Aperture Migration Plan ⇥ mjtsai.com

If you’re still hanging onto Aperture despite its long-tolling bell, you might want to look into Aperture Exporter if you’re considering switching to Lightroom. You’ll also need this terrific overview from John Gordon, and Michael Tsai’s collection of notes and caveats.

Me? I strongly dislike Lightroom. Something about its workflow just doesn’t agree with me. When Apple stopped supporting Aperture, I moved my library over to Photos, as it became clear that it’s the closest thing I could find to replace Aperture, and it’s where Apple would be focusing their development efforts. However, while I’ve been enjoying the iCloud integration — which, for me, has worked flawlessly — and easy editing, I’ve found its lack of advanced editing options hampers my use of the app.

I’m sure that Apple’s hope was that third-party developers would sieze upon the chance to build extensions for Photos that would replicate and perhaps improve upon lost Aperture functionality. But I’ve seen only a handful of third-party Photos extensions, the vast majority of which are intended to add effects and textures. I just want a selective colour tool built into Photos; this seems impossible to find.

Very few of Apple’s recent decisions have made me more disappointed than the loss of Aperture. I understand why it was discontinued, and I agree with their focus on Photos, but it’s still a loss for my workflow.