Aperture or Photo Shop for RAW stills?

[Olof Ekbergh]

Paul, over the lifetime of Aperture there have been a few problems, with updaters and printing. Just as PSD, and others have had lots of problems.

I have not personally had any problems with Aperture for over a year. Like any Pro program, I am never the first to upgrade the OS or App, when things are stable.

Currently I run the latest Mac OS and Aperture, FCP, M100, Bitvice, CS5 in my three suites, as well as bunch of others like Toast and Squeeze (this is still on 5, works fine). Every thing is running perfectly with my ATTO Raids etc.

In my experience I wait to update anything for a few months unless a program requires the new OS. Then I test it on one system, usually on a new system drive that is a clone of the current system. If that works well I migrate the other suites as well. If not it is easy to go back.

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks Olof,

I am running Mac OS 10.5.8 and FCS 6.0.6. I have not felt a need to upgrade from these two and this is the main use for my Mac Pro. I will have to check and make sure Aperture 3.1 will run on this system with out a problem. Or I could do upgrades since I am between major edits.

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks everyone for the help. I purchased Aperture 3.0 today. Then did the Prokit 5.1 update to bring me to 3.1 for OS 10.5.8.

Tomorrow the learning curve starts with Lynda.com and importing a few RAW files.

[Paul Cronin]

Appreciate all the help here from; Olof, Morton, Robert, and Bill. I completed the Lynda.com 8 hr tutorial on Aperture 3.1 and I am very pleased with my purchase. I now only shoot full size RAW since it is sooo easy to work with the files. The results from the 5D MKII at full RAW are amazing and the results will soon be posted on my site with an the expanded part of my business with picture galleries.

Next to add the HDR plug-in on the apple site.

Any thoughts on plug-ins to speed up time-lapse into FC?

[Richard D. George]

Look into Adobe Lightroom 3 - available in 64 bit. Excellent, and has excellent work flow features. Photoshop (I have CS4) is great for heavy manipulation of specific images, but not great for work flow. I use Lightroom 3 for the majority of RAW image work, and use Photoshop CS4 very infrequently. Lightroom 3 and CS4, both from Adobe, work well together.

Another great feature of Lightroom 3 is it is not destructive (your RAW files stay intact while Lightroom 3 keeps track of your manipulations, and you can export versions to TIFF and JPEG).

Look at it before deciding.

[Paul Cronin]

George I looked into Lightroom 3 and Aperture does everything I need that Lightroom does.

"Another great feature of Lightroom 3 is it is not destructive (your RAW files stay intact while Lightroom 3 keeps track of your manipulations, and you can export versions to TIFF and JPEG)."
Aperture 3.1 does all of this with ease. I see no advantage of Lightroom over Aperture, I thought I made it clear in my post I decided on Aperture over Lightroom for a lot of different reasons.

And Aperture works in 64bit with easy. You can go back to 32bit or only work in 64bit, it is the users choice.

[Richard D. George]

My deep apologies..... I somehow missed the first page of comments.

My first name is Richard...........

[Paul Cronin]

Richard sorry about the name mix up. Appreciate you diving in to help.

[Paul Cronin]

I have added Photomatix software plug in and full versions for HDR and batch processing with time-lapse. Works great and highly recommended it for both. Go to www.HDRguru.com for a 15% discount and check out the details at Photomatix site here. HDR photo software & plugin for Lightroom, Aperture & Photoshop - Tone Mapping, Exposure Fusion & High Dynamic Range Imaging for photography

[Luc De Wandel]

Paul, I'd also give Capture One a try. It's the raw convertor I used for years as a stills photographer, and there's a free trial version on the net.

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks Luc,

I will check it out always nice to know what is on the market. The 5D MKII really is an amazing still camera.

[Luc De Wandel]

I mention it especially because it is one of the best convertors on the market. It is designed by the same people who make the digital backs for Hasselblad, Phase one. And yes, that 5D mkII is a little marvel. Just finished correcting some 800 shots I made yesterday night during a concert, all at 1600 ISO. No noise whatsoever...

[Paul Cronin]

Luc it looks like good software and Phase One seems on their game.

1600 ISO and no noise? Wow that is nice to know I can push the camera that hard at night and have great pictures. So far the highest I have shot is 800 ISO.

Do you use Canon EF L glass?

[Luc De Wandel]

As our main business is concert photography, with available light only, I always use 1600 ISO and it's perfect. My two best lenses for this kind of work are the 24-105 and the 70-200, both EF-L glass.

Only in the case of severe underexposure, where I have to crank up the pic to salvage it, noise comes up. I then use Noiseware Pro to get rid of it. But in 90% of the cases, I can do without any noise reduction software. Attached is a pic of the wonderful Grace Jone, taken with the 5D mkII during her performance in 'The night of the Proms' in Antwerp.

[Paul Cronin]

Nice shot Luc,

Just look at the detail in her hair. I have never see Grace Jone, (is it JONES?) live, was it a good show? Must be fun going to all the live shows. We go to as many local live shows as possible, both being musicians. I also do sound for a local group.

Great to know I can use 1600 ISO I will not hesitate. Must be tough at times if you need to crank up the shutter while at 1600 ISO? Do you have a custom setting that keeps you in the range? All I use is the three custom settings at full RAW.

I do not have the 24-105 but am looking at the 24-70 EF L. Currently I have the EF16-35L f/2.8 II, and EF70-200L f/2.8 IS II and love both of them. The 24-70 would fill the gap nicely. Also have on order the new 2x adapter III. This will be great on the 70-200 while outside when I need the reach.