So here is the issue. I want to create a smart collection in Lightroom where I get all the photos from another collection that have either of two keywords. For a recent shoot, after pulling all the rejects, I created a collection of these images that spans a couple of days. The was a gymnastics event that my kids happened to be in. They were only a small part of the 3000 images that I took, but they were in specific sections of the show, so I found them and keyworded them. Now, how to create a smart collection of these images.

Well, that didn’t work. Notice the drop down for “Match”. If you set it to “any” then you get all images from the Spring Show collection. If you set it to “all”, the images have to have both Kate and Lily tags. I was stumped. Then I found that there is a little trick. Press and hold the Option/Alt key. Notice that the plus signs next to the rules turn into a hash sign. Now when you press that hash sign, you get to define rules that operate independent of the first Match drop down.

Now we get what we want. We first match on the “Spring Show” collection, then we match if either of the keywords belong to an image.

You could use this any number of ways.

My first photography “library” program was Aperture 1.5. I bought it right about the time I got my first DSLR, the Nikon D40. I wanted to shoot raw, and needed something to process the images. I wanted to be able to file, sort and tag my images. I set out to evaluate Lightroom and Aperture. My results were here.

Aperture was working will for me, but then I got a little more demanding in my image processing, and that’s were I ran into trouble. Now, I am sure there are others that were incredibly happy with the editing tools in Aperture 2, but I wasn’t. I started to process the images that I most cared about by opening them in Photoshop. Then I decided I wanted to use Camera Raw, and needed to go find the actual NEF file first to open it in Adobe Camera Raw before opening them in Photoshop. I didn’t often need to use Photoshop layers and such, but I did every once in a while. Mostly I just like using Camera Raw.

That’s when I discovered that Camera Raw was the engine behind Lightroom. It was a library and UI with Camera Raw doing the image manipulation. Hmmmm…. So I did a trial of Lightroom, and then bought a copy of Lightroom 2. I was still using Aperture 2 for some things like Books, which Lightroom doesn’t have an answer for.

Now, I was fairly happy with Lightroom 2, but when Apple announced Aperture 3, I was thinking I might be headed back. The upgrade price wasn’t too much, so I went for it. I should have just done a trial. I had issues with it right from the start, but maybe you won’t. I will try to compare the two programs, only bringing up my issues with Aperture 3 at the end.

So, here I will try to compare what I like and don’t like about Aperture 3 and Lightroom Beta 3. For this comparison, I use past experience, and two events that I did where I processed a wedding on Aperture 3, and another party on Lightroom 3 beta.

1) To start with, I still like the library organization of Aperture better. I like folders. I like being able to group projects, books, slide shows and whatever else into a folder. It keeps things together. I had got used to the collection method of Lightroom, and how separate it keeps these virtual folders from the actual image location. For a while I thought it seemed fine, but when I went back to try Aperture 3, I realized I missed it.

2) In the beginning I was put off by the Modules in Lightroom. I felt that it was a bit restrictive. In reality, it was just fine. I got used to it quickly. Now in Lightroom 3 Beta, you have more access to your images in the Develop module (collections), so that area is improving as well. The floating Inspector in full screen mode in Aperture is pretty nice though. Full screen mode in Lightroom is a great feature, but I wish it had a floating window like Aperture. Yes you can remove all the other side bars, but it’s not the same.

3) I still like the Develop Module of Lightroom better than Adjustments in Aperture. Aperture 3 is much improved. Some of the deficiencies in V2 to Lightroom was the gradient tool, brushes, and presets. Aperture 3 added the brushes and presets which was welcomed. I still feel that I can adjust an image to better results with brightness, clarity and a touch of vibrance than I can in Aperture with exposure, definition, and a touch of vibrancy.

