Aperture/Lightroom2/Expression Media

I have spent the better part of the week working with photo cataloging programs.

I have used iViewMedia Pro for years; which now, unfortunately, belongs to Microsoft. MS has renamed the program, calling it Expression Media. There have been two "updates" since MS bought it. The first one added the MS splash screen and the new name and little else that I could tell. The second one added some bugs and a menu link to the MS version of Google Earth. That is when I decided I had better start looking for cataloging alternatives.

Apple's Aperture was my first choice because it was cheaper than its rival, Adobe's Lightroom, and because Apple makes great software. After giving it several trials over a period of time, I decided that I was never going to feel comfortable with it. The cataloging functions were just too different from Expression Media. I did love the photo enhancement tools Aperture provided, however.

My need for a new program climaxed, finally, after hard week working with Expression Media. I became painfully aware of its shortcomings and the time it was costing me to side step them. I turned to Lightroom 2 for a closer look. Adobe provides some GREAT tutorials that not only reduces the learning curve but helped me feel comfortable with it.

I decided to switchover to it. Any switch of this magniture takes some doing. I won't go into details now but suffice it to say that I have 30,000 digital photos in my catalog and one of the tasks I gave myself in the change over was to clean up the organization of them and take a fresh look at my keywording. I still haven't completed the job, but I can use Lightroom in the meantime.

I'll describe some of my problems later.

Incidentally, I am selling my copy of Aperture. It is registered with Apple. If you are interested I am selling it for $125. It normally sells for $199. I will send you a PayPal invoice and notify Apple of the registration transfer.