Ab Work Outs: Aperture 3 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)Before I start the review I need to add a few caveats.The first is I have not really used Adobe Lightroom so I will not be comparing Aperture 3 to Lightroom.(Lightroom is the biggest competitor to Aperture and from what I have read owns the majority of the market).I have tried Lightroom 3 and I could not get past the restrictive module system and the small editing space.I thought I was going to have to slog through learning how to used Lightroom 3 when Apple surprised and delighted me by releasing Aperture 3.Also, I haven't really used iPhoto that much since I got Aperture 2.So I will only be making passing remarks about those programs.The other caveat is that this is a massive program with massive upgrades and there is no way I can cover everything so I will be covering how this program handles my workflow.

Bottom Line Up Front:Aperture 3 is an amazing Photographic Workflow System that fits all of my professional and personal needs.Apple has implemented so many amazing features into this program that it is an absolute must upgrade from Aperture 2.For anyone interested in taking their photography up from the casual (iPhoto) to enthusiast level, Aperture 3 is a great tool to help you accomplish that.For anyone using Lightroom who hates being restricted by what module you are in, Aperture 3 offers amazing new professional features especially concerning showcasing your work.(Still+Video slideshoes, GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books are just some of the outstanding new features.)

One thing you need to know up front is that Aperture 3 has some stability issues.I have been using Aperture 3 for about 16 hours and have had about 8 crashes.One thing to note is that because of how Aperture works you do not lose any work.You just need to restart the program.I am sure we will be seeing a patch released relatively quickly.Aperture 2 was always the crashiest program I own (most Apple programs never crash but Aperture 2 crashed about 1 time every 8 hours).Unfortunately it looks right now that Aperture 3 will continue that tradition.I will say that Aperture 3 plays a lot better with Snow Leopard than Aperture 2 did.For me these crashes are irritating and I hope they get worked out.However, this is still a truly amazing upgrade over Aperture 2.

My basic digital workflow is to Organize, Edit and Showcase so this is how I will structure the review.

Organize

For Aperture 3, apple has added 2 new ways to organize you photos; Faces and Places.I have read some people disregarding these features as amateurish (You can switch them off if you don't want to use them.Also, faces slows Aperture down right after import as it scans for faces).I, for one, use Aperture 3 for professional and personal purposes.So even if these features were not professionally useful, I still like them (I do find them useful professionally also).These features are nice for allowing photos to stay together in the group in which they were shot. I used to have to pull photos out, especially of people, to relocate to another folder or project.Or I would have to add the person's name as a key word.Either way it was tedious and often required a compromise.Now I can leave all of the photos from a shoot in one location and find a person.Or I don't have to remember when I was shooting at a particular location.I can go to the map and find the photos that way.I think this is awesome from an organizational standpoint.A note on the faces feature.It does a fantastic job finding even the blurriest or off angle faces in a photo.However, it is not as good at recognizing people as I think it should be as it asked me to name some in-focus straight-on shots of people I had already named.This is still a great feature just don't expect miracles.

Aperture 2 used to really bog down once your library got over 10,000 photos.For this reason, I started creating a new library every quarter of the year.I don't know if Aperture 3 has fixed this 10,000 photo slowdown but what they have done is make Library management much better.First off you can change libraries on the fly without having to restart the program.You can also merge and export libraries from inside the program.This library management was one of the biggest things on my Aperture 3 wish list.Aperture 3 is a native 64 bit program so on the newer machines with Snow Leopard I am sure the limit will be higher than 10,000.However, because of Aperture's free-form design and differences between hard drive memory and the relatively small physical memory your computer has there will still be a point where large Aperture libraries will bog your computer down.

The final thing I will talk about concerning Organize are color labels, flags and a new sort option; sort by Orientation.I was just about to go through and hand sort by orientation so this feature will save me a ton of time.You can flag a photo by clicking the top right of the photo.You assign color labels by hitting the option key and 0-7 or by right clicking and selecting the color.The flag and color labels give you more options to quickly organize your photos.As an example, I used to sort my photos according to people, scenic nature, and abstract.Now I can leave the photos in their imported projects and just assign purple to people, green to nature, and yellow to abstract.Then I can make a smart album that sorts for green or yellow, etc.Sweet.Many times I have transition photos as I am processing the photos.Those photos can get in the way.Now I can flag them.Also, externally edited photos return to Aperture as TIFFs.These files get huge (try 60 MB per photo--ouch).Unfortunately, Aperture does not have a file type converter so after I get finished with the TIFFs I export them out as JPEGs and then import them back in as JPEGs.Then I delete the TIFFs.A laborious process but the flags can be used to help me keep track of the TIFF photos so when I get to the export process I can easily find them.