4) Brushes are a great Aperture 3 addition, however I find it much easier to add and adjust presets in Lightroom. I like the ability in Lightroom to adjust the brushes. I have presets, but I can tweak them as I would like. I have not figured that out in Aperture yet. I also just like how Adobe has laid out out the menu system for applying presets and brushes better. To me, the masking in Lightroom seems better than in Aperture. It might be subjective, because I wasn’t using the same images, but it just seemed to work better in Lightroom on the images I used it with. Also, I use the graduated filter on sky’s all the time. This is something that Aperture should implement.

5) I like the ability to move the linear points on the histogram in Aperture. I would often pull in the endpoints on an image that maybe didn’t get shot with quite enough light range.  I missed this in Lightroom, but after figuring out how to use the tonal curve, it is probably a wash, but moving endpoints in a little bit in Aperture is really easy. On the other hand, I am starting to use the ability in the Tone Curve and some of the other blocks to adjust while moving the mouse on the image. That way you select the tones you want to adjust, and Lightroom moves the tone curve. That is pretty cool. That was there in Lightroom 2.

6) Books. Aperture has, Lightroom doesn’t. Some people don’t care, but I like the layout engine in Aperture. I wish it had a few more features, and made it easier to export to my own book printer, but that may come. There is now the ability to for plug-ins to work with it. It would be nice to be able to create custom templates that you can save off, but there are only really hacks for this that involve saving copy’s of existing books, and swapping out pictures. I do use the book feature, and if I am sticking with Lightroom, will still keep Aperture around for this function.

7) Printing. Lightroom has been much better than Aperture in this regard. The print module in Lightroom 2 is great, and is a little improved in Lightroom 3 beta. I don’t print much from my own machines, but I have used it to create print layouts and print packages that I have exported to jpegs that I have had printed elsewhere. You have great control over layout with Lightroom. There are a few tricks to getting it to work. I was glad that I had purchased Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Photographers by Scott Kelby.  Aperture 2 has very basic printing ability. You couldn’t print different images on the same page. Aperture 3 has improved the printing ability, but I still don’t think it can match Lightroom. If you print a lot of your own images, you should probably look into this a bit more.

8 ) Slide shows. Lightroom 3 beta added the ability to match the time of the slide show to the length of the song. It will automatically adjust the length of each slide to match the song. this is very cool. Aperture 3 has a feature that allows you to press a button in real time to adjust the length of time the image is displayed. This sounds better than it works in real life for me. Maybe I just need more practice. On the other hand, the control you now have over the Ken Burns theme is amazing. You drag rectangles (like cropping rectangles) on the screen to specify the start and end sizing for each individual image (if you want) to get great control on how the image moves and expands. This works really well. This extra control is definitely a plus over the slide shows that Lightroom supports.

9) Web Galleries. I can’t say much about this. I keep thinking that I will use these features, but I don’t. I end up exporting my images and using custom javascript or using gallery software like Zenphoto. I end up exporting my images and FTP’ing the images myself. I have played with the built in galleries a bit, and some of the galleries that Lightroom has look pretty nifty. Neither seemed to have the perfect gallery for me. I looked at the effort it would take to create a custom gallery, and it looks like some are available for Lightroom  and that it would be the easier of the two to actually create a custom one.

10) Because I don’t use the web galleries, I need to get my images somewhere. To do that, you need to export them. There were several places I would put images, including Flickr, Facebook, and websites. With Aperture 2, I would export images separately, then use the Flickr uploader. With Lightroom 2, I found a Flickr plugin that I could use to upload the images directly. One of the issues though, is trying to keep track of images that you had already uploaded. I tried to add a flickr keyword to my images, but often I would forget. Aperture 3 and Lightroom 3 beta have improved upon this situation. They now let you create a linked folder/collection to these services. This allows you to see what has been uploaded, revise flickr images (with pro account), and sync new images. Unfortunately both programs give you very little control or options. I would like to be able to specify a set, for example when uploading to Flickr. Another issue that I had was with watermarking. I would on export use a plugin to put my name and a border on my images. Lightroom 3 has improved it’s exporting function so that you can apply watermarks whenever you export now. That is welcome.

