Early Notes on Apple's Aperture

[javiercr]

Now they need to put a Dual Core G5 on the iMac to run this thing properly!

 

[Lacero]

But... but... with the Power Macs, one can span Aperature across dual 30" screens. I think that's where the app is aiming for. The pro photographers who depend on shooting RAW images for the best possible quality. I settle for medium compression JPEG.

 

[iGary]

When will Apple release Dark Room? The direct competitor to Photoshop?

I think this is their first step in that direction. Adobe and Apple are no longer the friends they used to be.

 

[Mike Teezie]

I really really hope Apple doesn't ever do a "Dark Room" type app.

Photoshop is too ingrained into so many peoples' workflow to lose it on the Mac side if Adobe were to pick up their toys and go elsewhere.

 

[mcarnes]

When will Apple release Dark Room? The direct competitor to Photoshop?

Dark Room, that is one cool name for a photo editing app.

 

[~Shard~]

I really really hope Apple doesn't ever do a "Dark Room" type app.

Photoshop is too ingrained into so many peoples' workflow to lose it on the Mac side if Adobe were to pick up their toys and go elsewhere.

It might be the way Apple is moving though. Just look at iWork. Sure, it''s not a direct competitor to Office- yet. But what will the future hold? Expect some major changes in iWork '06, and who knows where Aperture will take us as well...

 

[iGary]

It might be the way Apple is moving though. Just look at iWork. Sure, it''s not a direct competitor to Office- yet. But what will the future hold? Expect some major changes in iWork '06, and who knows where Aperture will take us as well...

I think a lot of people forget that Apple went to Adobe to invite them to do some video editing and music apps for them. Adobe said "uh uh."

Boy that was a brilliant move.

Final Cut Pro and Logic.

 

[~Shard~]

I think a lot of people forget that Apple went to Adobe to invite them to do some video editing and music apps for them. Adobe said "uh uh."

Boy that was a brilliant move.

Final Cut Pro and Logic.

Very good point iGary. And now I think back to when the CEO of Adobe was on stage at WWDC saying Adobe would be the "first company" to officially port everything to Intel to support Apple's transition... heh heh...

 

[zap2]

Dark Room, that is one cool name for a photo editing app.

ya that is a cool name i'd jump on that App unless it ( and likly will) cost more then the pricest iPod Nano

 

[iGary]

Very good point iGary. And now I think back to when the CEO of Adobe was on stage at WWDC saying Adobe would be the "first company" to officially port everything to Intel to support Apple's transition... heh heh...

They may not get it right on the first go, but Apple writes some kick ass software.

Adobe's new "Bridge" program just sucks ass. It's clunky and full of bugs. Photoshop needs a new UI like no one's business. Maybe because I work with it 12 hours a day. *shrug*

Looking forward to being and early Aperture adopter.

 

[~Shard~]

They may not get it right on the first go, but Apple writes some kick ass software.

Agreed.

Photoshop needs a new UI like no one's business. Maybe because I work with it 12 hours a day. *shrug*

I've heard this from so many people. Even for the limited times I've used PS, I have found it very non-intuitive, bulky and confusing. I suppose using it 12 hours a day and being more familiar with it would help, but evidently not that much. Yes, it is very powerful, but it just seems to be too much in some respects!

Looking forward to being and early Aperture adopter.

And I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. "Aperture Pro"? "Aperture Express"? Aperture enhancements passed down into iPhoto 6? I wonder what Apple's plans are....

 

[amin]

I use Capture One (C1) for RAW processing. So far, I'm not sure Aperture will do anything better than C1. It doesn't look like it will do 5% of what I use PS for.

 

[atp]

What Vista?

I'd like to play around with it one day certainly. My poor powerbook doesn't sound like it's up to the job.

That thing required more horsepower than Vista.

Hasta la vista Vista

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I use Capture One (C1) for RAW processing. So far, I'm not sure Aperture will do anything better than C1. It doesn't look like it will do 5% of what I use PS for.

