Hmmmm.. Kelly, certainly your work by example is about as high an endorsement as one might need.

I may have to check out the beta here and give Lightroom a spin again.

Lightroom’s local adjustments are stored with the RAW file as metadata, meaning you can go back and adjust them later, this allows users to remain in a truly non-destructive RAW workflow. Aperture requires you to first generate a TIFF file to perform local editing functions. There is a big difference.

Thomas – as a current ACR/Bridge user, I’d say that you are about a 20 minute demo away from seeing the light. Bridge/ACR/PS used to be my workflow too, but after learning Lightroom, I couldn’t imagine going back.

Agreed. Competition is always a good thing and the consumer wins in the end.

I did try Aperture about two years ago and liked it for the most part. I stopped using it though when I learned that it did not have vignette controls. I understand that they have added this in now which is great.

I might try Aperture again at some point. I haven’t yet for a few reasons.

1. Don’t want to pay to buy it when I have a perfectly good solution with Bridge/Photoshop today.

2. Don’t want to spend the time learning it after I already know Bridge/Photoshop reasonably well.

Unless Aperture can offer me something sensational that Bridge/Photoshop can’t, I’m just not that motivated to spend time with it right now.

That said, I’m sure Aperture is an awesome program and know lots of people who use it and love it.

I think the Aperture vs. Lightroom thing is akin to the Canon vs. Nikon thing. Neither really is that much better than the other, but once you pick one and invest money and time in that system you will be unlikely to switch in the future for minor advantages one may have over the other at any given time.

Both are great programs and very capable…it’s just a matter of which one fits your workflow best. For myself, I love Aperture and have always preferred it’s free flowing, non-moduler approach but Lightroom’s speed and array of develop tools took the edge up until the release of Aperture 2.0. Now I’m happy to say that I am back to Aperture and plan to stay there. I have a feeling these two programs will be in healthy competition for a long time to come which is great for us photograpers-choices are always good!