Digital Media | Spotlight: Photography | Inside Lightroom | Blogs
History Repeats Itself
It seems as though history has repeated itself. Not long after Apple released the first version of Aperture (just over two years ago), Adobe released a public beta of Lightroom to tide people over. And now, not long after Apple released the second full revision of Aperture, Adobe has released the beta of Lightroom 2.0:
And it seems as though a fully functional version of 1.4 should land in the next few weeks… it’s a good time to be a Lightroom user.
After grabbing the beta and giving it a quick spin around the block, I’ve quickly come to realize one thing: the more I play around with it, the harder it will be to go back to 1.3.1 to do actual work: secondary monitor support, localized editing, improved organizational tools, and many other improvements made the cut.
It’s not that touching up your photos in 2.0 isn’t work, but as James Duncan Davidson mentioned, the beta is sandboxed — any adjustments/editing made in the beta will not be migrated to the final catalog. That being said, the more you immerse yourself in the beta the sooner you’ll hit the ground running once the final version is released and — perhaps more importantly — the feedback provided to Adobe will be much more comprehensive.
Comments (7)
Any ideas on how much data from the catalog will go in the xmp files upon exporting?
As xmp is a standard, that would be a way of migrating the catalog, a tedious one maybe... but still a way, no?
I didn't mean exporting... what I meant was saving metadata to file.
I think it's interesting how the two programs are becoming more and more similar.
When Aperture 2 was released the programmers had maximized image size by putting up a tabbed view of projects, metadata, adjustments which means that you have to switch to another tab to go from a organizational view to an editing view. This was, in Aperture 1.x, one of the features Aperture users complained about Lightroom - having to switch modules. Kinda funny that Aperture users now also have to switch "modules".
Aperture 2 also included some of the amazing development features first introduced in Lightroom 1.2.
David,
I'm sorry, but I really have to pull you up on this. There was no 'tide people over' involved in either release. In both cases the release date had been set months in advance. In case you hadn't specifically noticed, the new release was set to coincide with Photoshop World.
As to similar proccessing, it's inevitable. These are the tools photographers are requesting. Lightroom's Local Corrections are non destructive and work on the Original file, whereas Aperture works on a Tiff copy, similar to using 'Edit in Photoshop'.
Mats, I have to correct you. There is no changing of modules in Aperture 2. You're always in editing mode no matter what the tab says.
Perhaps "tide people over" wasn't the proper phrase, but it doesn't change the fact that the releases of Aperture and Lightroom have followed the same pattern for both versions. I'm not by any means saying it's a bad thing; it's just the way it is.
I believe Mats was referring to the merging of the Projects, Metadata, and Adjustments palettes into the left sidebar of Aperture 2. And I agree about the convergence in structure between Aperture and Lightroom. Obviously there will be some differences between the two, but they both exist to accomplish the same task.
For the record, I preferred Aperture's stateless approach where multiple (separate) palettes could be toggled for image adjustments or metadata editing (for example) rather than being forced to display one or the other. But in the end I prefer Lightroom's adjustment tools, and ultimately it's the final product that matters...
I actually much prefer the modular approach. I find Aperture very cluttered.
It's not so bad in full screen mode using shortcuts, but you really have to work to learn them.