No Hidden Database
This advantage may slip right by you if you’ve never used Apple’s Aperture. Aperture requires you to upload all of your photos into its locked database. If you like to know where your photos are and have the ability to see the source images easily and move them if needed, the database approach is a real downfall. Lightroom, on the other hand, actually lets you keep your photos where they are. If you choose File > Import and look in the File Handling list, you’ll see that you can reference files in their existing location (see Figure 4). A huge plus in my book!
Figure 4 You have several options when importing photos into Lightroom’s Library.