Apple Aperture 2 1 1
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
You can access your entire iPhoto library directly within Aperture 2, to import selected events, albums, or individual photos using the iPhoto Browser. Aperture 2 includes an all-in-one inspector that consolidates the Project, Metadata, and Adjustments panes and lets you switch between them simply by typing W. Quickly locate images in the innovative All Projects view with project skimming. The new Quick Preview mode provides rapid-fire photo browsing, letting you quickly compare, rate, and make image selections. Aperture also offers enhanced performance when making processor-intensive adjustments, such as Noise Reduction and Highlight and Shadows. Leveraging the next-generation RAW image processing in Mac OS X Leopard, Aperture 2 delivers images of astounding quality, offering superb color fidelity, increased shadow detail, reduced noise, and advanced highlight recovery. Aperture provides RAW support for the leading digital cameras and camera backs. It also supports DNGs made from the RAW files of most digital cameras. With a .Mac account, you can take advantage of new support for .Mac Web Gallery to create beautiful online portfolios even allowing clients, colleagues, or friends to download JPEG or RAW originals complete with embedded metadata. Aperture also lets you sync your Aperture library to an iPhone or iPod. Or enjoy your photos on a widescreen TV in glorious high definition using Apple TV.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great Product!
Fast and easy, load it and go, online tutorials if you need them. Just doesn’t get any better. Outstanding features and far easier than LightRoom or PhotoShop.
4 Stars powerful, but don’t get in a hurry
This is a powerful program. There are so many ways to adjust pictures and bring out all the detail of RAW shots. The ones I have edited in Aperture are definitely better than in iPhoto. Before you go hog wild and download all your photos into Aperture from iphoto, take some time to read the instructions online and think about how you want your photos organized. If you are coming over from iPhoto this isn’t a slam dunk. You will have to learn how the projects, folders and albums all work with each other. The built in keywords were annoying to me because they didn’t fit my photography or my organization scheme. Working with sets of keywords getting a little used to. Some of the features seem like they should be obvious, but are not. The LOOP feature isn’t as friendly as the old slider to magnify shots. Some of the little icons are almost impossible to see and figure out what they do. I think it will be awesome once I get used to it and learn all about it. If you like using keystroke shortcuts, you’ll have lots to play with here. I didn’t have a steep learning curve with iPhoto. It came quick and easy. It’s going to take longer with Aperture for sure.
Oh yeah, I upgraded the RAM on my 20″ late 2007 iMac to 3 GB from 1. It helped the program run faster. I recommend doing this.
3 Stars Nice Interface but Performance Issues
The program is very easy to use and very powerful. It takes a lot fewer steps to post process files than in photoshop and I can process dozens or hundreds in a sitting and very rarely have to turn to photoshop because Aperature’s own tools are powerful. The interface is elegant too. The problem is speed. I have a dual core 2.8ghz iMac which is well above the minimum spec for the program. Most of the time Aperature is very fast but sometimes it will grind to an absolute halt. It might take three minutes to load one image. The problem seems to be one that is getting worse as I add more and more pictures. When it goes down the whole system gets so unresponsive that I feel like i’m on a 1986 Mac Plus again.
5 Stars LOVE LOVE LOVE Aperture
I use a Canon XSi, and Aperture converts RAW images so easily. I use Aperture 2 on a PowerBook G4, 1.67Ghz, 2 GB RAM; it’s slow at times esp. with exports; but it works great. I can do other things in Aperture while is exports. I’ve never used Lightroom, but I have no need for it. I only have Photoshop CS2 (this computer does not run CS3 well at all); so I must convert RAW to DNG before I can use Photoshop. Aperture does that for me. Look into some plug-ins for exporting to Flickr/facebook etc, as that will speed up the process; and even for DNG conversion if you want/need to use Photoshop and Camera Raw doesn’t support your camera. But Aperture supports more than Camera Raw anyway. I love the Vault feature, and I have my Aperture Library backed up on a few drives - it’s easy and thoughtless with Aperture. I’m not a pro, just a serious hobbyist.
1 Star Slow, stalls out, not PhotoShop
After a long time using Photo Shop on my MacBook Pro, I was persuaded to buy and try Aperture 2. After a week of using this product, I have encountered numerous problems, including: It stalls out for no apparent reason when cloning; It is incredibly slow. Also, it has locked up several times to the point that I had to restart my computer to clear the problem.
Stick with Photo Shop. Aperture 2 does not measure up.
