Finder alternative, not as storage receptacle for the majority of edits.
Mark Alan Thomas
Leading Member
Sorry to crush your hopes, but did I miss some big fanfare from Apple announcing this awesome Aperture replacement you think you're getting?
Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
Crush my hopes? By fabricating prognostications out of thin air? You wish. If you knew anything about Apple, you'd know they don't pre announce new apps. They gave us a hint of Photos. We'll have to wait find out what it really is. Maybe it's nothing, and Apple really is going to abandon Aperture pros. But, until we have some actual facts, your gleeful cries of doom, like those of many generations of Apple haters before, are nothing but ill will and hot air.
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www.jacquescornell.photography
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Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
Mark Alan Thomas
Leading Member
You mean except for Photos?
I'm not trying to be mean here, but Apple is done with the pro photography market. They've shown their hand. To Apple, the iPhone is the only camera that matters, and I'm willing to wager that Apple will kill broader OS-level Camera Raw support shortly after officially ending Aperture support. It's time for Aperture users to move on.
I've been using Macs since 1988.
I think your trust in Apple is overwhelming, if not a little naive. Why would they officially announce the demise of Aperture, and not assure professionals that they will get something even better, if that is their intention with Core Image? Unlike you, professional photographers cannot wait and just hope something good will come out of this. Each day they have to decide whether or not they should still add more images to their Aperture library and spend time developing raw images, wasting valuable time if they have to do that work all over again in Lightroom or another application. So now Apple finally told them not to wait for Aperture upgrades anymore. Aperture is dead. What do you think professional Aperture users will do? It would be utterly stupid if Apple thought professional photographers will now sit back and happily wait for some wonderwful new Photo app, scheduled to appear next year... They won't, because they can't take that chance. By the time this wonderful Photo app is introduced, there will be very few, if any, professional photographers still using Aperture.
BTW: also selfie shooters can use high end Macs. They are professionals in others fields than photography, so they could use high end Macs for other reasons than photography.
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Johan
http://www.johanfoto.com
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Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
They did not announce Photos. They hinted at it.
So you keep saying, with unfounded certitude. They never show all their cards.
And yet, FCP X.
I'll take that wager, 10:1. Ten bucks? It'll be the easiest $10 I ever made.
First of all, if they do that, how will Photos work?
Second, you've clearly not been paying attention. Apple is radically transforming their Core Image RAW processing engine, making it available to third-party devs, and even enabling them to inject custom kernels and filters into the engine to address the linear data. It's also building in support for a second graphics card.
Third, they're building this new Core Image architecture into both OS X and iOS. There's no way in hell they're doing all this work on a RAW engine just to toss it in a year.
See the WWDC video called "Advances in Core Image", already shared by other posters, here:
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developer.apple.com
Mark Alan Thomas
Leading Member
joger
Veteran Member
Mark Alan Thomas
Leading Member
I think it's safe to assume that Apple will continue to improve the iPhone camera in ways which will benefit from multiple CPU and GPU cores.
Jacques Cornell
Forum Pro
I'm bored. You're committed to gloom & doom. Go ahead, pretend the situation is simple, when it isn't, and you know all the relevant facts, when you're ignoring the inconvenient ones. Woe is me. Apple screwed me again. Naughty, naughty Apple. Abandoning photographers. Milking every last penny from iPhones. They care about nothing but money. Nothing good will ever come from them again.
If that's what it takes to make you swallow Lightroom, here, have another spoonful of sugar.
Me, I'm not taking any medicine until I actually get sick.
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www.jacquescornell.photography
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