I’m an amateur photographer, and I have been using iPhoto for years, as a way to store, organize, and edit my photos. Recently I purchased and started using Adobe Lightroom instead of iPhoto.

Lightroom has some advantages over iPhoto, including:

• Can handle many more photos than iPhoto can (although iPhoto can handle at least 10,000 images with no problem)
• Extremely sophisticated photo editing tools
• All editing is non-destructive, meaning that you can easily get back to your original photo at any time
• Easy to copy settings or edits from one photo to another photo
• Easy to have multiple libraries

I find the ability to do lots of detailed editing right there, in the same program where I’m storing and organizing, a big plus. The edits I am doing are mainly:

• White balance
• Cropping and rotating
• Changing the exposure, color, tint, brightness, contrast
• Sharpening
• Making correction adjustments for my specific lens
• Retouching to remove dirt and spots

And if I don’t like my changes, I can always start again from scratch.

If you are ready to move beyond what iPhoto can offer, check out Lightroom. You can buy Lightroom 4 from Adobe’s website for $149. And right now you can save $50 by using the promo code LIGHTROOM99, bringing the price down to $99. There’s a free trial version.