Edit

There have been many many upgrades to the photo editing abilities of Aperture 3.The two major categories are Presets and Adjustments.The Presets are quick fixes, color, white balance, Black and White, and adjustments.You even have the option to create your own presets.These Presets allow you to make quick adjustments without having to fiddle with the sliders.For example if the white balance is not quite right on your photo and you know you shot in tungsten light then just pick that preset and it adjusts the white balance for you.From what I have seen so far this even works well on JPEGs.You can do similar things with exposure and other parameters.

The Adjustments section has far too much to cover here in this already lengthy review.However, the quick brushes are a powerful new feature that I will try to cover.One example of these brushes is Dodge.This used to be a plug-in in Aperture 2 now it is in the program (If you are used to this from Aperture, all of the brushes work in the same way).The reason this is significant is that all of the in Aperture edits are non-destructive.That means you can always go back to where you started.All plug-in changes, one, create a new copy and permanently change that copy and, two, are TIFFs which take up a tremendous amount of space. All of the quick brushes allow you to resize the brush, change the amount of fall off around the edges, and strength of the brush.Additionally, all of the brushes have an overlay to show you where you have applied the change.Some of the other brushes included are dodge, burn, saturate, reduce noise, sharpen, etc.This is an incredibly powerful editing tool that allows you to non-destructively enhance your photos in some dramatic ways.

I had quite a few plug-ins with Aperture 2.The good news is that they work with Aperture 3.The bad news is they are 32 bit while Aperture 3 is 64 bit.The way Aperture 3 handles this is to close and then reboot into a 32 bit mode.Slightly annoying but I am glad my plug-ins still work.

My favorite plug-ins for Aperture are the Nik Effects programs.Even the new Aperture 3 editing tools do not render those plug-ins obsolete.However, I like to layer 3 to 4 filters over a photo.Since Aperture exports the photo out to the plug-in I can only layer 1 at a time and that means more transition photographs.Aperture needs to allow plug-ins to work inside of Aperture for non-destructive edits.

Finally, Aperture needs and in-program file type converter.The export/import routine is crazy and it is made worse by the fact that you lose rating, key words, etc.

Showcase

This is another area where Aperture 3 has really made amazing improvements.When I first got Aperture 2, I had a book printed and to me it wasn't even acceptable for home use, let alone professional use.Well that has changed with Aperture 3.You can download plug-ins from GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books.(Note you need to be a partner photographer or verified business to get the Queensberry or Leather Craftsmen plug-ins).Take a look at these books and you will be astounded by the quality.(For home users, the price will probably astound you but now you can see why wedding albums cost so much.)

Aperture 3 has also added a slide show function.What is cool about this feature is the ability to use both still and video in the slide show.Many believe this hybrid style is the future of publishing.With cheap electronic paper only a short way off, the day of stills only is coming to a close.Overall, the slide show creator is very good but falls short in a few areas.The first is the limited number of...Read more›

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Product Description:
Aperture 3 combines powerful performance with iPhoto simplicity to help you refine images, showcase your photography, and manage massive libraries on your Mac. With more than 200 new features and enhancements, it can help you take your photography to the next level. Now you can perfect your images with brushes. Apply adjustment presets to instantly create a custom look. And when you import your pictures from iPhoto, all name and location data is preserved.

Aperture 3 Upgrade

The Aperture 3 upgrade requires one of the following: a commercial version of Aperture 1.0 or later; or an academic version of Aperture 2.0 or later. Not-For-Resale (NFR) versions are not eligible for the upgrade.
Aperture 3 combines powerful performance with iPhoto simplicity to help you refine images, showcase your photography, and manage massive libraries on your Mac.