Aperture for the Mac will probably end up hurting C1 in the long term. Depends on the quality of the RAW processing engine, and how quickly Apple responds to new DSLR's as they come out. Stacks and the Lupe - with the speed shown on the Apple website may make this the killer app for photographers.

 

[CalfCanuck]

"Project" limitations

The one thing that has me worried is the line in the Tech specs (Photo Management, 4th item) that limits the number of Master Images in a "Project" to 10,000. For my uses this could be a serious limitation.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/specs.html

Did anyone play with a demo of this at the announcement, or was it "show and tell" only?

I'm guessing that for actual use we might need to use loads of smaller (sub 10,000 image) projects and then gather from those into a separate global, edited "Project". Sort of like the old days of multiple hard drives when we had the 2 GB limit ...

 

[workphoto.net]

The one thing that has me worried is the line in the Tech specs (Photo Management, 4th item) that limits the number of Master Images in a "Project" to 10,000. For my uses this could be a serious limitation.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/specs.html

Did anyone play with a demo of this at the announcement, or was it "show and tell" only?

I'm guessing that for actual use we might need to use loads of smaller (sub 10,000 image) projects and then gather from those into a separate global, edited "Project". Sort of like the old days of multiple hard drives when we had the 2 GB limit ...

from the aperture tech specs page:
"Work with thousands of projects"

"Include up to 10,000 “master” images per Project with as many “versions” as needed"

you take more than 10,000 images in a shoot? you would go through many shutters and camera bodies in a years time, and how do you easily catalog that many images now?

 

[rotorblade]

Did anyone play with a demo of this at the announcement, or was it "show and tell" only?

Apple had a nice setup. On the left side of their booth, they had a fairly large area where they held training classes. You could sit down, put on a set of headphones and follow along as the presenter/instructor walked you through Aperture. The had 4 different classes that lasted about 30 to 45 minutes each as I recall. On the right side of their booth, they held the normal type presentations, first on Tiger, then Aperture. The remaining two sides of their booth had numerous computers with Aperture running on them.

I had an opportunity to play with Aperture for about 15 minutes or so. My overall impression of the application was very positive. Since purchasing my DSLR, I've shot in RAW almost from the very beginning. Based on the level of image processing I normally perform on my images, I feel Aperture is going to be perfect for my needs.

 

[CalfCanuck]

from the aperture tech specs page:
"Work with thousands of projects"

"Include up to 10,000 “master” images per Project with as many “versions” as needed"

you take more than 10,000 images in a shoot? you would go through many shutters and camera bodies in a years time, and how do you easily catalog that many images now?

For me, a typical two week field shoot would be about 5,000-6,000 images, and I don't use bracketing or "motor drive" type exposures.

I have a seven year project with about 50,000 images from Germany, currently in a Cumulus catalog. I chose Cumulus a number of years ago for it's general media handling, as my multimedia project also includes text and audio as well as images. It's slow, prone to crashing, and has limited RAW support (even with their RAW import module), but works as good as anything out there for my current needs (damning by faint praise!).

As I continuously shoot more images, they get added to my exiting "project" database. Thinking in terms of a two-week long "shoot" does me no good. Of course I can break it into smaller sub-catalogs, but that would introduce all sorts of problems.

Edit: I understand I'd give up the general media cataloging with Aperture, but I could live with that if the image work flow is greatly improved.

 

[mcarnes]

Photoshop needs a new UI like no one's business.

Amen to that!

 

[bikertwin]

Aperture is flexible

For me, a typical two week field shoot would be about 5,000-6,000 images, and I don't use bracketing or "motor drive" type exposures.

I have a seven year project with about 50,000 images from Germany, currently in a Cumulus catalog. I chose Cumulus a number of years ago for it's general media handling, as my multimedia project also includes text and audio as well as images. It's slow, prone to crashing, and has limited RAW support (even with their RAW import module), but works as good as anything out there for my current needs (damning by faint praise!).

