Macworld has a nice, long comparison between Apple’s Aperture and Adobe’s LightRoom. I haven’t read the entire article yet and here’s a little taste:
Which is right for you?
Aperture and Lightroom are both well-designed applications. Aperture will appeal most to photographers who largely compose in-camera and want an application that will make quick work of culling images. The program offers better options for importing and storing your photos, and its project structure is better tuned than Lightroom’s collections- and folder-based approach. While the simplicity and power of Lightroom’s Develop module may seem like a big deal, in reality I was able to get the images I wanted from both programs. When you factor in Aperture’s excellent Web and Book modes and integration with Apple’s iLife suite, it’s clear that this is the more mature product. It may take you longer to feel comfortable in Aperture, but once you are, you’ll be happy with the breadth of its features.
That said, Lightroom is no slouch. For a version-1.0 program, it offers an impressive collection of features. Despite a few rough edges, Lightroom gives you much of the same functionality as Aperture, and has an excellent image-editing engine with an intuitive and effective set of tools. If you already have a structured workflow, and pixel editing is your primary concern, Lightroom may be the better fit.
I use both programs quite a lot. I love Aperture for its system of organizing images yet I prefer LightRoom’s develop module. I wish I could crazy glue the two together. Better read the article to see what will suite you better.
You know what? Just buy both (J&R is still selling LightRoom for $199 at the store itself).
