• The Interface
• Importing
• Aperture 101
• Loupe de Loop
• Aperture Philosophy
• Metadata and Keywords
• Editing
• Moving Edits
• Organization and Output
• Workflow
• Quality and Performance

Read Review: Apple's Aperture 1.0 by Ben Long.

Mac Skeptic: Aperture Takes Digital Photography Back to the Future
Apple's new high-end photo-editing software delivers tools like those the pros use to work with film.
By Rebecca Freed, special to PC World
Apple has just begun shipping its $499 pro-level digital photography workflow and editing application, Aperture. I took the program for a spin and had a conversation with Joe Schorr, Apple's product manager for Aperture.

Apple set out to create a program that lets photographers and photo editors work in ways reminiscent of film photography, with tools like the Light Table and Loupe. These allow you to look at multiple images in more flexible ways—such as being able to spread out your work and group, rearrange, and stack images as you go along—which even resolute digital-imaging partisans should appreciate. Other distinguishing features include Aperture's use of the RAW image file format for viewing and editing—the most information-dense type of file you can get out of a digital camera—as well as the program's ability to display multiple images side by side and to edit in almost any view.

Disclaimer: I am a point-and-shoot photographer with rudimentary graphic-design training, so I have not given Aperture the most rigorous workout possible. I did, however, get a sense of the program's interface and try out its major features.

Schorr discouraged the idea that Aperture is meant to be a Photoshop killer. Although the two programs have some of the same functions, Aperture is designed to appeal to a specialized niche—photography professionals who work with lots of very-high-resolution photos—while Photoshop is a general-purpose image editor with wide graphic-design applications.

Adobe Systems' Creative Suite 2, of which Photoshop is a part, incorporates similar functionality into its Bridge application. For example, it lets you preview and sort images. But Bridge is a hub for Creative Suite, and as such has lots of tools that are unrelated to viewing or manipulating photos. If all you need to do is work with photos efficiently, Aperture may have the tools that you need.
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Aperture: Raw Deal or the Real Thing?
By  Ben Long, (creativepro.com senior editor)
Apple's Aperture might be one of the most innovative and important pieces of digital photography software to come around in a long time. It's hard not to get all mouth-watery from watching Apple's demo movies because the program appears to include excellent solutions to common digital photography workflow problems. But while it's easy to get excited by the wow and flash of Apple's demos, it's important to remember that good Raw workflow involves much more than just good organization tools.

After trolling photography forums for the last week or two, I've seen many postings from people who've pre-ordered the software based on their impressions from the demos. But before you begin contemplating a massive, Aperture-centric change in your digital photography workflow, it's important to remember that there are still many unanswered questions. Here are a few important issues to keep in mind.

Rumors of an Apple-made "Photoshop killer" have flown around for quite a while, and whether or not Aperture is the rumored product (or perhaps another is in the wings?), it's certainly not a Photoshop killer. It's aimed at the professional photographer who shoots predominantly Raw files and is looking for a better way to manage their workflow and perform their initial Raw conversion. After installing Aperture, you might find yourself dragging iView MediaPro or Extensis Portfolio to the Trash, and your Raw workflow will definitely change, but Photoshop will stay firmly ensconced in your Applications folder.

While Aperture is a Macintosh-only app, some of its features will likely find their way into competing applications, so all photographers should be interested in how the app functions and how it's received in a professional workflow.
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Hands-on With Aperture
By David Schloss - PDN Online
When Apple took the wraps off Aperture, the company’s new professional photography workflow tool at the recent Photo Plus trade show in New York, shockwaves spread out through the industry. Very quickly photographic forms filled with posts about the new program (and, interestingly as it was not yet available, its "shortcomings") and seemingly ever conversation I had at the show turned at some point to the new program and the implications for the photographic market.

PDN will have a full-blown hands-on review of the program in an upcoming issue, but due to the interest in this program and the increased conversation about the photographic workflow, we decided to expand our coverage online to provide some first-impressions with Aperture and the way that the photographic experience might change as a result of its release.

