I am currently migrating across from PC platform to Mac - wondering why I waited so long - but also curious to know how others integrate use of iPhoto with Lightroom and Photoshop.
All my photos are still on my PC and I haven't got round to figuring if I should import them to iPhoto or Lightroom.
Previously I have imported images from my camera straight into Lightroom and used PS for any "advanced" processing. I don't really know iPhoto yet - it seems to overlap a lot with LR for cataloguing and storing images, but has less image manipulation capability.
On the other hand, I hope to be able to take advantage of the powerful "time machine" back-up and synchronisation capabilities and don't know if I will miss these if I don't use iPhoto.
iPhoto is similar to Lightroom, but as you say iPhoto is not so geared up for processing. If you are using LR on PC you might want to keep with it (it's cross-platform, so no need to change). iPhoto will come free with the Mac and is a nice program, so you can always try it out at no loss.
Time machine can back up everything on your hard drive -- settings, files, programs, the lot! -- so nothing to miss by using non-Mac software.
Gerald- I'm a Mac user and have tried several workflow options including LR, Aperture, Bridge, iPhoto and Photoshop. Ultimately my choice has come down to iView Media Pro- now called Microsoft Expression Media (EM) for Digital Asset Management- and Photoshop for image processing. Here are the reasons:
1. Combo keeps digital asset management (DAM) and image processing separate. EM has some rudimentary image processing capabilities but not worth using as far as I'm concerned.
2. Combo is efficient because you are not using DAM software that has advanced processing capabilities (such as LR and Aperture) thus avoiding redundancy.
3. EM is fast and very powerful in terms of all the things you need to do with your images that isn't processing (e.g., importing, watched folders and auto-updating, keywording and metadata and searching, cataloguing, viewing and comparing images, copying files, batch renames, format conversions, slide shows etc). iPhoto, although nice, does not come close to EM in DAM capabilities.
4. Once you are ready to process you can then easily open the file in your processor of choice and do all your processing (single or batch) and version management there.
I use Aperture for DAM and quick and easy processing. When a new camera comes out I also use NX2 while Apple develops the code to read the new NEF files.
iPhoto has some unique ways to catalog photos and it might be that if one does a lot of people photos the new face recognition capabilities in iPhoto 09 might be useful.
I just use LR and PS - haven't done anything much with iPhoto. It seems a step below Aperture which is Apple's LR equivalent. It's probably just a habit having moved from LR and PS under Windows, I have kept the same workflow under Mac and seen no need to involve iPhoto.
just my two cents, forget about iPhoto. With LR and PS you have more than you need. LR can cover about 90% of your needs and to me iPhoto looks more like those free softwares that come with your DSLR. Enjoy your iMac, I have one of the latest 24" and it's a wonderful machine. If you then add time capsule, you can forget about backing-up.
Thanks for all your responses - they have helped me to clarify my thoughts. Opinion seems to be squarely on ignoring iPhoto and staying with the LR/PS workflow.
John, I like the idea of a dedicated DAM program, but having recently upgraded to LR2, I am minded to stay with that. Greater redundancy by ditching it at this point!
Looks like I will be approaching Adobe for a cross-platform upgrade to PS4!
I was an early PC user way back when and have been reluctant to re-learn with a Mac. But recent changes on both sides seem to have made this a lot easier, so now I can take advantage of the beautiful 24" screen, at last!!
Migrating to iMac
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