11) Faces and Places. Aperture wins her. I don’t know how many professional photographers will want to use Faces. I find it a nifty tech, but haven’t committed to it. Probably because I haven’t committed to Aperture. I apply tags to photos of family members names right now. For my other work, I don’t tag them with names. I think it would be a better way for dealing with family photos though. The GPS integration is another story. I have yet to get a GPS device because it seemed like such a hassle to deal with the GPS data. Lightroom does have a couple of plug-ins, but I haven’t tried them. Aperture is the first with a out of the box solution. I imported some iPhone pictures, and also tagged some of my other pictures on a map. I thought it worked well. I like the map view. I think this is a great step. I would definitely think about getting a GPS unit if I am using Aperture long term.

12) Video is slowly starting to become more a part of a DSLR shooters workflow. I was quite excited to see that Apple has started to address this. It works pretty well. Aperture imports the clips with your other photos, and applies your metadata. While viewing your images, you are able to view video clips, and can even adjust the start and end points. What would be fabulous is if you could adjust the clips. Right now no editing is possible. Lightroom Beta 2 has a first glimpse at dealing with video. Before this second beta, Lightroom would tell me that it had files it couldn’t import. Then I had to go move them to another location my self. I have forgotten to do that more than once, before formatting the card. Lightroom’s version doesn’t allow you to view the files or trim them. They will open in a default player however. Better than nothing. I have seen a demo of how CS4 Extended will allow you to take an adjustment layer an apply that to all frames in the video, even as the objects move through the frame. That would be super cool to see in a future Lightroom version.

Ok, so where am I at? First of all, Aperture is almost unusable for me. It is very frustrating. I get distorted images, where they turn green, or pixelated, or have a big X across them. This started when I was using Aperture 2, and from what I have heard on the web, was probably about the time I upgraded to Leopard. I still  have issues with V3. I haven’t used it as much lately because of it, but it seems like the issue is becoming less frequent.

Second, Aperture 3 is slower than Lightroom 3 beta. Especially on images that have used the new brushes. I have a 3gig 2.2 iMac. It’s almost a couple of years old. I am careful to close all that I can when I am running Aperture or Lightroom, but the issue is most obvious on Aperture. The computer becomes unresponsive. It appears to be processing something, but there is no message, and no ability to interact with the program.

I still feel more comfortable with, and feel like I can get better results using the develop module from Lightroom, and it’s brushes than I can with Apertures adjustment panel and it’s brushes.

To me, Aperture wins some of the “extra” categories like Faces, Places, Books, and handling of video. There are also some parts of the library functions I like better with Aperture, such as the combining of items into folders. I am getting used to how to use Collections in Lightroom however, and I am liking the key wording area too. One little nicety of Lightroom is the little arrows to the right of items in the library. These arrows usually bring up some extra information. The ones I like the best are the ones dealing with files and the file system. When in a collection, if I want to see the Lightroom folder where this image came from (if I am looking for other similar ones) there is a button next to “folder” that will take you right there.

So right now, I fell like I want to use Aperture, but will be sticking with Lightroom, and upgrading to v3 when it comes out. I will be keeping Aperture around for using the books feature. You may have different conclusions, but those are mine.

If you have a Mac, I recommend giving each a solid couple of weeks of a free trial with real images, and see how things go. You get to make your own decision.

I came across some free presets some time ago, but didn’t really give them a try until a couple of days ago. They are the free presets by On One Software, called WOW. These were developed for On One by Jack Davis. There are two sets of presets that come in one installer. One set gives you a bunch of color correction presets and one click tone and other color adjustments. The other set gives effects like Antique and special gradients. I kind of like them. One thing that is nice with how presets work in Lightroom, is that the Navigator gives a fast realtime preview of the effect before it is applied. The downside is that the preview is really small, and I end up trying presets and then “undo-ing” a lot.

The image above shows the ‘Antique’ preset. I toned down the exposure a bit. Added a vignette, and voila.

