To start with Lightroom 3

Gone are the days of hundreds-page user's manual accompanying each piece of software. Nowadays you have to rely on the help manual within the software, or the website of the software developer. But a better source is the community on the net, in particular where you need to make decisions. Here is a good "walk-through" guide for Lightroom 3:

• Photokaboom, a clear written guide covering all major issues.

Photo management software - Lightroom 3 or Aperture 3?

Lightroom and Aperture are both raw converters and photo managers. As I said before, there is not much difference in quality between Lightroom and Aperture as raw converters. It's pretty much a tie for me. To choose between one of them, I need to consider their features as a photo manager. I'll leave the Nikon View/Capture NX pair as they don't play as a good photo manager.

Each of Lightroom and Aperture has an excellent feature set. If you've got good skills and sufficient time, you can almost produce nearly identical looking images by either one. The decision will thus come with the small details, in particular the convenience and fun of use. My post-processing workflow will also have a lot to do with which one I prefer.

There are never-ending Aperture vs. Lightroom debates. The least biased submissions that I can find are those put forward by Scott Kelby. Among the factors commonly raised in the never-ending Aperture vs. Lightroom debate in various forums, I find the following ones that concerns me and my workflow most:

(A) Lightroom's advantages

• Adobe gives you lens correction profiles and camera profiles similar to Nikon's Picture Control. For Aperture, you have to rely on profiles created by the community. [Any solution? No. Use Capture NX2 for converting critical works instead.]
• It seems Aperture's white balance is not as accurate on import in comparison to Lightroom, and there is no auto white balance feature like in Lightroom. [Any solution? Seems none.]
• It has a gradient tool. [Any solution? No, unless you use a suitable plugin.]
• Lightroom blows away Aperture for color adjustments. It has a targeted adjustment tool where you just put your cursor on the screen and move it up or down to adjust hue/saturation/luminance. I could make several adjustments in Lightroom before I could select the eye dropper tool and pick the color I need in Aperture. [Any solution? No.]
• Aperture has export presets that are limited to file type and pixel size. Lightroom exports presets incorporate just about every setting that is available in the program. You can't sharpen photos during export with Aperture. [Any solution? No convenient solution.]
• Noise reduction is better in Lightroom. [Any solution for Aperture? Use plugins.]

(B) Aperture's advantages

• Aperture has a real clone brush and Lightroom only has a spot removal tool. If I don't have Aperture and want to remove a power line in the sky, I have to use Capture NX2 or Photoshop. [Any solution? No. Use Capture NX2 instead]
• It's a better organizer. For example, in Lightroom, all (smart) collections are separate from the image hierarchy (the folders), which is a mess. In Aperture, (smart) albums are part of the hierarchy, so you always know where they are. [Any solution for Lightroom? No, but it is not unbearable.]
• Almost any adjustment can be brushed in locally. It's brush is more sophisticated, e.g. it can just affects the highlights and shadows rather than anything else it touches. [Any solution for Lightroom? No, but it only slows down the process.]
• Vignette and skin smoothing is better in Aperture. [Any solution for Lightroom? No, unless you use plugins.]
• It has more "fun", e.g. faces, places, slideshows and books. They are not "must-have" items, but they're fun. [Any solution for Lightroom? No, although we can use iPhoto for slideshows and books.]

It's a difficult choice of gives-and-takes. Finally I've decided to buy Lightroom 3, because it seems it takes a much larger market share and shows better potential for improvement.

購買iMac的最後決定。 iMac - the final decision.

考慮過所有各款型號iMac 2010的意見後, 我在Apple網上站訂購了以下的型號：

Having studied all the commentaries about the different configurations of the new iMac 2010, I have ordered the following one from Apple Store:

• iMac 27" 3.2GHz Intel Core i3
• 8 GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (4 x 2GB) (Yes, I know third-party RAM is cheaper, but it's less convenient)
• 2TB Serial ATA Drive (Firewire 800 drive is not cheap in Hong Kong, and it's slower than internal SATA drive)
• ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM
• Wireless keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad (it's a luxurious option, but please take into account its decorative value!)
• Apple battery charger (initially I didn't intend to buy it, but I just found that my NiMH batteries that had not been used for a few months were dead; thus I have to buy new anyway)
• Total price: HK$16,454

用甚麼軟件轉原始檔？Which raw converter? Aperture 3, Lightroom 3 or Capture NX2?