In order to get a better feel for the program (most impressions about its feature-set and usability having been gained during a press-only demonstration and from demos at the Apple booth at the show) I spent a day with Apple at their corporate headquarters in California, digging deeper into the guts of the program with its product managers. While it would be a vast understatement to say that I was enthused about Aperture’s potential before the meetings, it’s even more clear now that Aperture will change the way photographers work, even for those who don’t use the program. That’s not to say that there’s no room for development, this is a 1.0 version after all, but Aperture addresses for the first time the main time-sucking portion of a photographer’s digital life in a powerful and organized way. If for nothing else, Aperture will be remembered as "the software that made all the other programs get better".

Before getting into impressions from the meeting, let me take a moment to cover some of the negative comments about Aperture, and to offer a bit of exclusive information on the program.
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Rob Galbraith On Apple Aperture - "Bringing Aperture Into Focus"
by Rob Galbraith
Based on what we know so far about Aperture, its most direct competition would seem to be be Capture One PRO. There are many ways that the two programs are similar in design concept (though they of course look very different), and both contain a similar range of adjustment tools. Phase One’s RAW conversion application does some things that Aperture doesn’t, including offering tethered operation with certain camera models. Plus, it has the ability to use custom camera profiles. On the other hand, Aperture has image management and image output capabilities that don’t exist in Capture One Pro, and Apple has done more to capitalize on the architecture in Mac computers for maximum speed of operation."
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Aperture: Real Workflow For Professional Photographers
By Yuval Kossovsky — Macworld.com
While on hand for Apple Computer Inc.’s big professional announcements on Wednesday, I saw a demonstration of Aperture, its latest software offering for the professional market. A lot of people immediately began comparing it to Adobe Photoshop, but there is no way to compare this to any other application out there. This application is truly unique. Aperture replicates, in the digital space, the way photographers for years have worked in the analog world.

My experience with photography dates back to the days of a metal-body Pentax, 400ASA black-and-white film and DK-50 developer solution (for that extra contrast) when printing up photos. I would roll the negatives in a changing bag, then cut them, make a contact print and study each shot with a magnifying glass or a loupe. Then I would pick one or two favorites and make multiple prints at various exposures and with different filters, and finally pick the best of those prints. When making composition books, I’d spread the photos on my kitchen table and try to group them into pleasing arrangements.

Of course, this all took a lot of time — and each print cost quite a bit, especially when using RC papers! I wanted to reminiscence a bit to remind you what the photographic process was like before everything went digital. Certainly, until yesterday, I myself had forgotten. Thanks to Apple, we can now bring that process back — without any of the problems of the old days and with many of the new creative touches now available in the digital age.

I cannot say this enough: Aperture is the application for the photographic creative process. It is not an image manipulation tool like Photoshop, and it is not a toy like iPhoto. Aperture is a professional application from top to bottom that works with the photographer’s process. This program puts the technology where it belong — out of the way in the background — and allowing the creative process to take precedence.
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Aperture: Photoshop Is Invulnerable No More
By Edmund Ronald — Publish.com
We now have a new light-table for the Raw images generated by digital SLRs. Aperture is a workflow tool that will allow us to conveniently sort through the hundreds of captures generated during a single professional photo-session.

Aperture lets us stack and sort the "digital negatives" much as we used to stack and sort slides. Now the question, as always, with Steve Jobs, is "what's next?"—it's clear that the $500 Aperture is the star turn of a new range of Photo applications, and I dare say that we will soon see a more modestly priced Aperture Express, aimed at photo enthusiasts with smaller image-sets.

It's credible that we might also see an iAperture that comes bundled with iLife on new Macs and iMacs. I don't think they're very happy with Steve Jobs out at Adobe headquarters in San Jose.
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Stripping Raw Naked - Interview With Apple Aperture Product Manager Joe Schorr
Creativepro.com editor in chief Terri Stone recently interviewed Aperture product manager Joe Schorr. Here are a couple of interesting tidbits from the piece:

"I was blown away," renowned sports photography Heinz Kluetmeier, told MacCentral after Apple's event in New York. "I think it's going to revolutionize photography because it is going to let photographers do what they do best — take pictures."

Even though Aperture seems to be squaring off with Adobe's market leading Photoshop, Apple executives said the application is not meant to compete with Adobe.
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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.


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.


PHOTO CREDIT: Full moon as seen from the International Space Station.