There are also some adjustment brush presets. Those are really neat. Some of the brushes that come with this set are for skin softening, and teeth whitening. They work pretty well I think. Much faster than doing it in Photoshop. For me, anyway. I found that the preset for lightening the irises was too much on the pictures I was testing with. No problem, you can play with the brush settings yourself and tweak the look after you have painted the brush. Even better, you can “scrub” the adjustment. If you are in the edit mode, hold your mouse over the pin, click, then drag right or left to adjust. This works like magic. Watch the sliders and they will all move in different amount proportional to what is there when you start. This works to push up and down the effect very nicely.

The effect you see above is a brush. The Wow-Background Blowout brush. The brush does quite a good job around the hair and dress when the ‘auto mask’ brush is on. I think if I took more care it could have been even better, but with just a couple of minutes, it cleaned up the window shade background quite a bit. If you haven’t tried brush presets before, you should give them a try.

If you don’t know where the brush presets are… head over to the develop module, and select the brush tool. There is a label called ‘Effect:’ and beside it the effect drop down. There are a few that come with lightroom, but here is also where the Wow ones would show up.

Aperture Screen Shot

I did a trial of Lightroom and Aperture a couple of years ago. They were both pre 2.0, but I don’t remember the exact versions. I picked Aperture. The need to switch modules in Lightroom was giving me frustrations, and the library function seemed to be stronger in Aperture. At the time, I hadn’t used Photoshop much, and had no experience with Camera Raw. These things had me leaning to Aperture. In the time since I have been fairly happy with it, but there hasn’t been an update in quite some time.

Since I last used Lightroom there have been several updates to the develop module that is backed by Camera Raw. The ability to paint adjustments and graduated filter effects sounded really cool. Also, my favorite technical camera book writer, Scott Kelby, has a Lightroom 2 book. This brings up my other beef with Aperture. Not really Apples fault, but because of the smaller audience, there are far fewer people blogging and writing books about it. Maybe Aperture is so much more intuitive that no one needs to explain anything. But then again, I just found out a couple of weeks ago that you could save individual book pages as jpegs.

Lightroom Library Module

Lightroom Folders

So, I decided to get Scott’s book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Photographers, and give Lightroom a 30 day trial. I am not sure that it was a good idea. Not that the time was a waste of time. Far from it. Now I have something else that I want to spend $300 on.

So, first of all, I should say that that the separate modules don’t bother me anymore. Probably because I really only use 2, and once you get down to it, you still have to switch between library and developing type functions in Aperture. I had thought that the library functions, how you arrange, sort and keyword your photos, was better in Aperture. That is not really the case with Lightroom 2. One thing I like about Apertures file structure, is that you can store virtual folders and smart folders inside the original downloaded structure. When you look at the interface, it appears that a book, or smart folder is inside the folder where the master photos live. It helps keep things all together. With Lightroom, you have two separate views, one of the hard drive folders, and one of collections. Collections are an organizing structure where you can move pointers to your files. Whether the file is the on the hard drive view, or in a collection or smart collection, it is the same image. You can use them to say hold only your best images from a shoot, or the best images from several shoots grouped together. I think this will work our fine, just takes some getting used to.
Both Lightroom and Aperture allow you to flag, color tag, rate, and keyword tag your photos. Lightroom allows you to flag any photo, while Aperture will only let you pick one image from a stack or a project. The key-wording now seems better than Aperture. Both allow you to create keyword sets, but Lightroom has more key wording possibilities. Lightroom will actually try to suggest keywords for you. Pretty cool. The suggestions, sets, and keyword list just seems better contained. I don’t really like Apertures keywords floating overlay.

I like the metadata handling better too. I find the different metadata lists or filters in Aperture confusing. Especially trying to edit them. There is a separate way to handle what is shown vs what can be automatically filled in, and I still don’t have it figured out. Presets in Lightroom work just fine. I like the little buttons at the side of some of the items too. Two of the best are a button that shows you in lightroom other items taken on the same date, and a button that takes you to the folder where the image is contained. It pisses me off not having that in Aperture. I find my self looking at a smart folder with pictures from all over, and wondering what else was taken at that time. Lightroom +1.

