Adobe Lightroom
So far I’ve used Apple Aperture for archival of my photos because I like the interface and its mode of organizing the library. However, I find it has become slower and slower. Also, there seems to be a bug preventing me from using metadata templates. There are no global post-processing presets. In addition, the RAW converter for Nikon NEF files isn’t overwhelming, especially in low-light situations. Therefor, I’ve used Nikon Capture NX as a converter for critical images and I’ve imported the resulting TIFF files for archival into Aperture. Capture NX is the best RAW converter for Nikon NEF files in my oppinion.
Some weekd ago, I’ve added Adobe Lightroom to my workflow. Lightroom has a great RAW converter too. Lightroom allows you to use the camera calibration for developing RAW files. It also has the advantage of global post-processing presets which I like to use as it’s very easy and fast to apply these presets. Keywording and use of other metadata (including templates) is very easy. Developing is non-destructive as in Aperture.
The transition from Aperture to Lightroom isn’t too painful as I organize all my RAW files into date/project folders on my harddisk in addition to the Aperture library (which is separately backuped). I always use backups of the RAW files on two different external drives. Here’s a nice list of tricks for using Lightroom.
As for Aperture, there a are a lot of plug-ins for Lightroom. Here are my favourites:
- LR2/Mogrify is a Lightroom plug-in that allows you to add borders, watermarks and text annotations to your images.
- LR2/Blog is a Lightroom export plug-in that allows you to export your images directly to your blog.
- Export to Flickr Lightroom Plugin