Amazon.com is offering Apple Aperture at a discount price of 269.99
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Apple Aperture 2 - Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing
Apple today introduced Aperture 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful.
With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.
At a new low price of $199 ($189.99 at Amazon.com), anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro.
"Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Aperture's power."
"At the end of the day, it's all about the quality of the image," said Sports Illustrated contributing photographer David Bergman. "Even before I begin making adjustments, Aperture's new RAW processing gives me better images with more visible detail and better color rendering than any other program I've tested."
"I used to have so much stress about post-production on a shoot, having to juggle multiple applications to make sure they all worked," said Bob Davis, PDN Top Knots Wedding Photographer 2007. "With Aperture that's no longer a factor. I can do everything all in one application."
Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto's Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto(R) Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.
Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it's faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats.
Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.
Aperture 2 delivers powerful new imaging tools for getting the most out of each photograph. Apple's next-generation RAW image processing is at the core of Aperture 2 offering uncompromising image quality and precision controls that let users fine-tune the image profile for each of their cameras.
New tools for improving and enhancing images include Recovery for pulling back "blown" highlights, Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones, Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images, Vignette & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas.
Pricing & Availability
Aperture 2 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) - $189.99 at Amazon.com. Owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2 for just $99 (US).
*The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.
New Aperture Site - Inside Aperture
Scott Bourne alerted us that a new site focused exclusively on Apple's Aperture photo application has launched, and will carry a lot of Scott's excellent resources. The site is called Inside Aperture and is operated by computer book publishing giant O'Reilly and is sponsored by Apple.
Here's a little bit more from the site: "O'Reilly Media's Inside Aperture site draws upon community expertise to provide you with tips and real-life experiences from professional shooters who use Apple's premier photo management application to organize, edit, and output their images. This site features weblogs, articles, podcasts, and tutorials — all focused to help you improve your digital photography workflow."
Check Inside Aperture.
For tips and tricks visit Aperture Tricks
New Apple Aperture Book By Ben Long, Orlando Luna
Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture is a new Aperture title from digital photo expert Ben Long. From the book description:
This is the only Apple-certified guide to Aperture, Apple's revolutionary application for managing, editing, and archiving digital photographs! This comprehensive book-DVD combo starts with the basics of image management and takes you step by step all the way through Aperture's powerful photo-editing, image-retouching, proofing, publishing, and archiving features.
It delivers comprehensive training — the equivalent of a two-day course — in one project-based book. You'll learn time-saving techniques for sorting, ranking, and organizing images for use in different jobs, and effective ways to display images for client review, apply metadata, keep your online portfolio up to date automatically, color-manage your workflow from input to final print, and much more. Real-world exercises feature professional photography from a variety of genres, including fashion, sports, wedding, commercial, and portraiture. All the files you need to complete the exercises are included on the DVD.
Buy Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture at Amazon.com (special offer - 37%)
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Aperture, Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop And iPhoto
There are so many different workflows available for digital photographers right now that we decided we would ask Aperture expert Scott Bourne some questions about how he sees the different software coexisting.
You do not seem to be a big fan of Lightroom, but being totally objective, do you see it as going into a different direction than Aperture, or competing head on?
I am not a fan of Lightroom in its present form. And I don't think anyone can honestly say what Lightroom's future direction will be. It's in beta so we don't know which commands, interfaces, functions, etc. will survive the beta period. In my opinion, there's no question that Adobe sees Lightroom as Aperture competition. And that's fine by me. I think the more software we see, the better it will all become. Each company will force the other to get better and better and as photographers we'll all benefit.
What does the drop in Aperture's price from $500 to $300 tell you about the product launch? Are pro photographers the ones who are being stand-offish, or is the price reduction an attempt to get a share of a wider, non-pro user base?
The price drop tells me that I was right when I said Apple's marketing and position of Aperture was all wrong from the start. In my earliest reviews I said I thought it was too expensive. Maybe Apple listened to me for once:)
I am guessing that their sales numbers were below expectations so they reduced the price to open the market. That's just a guess on my part. I have no inside information. As for non-pros using Aperture, even though Apple targeted the program at professionals, it's obvious from the Internet forums that many amateurs were using the program so if they want to buy it, I guess Apple decided to push it more in that arena.
A lot of our users are sitting on the fence and are confused. Why so many choices? How would you differentiate Aperture, Lightroom, iPhoto and Bridge, and what advice would you give to a digital photographer who wants to simplify their workflow and not have a variety of apps open all the time?
As for choice, I find Bridge to be utterly useless since I began using Aperture. While I loved Bridge when it came out, I hadn't been exposed yet to Aperture and for me, there's no going back. I look at Lightroom as Aperture Light. And once again, until it's out of Beta, I just don't think it makes sense to get started using it knowing that everything could change.
Is iPhoto going to be enough for most Mac users? Some ask "Where do I draw the line and say, ok, now I need Aperture?" Can you give us some rule-of-thumb buying advice here?
