Apple Aperture 3

13 April 2010

Powerful Photo Editing and Management Software

Aperture was originally introduced around the time that photographers had just started to embrace the RAW format. Even back then, the benefits of shooting in RAW were apparent, for example not having to worry about in-camera white balance settings, because in RAW, you can always adjust your white balance afterwards, same as if you had set it correctly in the camera in the first place.

One of the biggest benefits of RAW, that photographers have come to appreciate is that you can easily recover over-exposed highlights that would otherwise have been lost.

With Aperture's adjustments, such as highlights and recovery, it's an easy task to restore blown highlights and make an otherwise unusable image into a great image.

Best of all, in Aperture you can work with your images in an end-to-end RAW workflow. All of the great tools that are designed to help you organise, edit, and share your images are available to you - without compromise - while working in RAW.

iPhoto
Millions of Mac users discovered their love of photography from iPhoto. The last release of iPhoto introduced Faces and Places, which provide new ways to organise your photos by the people in them, and by where you were when you took your photos. Faces and Places has been extremely well received and unsurprisingly, photo enthusiasts around the world started asking, "When will we see Faces and Places functionality in Aperture?"

iPhoto Faces & Places

Introducing Aperture 3

This major update to Aperture is the culmination of months of work, based on direct feedback from dozens of the world's most respected photographers. As users have requested, Aperture 3 includes Faces, which let's you easily find photos of the people in your library.

Faces

Aperture 3 uses the same advanced face detection and recognition technology as iPhoto - but then it takes the Faces feature even further. In addition to viewing faces across your entire library, you can also view faces within any specific project. You can search for a specific face with a simple text entry. A new "Show Unnamed Faces" view displays faces that have been detected, but that you haven't named yet - providing a quick and easy way to assign names to every face. And when you share photos with face names, the name information is exported as keywords and as name tags when publishing to Facebook. When you select Faces, Aperture displays snapshots on a corkboard - just like in iPhoto.

Photos are displayed on a corkboard, just like in iPhoto

View the faces associated with a single project

Notice how you can also view just the faces associated with a single project. In the filmstrip below, you can see faces that have been detected but have yet to be named.

Places

Many hobbyists have been experimenting with geotagging their photos, so they'll be pleased to know that Places is now supported in Aperture 3 - making it easy to explore your library based on where your photos were taken. Aperture uses the same GPS features as iPhoto, but then extends Places even further.

In Aperture, you can view Places specific to any project. Because you can view both your photos and the interactive map at the same time, you can simply drag photos on the map to assign a location. Pins can be moved to change locations at any time. And if you're using a GPS tracking device, or a tracking app on your iPhone, you can import your track log file directly into Aperture.

In addition, Aperture lets you extract locations from photos taken with your iPhone, so you can assign them to photos shot with your dSLR. And if you're one of the many photographers who are active in Flickr's photo community, you'll be pleased to know that locations upload with your photos when you publish them to Flickr.

Just like iPhoto, Aperture automatically converts GPS data into user-friendly Place names

You can import a track log file

Here, you can clearly see the purple track log that Aperture displays after importing a track log file. Just assign one photo to the track, and the rest automatically line up according to when they were taken.

Brushes

Brushes is one of the most useful new features in this release. Aperture's non-destructive brushes let you adjust and enhance specific parts of your image with simple but extremely powerful retouching tools. So now, in addition to being able to apply image adjustments globally to your entire image, you can brush effects on to specific parts of your image - for example, deepen just the sky, or lighten up a face in shadow. Aperture can also detect edges while you brush to help you apply adjustments precisely where you want them.

In addition to 15 Quick Brushes which are designed to tackle the most common retouching tasks, virtually every image adjustment can be applied or removed with a brush. And the brushes are pressure-sensitive when used with a pen and tablet, allowing you to modify the brush effect on-the-fly.

Quick Brushes such as Dodge, Burn, Polarise and Intensify Contrast are accessed from a pop-up menu in the toolstrip.

The brush HUD, or heads up display, lets you brush, feather or erase, and provides sliders to control the size, softness, and strength of your brush. Note the Detect Edges checkbox which, in this image, helps keep the brush strokes in the sky and around the foliage.

Adustment Presets

Aperture now includes Adjustment Presets that let you preview and apply professional imaging effects with a click - which is a simple and effective way to make your best shots look even better.

With Presets, a combination of adjustments can be instantly applied with a single click. Just hover your cursor over any preset to view a live preview of the effect in a pop-up window. You can apply adjustment presets individually or to a whole group of images at once - you can even apply them to your images during the import process. In addition to dozens of ready-to-use presets, you can easily create your own or import presets as a way to learn from the techniques of other photographers.

Adjustment Presets via Pop-Up Window

Here, you can see the pop-up window with a live preview of the preset - in this instance, Auto-Enhance. Notice the preset groups for Quick Fixes, Colour adjustments, White Balance, and Black & White effects. You can easily create your own preset groups as well.

Adjust levels, add vibrancy and sharpen edges - all in one step

Adjustment Presets work almost as if a pro photographer told you exactly what settings to use to make your images pop - except Aperture takes care of all the work. For example, you can see that the Auto-Enhance automatically adjusted Levels, and added a bit of Vibrancy and Edge Sharpening... all in one step.

Add a black and white or sepia effect

You can use any preset as a starting point and continue to refine your image from there - adding a black and white or sepia effect, for example. And if you like the final look you've created and want to re-use it, you can easily save it as a new preset.

Advanced Slideshows

Aperture's advanced slideshow tools were designed specifically with photographers in mind. You could start with one of Aperture's ready-to-use themes or choose either the Classic or Ken Burns themes to completely customise your slideshow, including the ability to add text and borders to your slides. New audio tools let you mix a layered soundtrack to complement your images. You can even record the timing for each slide to perfectly synchronise pictures to sound. Best of all, Aperture 3 supports video - even HD video - from the latest generation of digital SLRs.

Aperture provides the perfect way to combine photos and videos into a rich multimedia showcase, which you can export directly to iTunes to sync to your iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple TV.

Simple but powerful

The simple, but powerful authoring tools in Aperture let users adjust the timing, background, borders, text and transitions for slides. At any time, you can play back your slideshow - in real-time - in the slideshow viewer, or in stunning full screen mode.

Full Screen Browser

Aperture users have enjoyed using full screen from the very beginning, so Apple expanded it much further to include an amazing Full Screen Browser that lets you use every inch of your Mac's display to navigate your entire library.

Full Screen Viewer

The full screen viewer is the ideal way to see every nuance in your photos while you make precise image adjustments.

Sort your projects

New to Aperture 3, you can now view, search, and sort your projects while in full screen. The new Full Screen Browser features an innovative Library Path Navigator that provides direct access to every album, project, and folder in your library - again, all without ever having to leave full screen.

Library Path Navigator

With more than 200 new features and enhancements, this is a pretty big release. Visit apple.com/aperture to read about everything that's new in Aperture 3. Aperture 3 is also ideal for iPhoto users who want to do more with their photos. Because when you migrate your existing iPhoto library to Aperture, all of the information for your Events, Faces, and Places is preserved. So you can pick up in Aperture, right where you left off in iPhoto.

Aperture 3 gives you get powerful, yet easy-to-use tools to refine images, showcase your photography, and manage even the most massive libraries on your Mac. It's pro performance with iPhoto simplicity.

View Apple Aperture 3 at Wex Photographic

View Apple Aperture 3 Upgrade at Wex Photographic