Aperture 2 vs. Lightroom 2

should i buy lightroom 6 while they're still selling it without a subscription? i "acquired" 5.x and i like it. facial recognition is the only reason i know of that i want to upgrade to a new version. i assume the cloud version also has a slicker workflow for sharing galleries and getting photo snaps into the library.

I preferred 5 to 6 -- the performance tanked miserably for me with 6. CC is getting better, but obviously the standalone doesn't benefit from that

LR6 feels slower than 5 to me for no clear reason. i needed the upgrade in order to handle the RAW files for my new camera so i guess that's that...

it also adds the ability to go in and futz vertical adjustment, not just take what the algorithm decides (tho what you can do is still a bit constrained) and maybe there are other goodies i can't see...

I went from Lr5 on a budget Toshiba W8.1 laptop to LrCC (what they now call Classic) on a Mac Book Pro, so any slow-down was more than compensated for by a huge leap in hardware performance.

Also like the latest color/luminance range masking in Lr, which I'd only previously seen in something like CaptureOne (it was much nicer to use in there though). Though naturally I still do basically the same shit to every photo I work up (with the occasional round-trip to Ps for content-aware fill, or Silver Efex Pro for B&W), so most new tools are wasted on me.

I think the layout in Lr is a bit tired and mid-'00s now. You shouldn't have to scroll down a massive panel on the right to access all the tools. I don't know how I'd rework the UI, tbh.

"When you said you worked on Aperture, you’d get a sympathetic response. Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that."

choice quote

"Many people, including myself, developed long-term health problems. One person, as I mentioned, had a nervous breakdown, others just took forever to get any spark back in their careers. I would look these people in the eyes, and they had this look like someone close to them died.

An amusing aside was that in my annual review, I got the most substantial bonus I’ve ever gotten and the most significant salary increase. I guess getting yelled and screamed at has its perks. Or they felt guilty. Who knows."

I've been meaning for ages to get off Lightroom CC after it caused me to lose a few hundred images last year, and this week's 5.4 "sorry we deleted your pictures" update has finally prodded me into it.

The Downloader is predictably terrible — I have 500gb (how did I manage that) to download and after an hour it's still sitting at 1%.

I'll figure out where to go next after this. I've been using Lightroom since v1. Capture One seems to be the only serious alternative, right?

i switched from lightroom to apple photos and honestly it's fine for my purposes. the developing side is more than i need. the organization is a little basic but fine. it knows about live photos and all the other weird shit that comes out of an iphone.

Adobe finally updated LR so it remembers which preset you’re on when you step away and come back

Okay so moving to M1 Mac means my old copy of Lightroom no longer works. And I'm not paying for a subscription. Anyone have a recommendation?

Right now I'm tempted to just write a script to make the right folders in the photo library and copy images from the SD card, then use Pixelmator on individual images I give a shit about. (I don't shoot a ton any more, although that will change if my family situation turns out as I expect it to.)

A pro I know swears by Affinity (which is about $60?) but it’s not an organising tool; not sure what else there is for that. I still have a basic version of Capture One knocking around - apparently that can convert Lr catalogs.

I can understand not wanting to give Adobe a tenner a month for the rest of time but I can’t switch, not now. And AI masking in the latest version is really good.

i switched from lightroom to apple photos and it's been fine