Now iPhoto is an interesting title to throw into the mix. Since Apple updated iPhoto to version six, I have to tell you I am very impressed with it. The biggest reason I'd recommend against iPhoto is that its RAW conversions are subpar and the cataloging features minimized. But if I were just a JPEG shooter or an hobbyist who wanted a powerful yet easy software program to manage my images, I'd take a long look at iPhoto. It's really quite good especially given the fact that it's free with every new Mac.
If you have lots of images and shoot RAW, I think you'd be better off with Aperture. Otherwise, try iPhoto since you already have it and see what you think. The new photocasting feature is fun and there's even full screen editing now in iPhoto.
Are you planning on any Aperture books?
I just finished serving as technical editor for the new Sybex/Wiley title, Aperture Exposed by Josh and Ellen Anon. And I am working with my pal Derrick Story to author a DVD-based, online training Aperture tutorial for lynda.com. I'll be in California next month recording that series and it should be available by late summer or early fall.
I have tossed around the idea of an Aperture 2.0 book but right now, I am not certain I will have the time to write one. I am also spending a great deal of time podcasting these days. My Photofocus.com podcast has 25,000 listeners and I'm just about to start a show with Chris Breen the editor of MacWorld and Derrick Story, co-author with David Pogue of the iPhoto Missing Manual. The show is called the iLifeZone and deals with the entire iLife suite of products, including iPhoto. That show will be produced by PixelCorps, the same folks that do TWIT and MacBreak so I am pretty excited about it — but it will take a great deal of my time. Between my field workshops, my blog, dukeofdigital.com and writing for sites like Macdevcenter.com and doing the podcasts, I don't have tons of free time anymore.
Thanks for the interview!
Scott Bourne has also posted a review of Aperture 1.1 on the Mac DevCenter. From the intro:
- On April 13, Apple made good on its promise to deliver Aperture 1.1, the Universal Binary version of its groundbreaking professional photo workflow software. The update is free to all existing Aperture owners through the Apple Software Update menu.
The first thing you'll notice is that Aperture uses a new Library structure. Upon opening the program for the first time, you'll be presented with a warning that advises you that once you convert your image Library to 1.1, there's no turning back. I made the conversion, and it was fast and flawless.
There are new RAW adjustment controls in the Adjustments Inspector and Adjustments HUD that improve the quality of RAW decodes via custom tuning of parameters. Most noticeably, you can control contrast (using the new Boost tool) and sharpness, as well as color noise reduction (using the Chroma Blur and Auto Noise Compensation tools) from the RAW decoder. And each of these is specifically tuned to your camera if it is supported by Apple.
And to quash the cry for a real-time color meter, Apple gave us a new Color Meter tool that quickly and easily samples any area of an image for RGB, CMYK, or LAB color values. You can use this as a stand-alone tool or as part of Aperture's Loupe tool. Photoshop users who like to sample specific color ranges will feel right at home in Aperture due to this new tool.
For those who never felt comfortable with Aperture's printing parameters, the new version has updated image resolution controls. You can specify output resolution in dots per inch (dpi) when exporting images or sending images to an external editor, such as Adobe Photoshop.
Read the full review at the Mac DevCenter. And make sure to visit Scott's Apple Aperture site ApertureTricks.
Ben Long Review Of Apple Aperture 1.1
Creativepro.com senior editor Ben Long has written an extensive review of Apple Aperture 1.1. From the intro:
Only five months after releasing Aperture 1.0, Apple's breakthrough new digital photography workflow product, the company has come out with a fairly major update in the form of Aperture 1.1. The free update offers dramatically improved raw conversions, new raw editing tools, a new RGB color sampler, performance improvements, and full compatibility with Apple's new machines with Intel processors. All these improvements, yet Apple has also cut the retail price by $200 to just $299.
Many critics will claim that the many improvements prove that Aperture 1.0 wasn't ready for prime time, but that's unfair. While Version 1 had some rough spots, it was a usable product for many professional photographers. Most importantly, the program has shown many photographers that there's a better way to manage their workflows than the document-centered, destructive editing approach they were used to.
Those who say that Aperture 1.0 was priced too high and was essentially a paid beta release will be happy to hear that Apple apparently agrees. In addition to the lower price, the company's handing $200 coupons to anyone who bought the 1.0 or 1.0.1 products at the $499 price tag.
Read the full review of Apple Aperture 1.1 at the creativepro.com site.
Buy Apple Aperture at Amazon.com - discount price 279.99
Buy Apple Aperture at the Apple store - $299.00
Announcing Aperture Library Spanner
[From creativepro.com] Although Apple's Aperture confines its internal library to a single drive, you can use a little under-the-hood trickery to span the library across multiple volumes. Ben Long has released a simple, free application that performs this trickery for you, allowing you to increase the size of your Aperture Library.
With a single click, the Aperture Library Spanner reconfigures your Aperture library so that it is stored across several currently-mounted volumes. If you later decide you want to return to a normal, single-volume library, you can easily undo the change from within Aperture itself. The Aperture Library Spanner is available for free at Ben Long's Complete Digital Photograph site.
