After recently using Adobe’s Lightroom application, I’ve started to draw comparisons between it and my current favorite photo-organizing application, namely, iPhoto developed by Apple Computer Inc.

My first exposure to iPhoto was with version 5 that came with my iBook G4 when I purchased it last summer. It was an instant hit with me mainly due to its compatibility with my digital camera (Sony DSC-P10) and the intuitive interface among many other things. When iPhoto 6 came out, the most appealing feature to me was the addition of full-screen editing which is something that I’ve so used to that I kind of assume it’s present in any photo-organizing/editing application. In any case, iPhoto allows me to edit various aspects of a photo such Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Temperature and Exposure and I find it suitable for most of the touch-up work that I do.

Enter Adobe Lightroom. Now this application has an interface that is fresh and amazing. The three-column design is pretty fresh and offers a new way to look at the whole photo-managment workflow. For the purposes of my needs, I found it to be equally as good as iPhoto but if find the latter’s interface far easier to navigate through than Lightroom’s.

Having said all of this, I’ve come to Aperture, developed by Apple Computer Inc. What can this program do for me that iPhoto cannot? I asked this question to a couple of customer sales representatives at the Apple Store in the Eaton Center and the only answer I kept getting was that Aperture is more for professional photography. Now, I don’t know about you but I didn’t really get much out of that. In fact, all the representatives mentioned that iPhoto 6 has become so powerful that it’s a good place to start and I definitely agree. But really, what does Aperture offer that Lightroom or iPhoto 6 don’t offer?