Jun
13
(2006)
Outgrowing iPhoto
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: iphoto, lightroom, photography, software.
I've been a pretty hardcore iPhoto user since the app was originally released several years ago. It's a pretty clean app, and has done everything I've needed of a photo management app. But, lately, I've been feeling like it's a little constraining. The photo retouching tools are a bit simple, and the viewing tools require a fair amount of manual intervention.
I made the mistake of viewing the Aperture online demo video over the weekend, and realized a more advanced app would really be nicer. My home machine can't run Aperture, so I downloaded the latest beta of Adobe Lightroom and imported all of the images I've taken with the XT.
The interface is quite good - it's really different from iPhoto's more modal interface, providing drawers to get at deeper functionality without adding clutter, and having keystrokes for just about everything. I'll be playing with it more over the next week or so to see how it fits. Not sure how far I want to go down that road, though, considering it's beta software, and the final price has yet to be determined.
Adobe Lightroom Beta 3 - Gallery View: A screenshot of the cleaned up Adobe Lightroom Beta 3 gallery view - with some sidepanels hidden.
It's lacking some of the things I like about iPhoto (export to Flickr, set desktop, calendar view, etc…) but the more refined features it has may be worth it. The web exports are pretty sweet, too - including a pretty high-end flash website. I made a quick sample of a few photos I took around campus.
I'm a total photo software noob, so will be taking my time to get familiar with Lightroom, but it should be fun…
Comments
3 Responses to “Outgrowing iPhoto”
That flash site is pretty nifty, I will admit.
I've used both Aperture & Lightrooom - though obviously my investment in Aperture is higher (having actually purchased a copy), I find it a much nicer product to use with large photosets.
The biggest thing about Lightroom is probably that in Aperture you can do serious stuff with just thumbnails, (organisation, stacking, so on), then hit V to bring up (down?) the viewer. Then hit V to make it go away again. Plus much larger range of "zoom" levels on the thumbnails. Plus I've probably become a lot more fluent with the various keyboard shortcuts there
However, one thing that I love about both products is the non-destructive RAW editing, and I should really give Beta 3 another try.
I have yet to find a program that works good and has everything I want. I do like your gallery.
for flickr exporting from lightroom (via uploadr)…
check out http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060925191354173
cheers