Lynda.com Offers Training For Apple Aperture
(From MacMinute.com) "Lynda.com today announced a new training video for Apple's Aperture photography software. Veteran trainers Scott Bourne and Derrick Story taught the world's first public Aperture class in January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Bourne is the publisher of the only Web site exclusively devoted to Aperture, www.aperturetricks.com. Story writes about Aperture and other digital photography-related subjects at www.thedigitalstory.com. Bourne and Story also contribute Aperture-related articles at www.macdevcenter.com. Production on the series starts in March, and the title will be available for sale in the second quarter."
Apple Releases Aperture Update - Bringing Aperture To Version 1.0.1
(12/23/05) Apple has released Aperture 1.0.1 Update — which addresses a number of issues related to reliability and performance. It also delivers improved image export quality and metadata handling. Among the key areas addressed are:
- White balance adjustment accuracy and performance
- Image export quality
- Book and print ordering reliability
- Auto-stacking performance
- Custom paper size handling
The update is recommended for all Aperture users.
New Blog Offers Apple Aperture Help
(12-19-05) Scott Bourne, a professional photographer, author and educator has created ApertureTricks.com to help photographers who are trying to adjust to the new paradigm introduced by Apple. Bourne, who moderates the blog and has created most of its initial content, hopes others in the Aperture community will contribute to help make it a valuable resource site.
"Any time you have a new software program, there's just no way one person can know it all right away," said Bourne. "I want to create a community where people who are interested in Aperture can come and share their thoughts, concerns and tricks for using the software."
Bourne is giving away prizes for the best tricks posted on the blog.
If you submit an Aperture Trick, (which automatically grants them the right to publish it) your name will be entered into a free drawing for a Lensbaby (Nikon or Canon version only). The drawing will be held January 28, 2006.
For more info visit ApertureTricks.com
(12-07-05) Roundup Of Latest Apple Aperture Reviews
From Jennifer Apple: I've found some very different views of Apple's Aperture software surfacing on various websites. If you're pretty sure this software is not for you and need to validate that, you can start with a rather negative Aperture review from Ars Technica. For a review of the review that is full of impassioned responses, read this Aperture thread at Slashdot. (Read the rest of this article on our Reviews & News page.)
(11-29-05) Apple Aperture Support Center Opens
Apple has posted some support documents and manuals for Apple Aperture. There are also some PDFs available for download, including Aperture Getting Started, Late-Breaking News, Frequently Asked Questions, Installing Your Software, Aperture Quick Reference, Ordering Books and Prints, and Photography Fundamentals. On the right side of the page is an Apple Community Discussions area with a link to an Aperture Discussion board.
Apple Aperture - Press Release
First All-in-One Post Production Tool for Photographers
Apple has introduced Aperture, the first all-in-one post production tool that provides everything photographers need after the shoot. Aperture offers an advanced and incredibly fast RAW workflow that makes working with a camera's RAW images as easy as JPEG. Built from the ground up for pros, Aperture features powerful compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing, color managed printing and custom web and book publishing.
"Aperture is to professional photography what Final Cut Pro is to filmmaking," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Marketing. "Finally, an innovative post production tool that revolutionizes the pro photo workflow from compare and select to retouching to output."
"Until now, RAW files have taken so long to work with," said Heinz Kluetmeier, renowned sports photographer whose credits include over 100 Sports Illustrated covers. "What amazed me about Aperture is that you can work directly with RAW files, you can loupe and stack them and it's almost instantaneous — I suspect that I'm going to stop shooting JPEGs. Aperture just blew me away." continued...
Read the complete Aperture Press Release.
For more Aperture reviews visit our Aperture News & Reviews page.
Our Aperture Tutorials page contains links to the latest Aperture tutorials and tips and tricks, including 5 very informative Aperture Quick Tours:
In Advanced RAW Format you'll see how Aperture makes RAW as easy as JPEG, and how to work in the native RAW form throughout your workflow.
In Powerful Compare and Select Tools you'll see how to quickly identify "selects" using unique and versatile compare & select tools.
In Versatile Printing and Publishing you'll discover how to create high-quality prints, customized contact sheets, unique bound books, and stunning websites.
In Professional Project Management you'll see how to manage thousands of projects: organize flexibly, enjoy deep metadata support, powerful search.
In Nondestructive Image Processing you'll see how native, nondestructive RAW image editing means your digital "masters" remain untouched.
You'll also find some links to pages that describe the power of Aperture with an overview of key features of Aperture. For more tutorials visit our Aperture Tutorials Page.
Find the latest news, reviews and articles about Apple Aperture on our Aperture News & Reviews page.
Read what Rob Galbraith has to say about Aperture. This is an extensive article that is as close as we have right now of a full review of Aperture. Read Rob Galbraith On Apple Aperture - "Bringing Aperture Into Focus".
Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture
This collection of Apple Pro Training tutorials will get you up and running in no time. You’ll learn how to sort, rank, and manage images with unparalleled efficiency; display onscreen proofs and contact sheets in compelling ways for clients; edit and retouch your selected images professionally; publish proofs, portfolios, and final images on the Web and in print; and archive images in a way that’s easy, secure, and intuitive. These hands-on tutorials provide a great overview of an indispensable application for digital photographers.
Find out more about new Aperture books on our Aperture Books Page.
The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop and Digital Photography news and software updates, tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist, digital photographer and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.
