[budopo]

I need to upgrade from my copy of Photoshop Elements (it's not compatible with Leopard), and I was thinking of Aperture instead. I thought I'd get people's opinions. Basically, I'm just a hobbyist, not a professional, and I need editing tools. I liked Photoshop's backlight and fill light features for dealing with high contrast photos (taken in bright sun, with really bright areas and really dark areas), adjusting shadow areas with a slider, and touching up problems (like phone lines in the photo or erasing bird droppings on a statue in one photo I took). Merging a series of panoramic photos into one big photo was nice, too. I don't need much in the way of organizing photos.

Any opinions about which app would be better would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

[Peter Cohen]

You're asking if you need a photo organization tool (Aperture) or lightweight photo editing program (Photoshop Elements). They're two different tools suited for very different purposes. Aperture has some editing capabilities, capabilities that can be extended with plug-ins, but it is primarily for organizing, rating, managing and outputting photos.

You can always download a demo from Apple's Web site and decide for yourself.

[romanticf16]

Do you shoot RAW format from an older camera? Aperature or iphoto may not support it. Photoshop Elements 6 and Adobe usually support more older RAW formats, as well as offering conversion to the universal DNG RAW. If you have archives of older images, this may be a concern. Photoshop Elements 6 is good, but the book by Barb. Brundage(the Missing Manual), O'Rilly Press really is helpful and worth every penny.

[budopo]

Thanks. That pretty much answers my question. I need photo editing software, not really organization software, so it looks like I'll get Photoshop.