One of the things I really liked about Aperture is the library filter. The ability to find pictures by just about any type of metadata, rating, or date is pretty cool. Lightroom manages to do it one better. The grid view in the Library has an even better way to drill down to the images you are looking for. As you select an item, the next items you can select from are updated live to only have the available choices. Very cool. You can then save your searches as presets. I would like the ability that Aperture has to save them as a smart collection. To create a smart collection requires a different not so cool interface.

Lightroom Library Filter

At first it seemed like Aperture did a better job of letting you see a full screen view of the image, but there are easy short cuts to remove the panels (tab) and lights out mode that dims or makes the screen black showing only the picture. Very neat. I have also grown tired of the loupe in Aperture. I like Lightroom’s ability to just zoom the whole picture, and then allow you to pan within it. It seems faster than the loupe does, which can beach ball my machine.

Aperture Adjustments

The ability to customize the views in Lightroom is astounding. You can collapse just about everything, and they all have keyboard shortcuts that you can use to bring them back. The only thing better would be if you had the ability to save as a preset, your favorite configurations and cycle through them with a key press.

We now get to the Develop module in Lightroom. If you use Camera Raw, you will be right at home. I still haven’t used it all that much, but have been trying to understand it more. Apertures Adjustments panel works much differently. There are many of the same ideas though. I find the camera raw backed Lightroom tools much better. I just feel like I can adjust the parts of the image I want better without as much messing around. The Tone Curve panel is amazing. I feel there is much better control over separate tones in your image that I can manage to get in Aperture. Maybe I just need someone to show me. Something that is very cool, is that panels like in the Tone Curve and the Hue/Saturation panel, you can click and drag on an area in the image to adjust that tone or color. Sweet.

I also like the whole histogram thing in LIghtroom. I like the arrows that indicate when the picture is lacking detail in blacks or lights. Simply clicking on the arrows shows the areas on your image in red that may be problem areas. Simple.

I still haven’t even talked about gradients, the adjustment brush, or masks. I still haven’t even had time to look into them. Maybe tomorrow I have only just played with the Slideshow, Print, and Web modules, but I have only barely played with those things in Aperture. The one thing I would miss about Aperture is the books. I have been using books quite a bit, and really like the layout tools. It is not perfect, and I sometimes wish for more flexibility, but for me, that is a big hole.

Lightroom Develop Panel

I haven’t played with presets much yet, but the concept is something I have wanted in Aperture for some time. I wanted the ability to make some adjustments and then save them so that they could be applied to multiple photos. You can kind of do this with the Lift and Stamp tools, but they can’t be saved for one click access. You would have to search for a photo saved with these and then Lift and Stamp. The tool also doesn’t have the granularity that I want when copying these settings. I was very happy to see that Lightroom will let you individually select just about everything that you can set with it’s copy function. Lightroom also has the ability to batch sync these settings. Because of these presets, you can even configure Lightroom to apply these settings on import or export.

The one thing that I have been trying to do without much success is to export an image with an exact size, say no larger than 800×800, but with a border and my name in the corner. Not sure if this is possible without a plugin. That is my issue at the moment. I relied on an Aperture plugin called BorderFX to do this. There may be a Lightroom plugin to do this, but I don’t have one right now.

So, if you can’t tell from all that, I would be leaning to Lightroom if I hadn’t bought Aperture first. Even with Aperture, I am thinking of getting Lightroom. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are many more blogs, books and users of Lightroom that can help you along the way. That alone would easily swing a tie. A last thing that are frustrating with Aperture is sending images to Photoshop for an HDR or Panorama. You can’t. You have to find the containing folder, find the images in Bridge, and then open them from there. Not the easiest process. It prevents me from even doing it at all. With Lightroom, it is an export option. Sold.

Update: See comparison of newer versions here.