The choice of software is closely related to workflow, which will be discussed in another article. Here, we just talk about raw converter. As I'm a Nikon DSLRs and Mac user, I have the following choices:

• Aperture 3
• Lightroom 3 or Adobe Raw Converter
• Capture NX2
• BibblePro
• CaptureOne
• RPP
• Silkpix

I have been using Nikon's own converter for several years. Back in the time of Nikon D70, it was the only choice that could really give you the highest quality of conversion. But now other converters are getting better, and the gap has been bridged. As I'm building up a new digital darkroom, I need to start afresh.

Thom Hogan recently posted a detailed analysis. At the moment, I won't consider BibblePro, CaptureOne, RPP or Silkpix due to my intended workflow. But still I have three choices. After I've read Thom's opinion, I still the following relevant factors that affect my choice:

• Capture NX2. It doesn't support 64-bit or reliable multicore support. It's slow. It's helpful for tweaking up an NEF to its full capacity, except white balance. It doesn't fit into the Aperture or Lightroom workflow. Only Photo Mechanic works well with Capture NX2.
• Lightroom and Adobe Raw Converter. They are fast. Adobe provides custom lens profiles. But they come up with some odd white balance values on their own. They are a bit "orange" on the reds.
• Aperture 3. It's fastest among the three.

I'll use either Aperture 3 or Lightroom 3 most of the time, and Capture NX2 only in tough images. But still I have to choose between the two, Aperture or Lightroom? As either one as a raw converter is good enough, my choice will mainly depend on my workflow.

哪一款 iMac? Which iMac?

當選定用 Apple iMac 而不是 Windows 建立數碼黑房後，下一個問題是：哪一款 iMac? 較平宜的牌本，顯示器只有21.5吋，像數只有 1920x1080，如用作數碼黑房，還是要大一點才方便。較高級型號，擁有27吋顯示器，更重要的是像數高達 2560x1440，有較大空間用作編輯相片。兩款27吋的iMac，分別是處理器和顯示卡，較平宜的賣 HK$12,188，是3.2GHz Intel Core i3 和 ATI Radeon HD5670 (512MB)，而較昂貴的賣 HK$14,788，是2.8GHz Intel Quad-Core i5 和 ATI Radeon HD5750 (1GB)，售價高了21%，但性能卻只高出15%左右，其中我最關心的 Aperture 指標，更只高出11%。再加上我擔心較快的顯示卡每令機件運作的溫度過高，所以還是決定省點錢，買3.2GHz Core i3，把錢用於把記憶體加至8G為上算。雖然有網站的測試結果與我的結論相反，但我對速度的要求不是很高，而且也絕不會出售二手電腦，所以仍然維持以上決定。Digllord 的CPU速度測試也和我的估計吻合。不要忘記，連 Lightroom 3 也不能盡用四核！

Once I've decided to use Apple iMac, instead of Windows, to build up my digital darkroom, my next question is: which iMac? The 21.5" one only gives you a monitor with 1920x1080. I need more screen real estate to operate my digital darkroom, and thus I choose the 27" one, which gives me a screen with 2560x1440. The differences between the two 27" iMac are the CPU and display card. The one sold at HK$12,188 gives you 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 and ATI Radeon HD5670 with 512MB. The one sold at HK$14,788 gives you 2.8GHz Intel Quad-Core i5 and ATI Radeon HD5750 with 1GB. It's 21% more expensive, but it seems to boost the performance by about 15% only. The most significant benchmark, Aperture, sees only a 11% increase. I'm also concerned about the operating temperature of the faster display card. Thus I'll buy the Core i3 one, and saving some money for the memory upgrade to 8G. Although some commentators have reached a different conclusion, I won't change my decision because I don't demand top speed and I'll never resell my iMac. Digllord's findings of real life speed of CPUs also confirm my view. And don't forget that even Lightroom 3 cannot use all 4 cores fully!

暫時我找到最詳盡有關 iMac 的評論有以下幾個：

At the moment, the best iMac reviews that I can find are the following:

• CNET – Review By: Rich Brown
• PC Mag – Review By: Joel Santo Domingo
• Computer Shopper – Review By: Jonathan Rougeot
• Engadget – Review By: Nilay Patel
• AppleInsider – Review By: Daniel Eran Dilger
• Macworld – Review By: Roman Loyola
• Digllord – Review By: Lloyd