As I continuously shoot more images, they get added to my exiting "project" database. Thinking in terms of a two-week long "shoot" does me no good. Of course I can break it into smaller sub-catalogs, but that would introduce all sorts of problems.

Edit: I understand I'd give up the general media cataloging with Aperture, but I could live with that if the image work flow is greatly improved.

Albums can span projects in Aperture. So you could easily have GermanProjectPart1, GermanProjectPart2, etc., and then have albums that take images from one or more of those projects.

I don't see that as being a limitation for you at all.

 

[iGary]

from the aperture tech specs page:
"Work with thousands of projects"

"Include up to 10,000 “master” images per Project with as many “versions” as needed"

you take more than 10,000 images in a shoot? you would go through many shutters and camera bodies in a years time, and how do you easily catalog that many images now?

I have a 100,000 image library sitting in front of me right now.

I suppose I will still need Portfolio.

 

[CalfCanuck]

Albums can span projects in Aperture. So you could easily have GermanProjectPart1, GermanProjectPart2, etc., and then have albums that take images from one or more of those projects.

I don't see that as being a limitation for you at all.

But how do I search easily? The point of a DB is you search once, and it checks ALL the records for your criteria. If I have to check 6 or 7 different "projects" for every query, you lose the power of quick searches on meta data.

Even in the old pre-digital days, every image I shot with film had a unique number based on my naming system of year and then roll number. I just look over an Excel file for the appropriate roll (a particular village in Crete from 1995, for example), then can go to my shelves and grab the binder in about 20 seconds. Although in this example, the Excel file is missing most of the metadata-type info I'd want to attach to each image...

So the question is, how will I do my old "Excel like" cataloging with Aperture. This 10,000 image limit would really strain the usefulness of creating lots of Metadata tags, if they are locked inside each of those individual "Project" files.

I guess the key question is how these "Projects" share Metadata.

 

[Don't panic]

I have a 100,000 image library sitting in front of me right now.

i'm quickly approaching that with my newborn

 

[JCT]

Only thing I am worried about is applying batch actions. It works with external editors, but I am worried about this "saved original" thing.

I'm happy to do individual tweaks etc in Aperture, but I also need to do batch sharpening etc....I have not seen that yet and I have scoured the Aperture site.

Anyone?

I was at PhotoExpo in NYC last weekend and got to spend a fair amount of time fiddling with the App, watching demos and talking with the reps.

The closest thing I saw to batch processing was the so called "Lift and Stamp" feature. The example used was a series of shots of the same scene with fubared white balance (talk about something that *everyone* has done at one time or another) . Several adjustments were made, including using the loupe function to find a white reference point (cool!). At this point, either all or some of the corrections were applied to the entire set just by selecting and applying them. This includes cropping, btw. My guess is that any adjustment can be included in this approach. The rather blase NY audience erupted into quite an enthusiastic bunch with that particular demo as the time-saving aspects were quite clear.

And I've already submitted my order as well.

JT

 

[chiiyo]

What I'm really interested in is the extent Aperture works with formats other than RAW. I understand that I'm not the target audience for Aperture, but I absolutely would not switch to digital anytime soon (I love my Nikon FM2 far too much), and I'm excited about using Aperture for dealing with my scanned-in images, which would most likely be big-ass TIFFs or even JPGs from a Coolscan. The one thing I'm worried about is that the tools like Levels and Exposure might be intricately linked to the RAW format, which makes Aperture a lot less useful than I thought it would be. Also, I hope that all the tools availble to RAW formats would be open to all other formats Aperture seems to support, or I'd be very disappointed (but granted, I'm really not part of the target consumer base here, just a dedicated hard-core film hobbyist).

There is a strange absence of educational pricing in the Singapore store. I thought there wasn't going to be edu pricing because of the pro-level targeting but apparently there is edu pricing in America. *sigh*