What's New in Aperture 3

Faces
Faces makes it faster and easier to search thousands of photos for shots of a particular person.
Find a face in a crowd.
Faces automatically detects faces in your photos. Once a face is detected and identified, Faces can recognize that face and then scan your entire library--or individual projects--to find others just like it. It can even find a specific face in group shots. The more you use Faces, the smarter and more accurate it gets, making it easier to find shots of a particular person.
Put a name to the face.
When Faces shows you an unidentified face, simply type in the person's name. When you export your final images, the name is embedded as a keyword.
Aperture takes Faces further.
Aperture 3 expands on the power of Faces in iPhoto '09. Not only can you view the people you name across the entire library, you can now see them in individual projects. And the new Show Unnamed Faces pane displays all the detected-but-not-yet-named faces in a project to help you easily add names.
Places
Now you can use GPS location data to explore your photos by the places they were taken. Better still, find them on an interactive map.
Organize your library by location, location, location.
If you're shooting with a GPS-enabled camera, Aperture 3 uses reverse geocoding to convert location coordinates into familiar location names, then displays those locations on the Places map. If you're using a separate GPS tracking device, the path of your photo journey appears on the map when you import a track log. You can even extract locations from iPhone tracker apps or your iPhone photos. Which means you can instantly find all your Yellowstone photos, for example, without typing the word "Yellowstone." Photos can be organized by country, state, city, or a point of interest such as Old Faithful or the park visitor center.
Put your photos on the map.
If a photo doesn't include GPS metadata, simply drag the photo to the spot on the map where you shot it. A pin appears. Then, when you're searching for photos, use the map's navigation menu to quickly find the location. When you click the pin, Aperture displays all the photos taken there.
Easy course corrections.
If you need to change the location of your shot, drag the pin on the map across the street or across the country. The GPS data associated with the photo updates automatically, so you know where your photos are at all times.
Now you can group your photos by the people in them. Even within individual projects. Click to enlarge.
Using GPS coordinates and time data, Aperture can create a path tracking all the photos on your journey. Click to enlarge.
Smooth skin, change colors, blur the background, sharpen lines, intensify colors, and more. Click to enlarge.
Apply professional-style imaging effects to a single photo or across an entire project. Click to enlarge.
Brushes
New nondestructive, edge-aware brushes let you selectively apply powerful adjustments to photos.
Precise brush control.
Brushes let you paint in a wide range of effects to selectively fine-tune your photos. With precise control of the size, softness, and strength of each brush, you can adjust only the parts of the image you want, leaving the rest untouched. For example, you can burn the green of a palm leaf lying on a beach to decrease the exposure and make it darker, without touching the rest of your photo. Or you can dodge just its shadow to increase the exposure and bring out the detail of the sand. No matter how much you change an image, you can always go back to the original.
Brush in special effects.
Never before have so many special effect options been so easy to use. Smooth skin, change the color of the sky, blur the background, sharpen lines, intensify colors, and more.
Quick Brushes for quick fixes.
Fifteen Quick Brushes handle the most common touch-up jobs with just a few strokes. Dodge and burn, for example, or add a polarizing effect. Smooth imperfections in skin, reduce saturation, or sharpen detail. All Quick Brushes are easily accessible from the tool strip.
Brush inside the lines.
The Detect Edges option helps you make adjustments exactly where you want them. Say your image is of a dark mountain skyline against a red sunset. The brush actually sees the edge of the mountain, so you can brush color into the silhouetted mountain without splashing color into the sky. Or darken the red of the sunset without affecting the mountain. Detect Edges makes retouching easier and saves you time.
Adjustment Presets
Dozens of new adjustment presets give your photos a wide range of looks. In just one click.
One-click quick fixes.
Ready-to-use Quick Fix adjustment presets sharpen images, pump up vibrancy, perform quick exposure shifts, make easy white balance changes, and recover blown highlights. You can also experiment with a variety of effects, from sepia to cross process color shifts to black-and-white in different contrast grades. Apply any combination of adjustments with a single click. And because adjustments are nondestructive in Aperture 3, another click can remove effects and return your photo to its original state.
Experiment with different processing techniques and styles.
How would your photo look in sepia? Or in high-contrast black and white? What if the shot had been taken with a toy camera? Adjustment presets let you apply these effects and others instantly to a single photo or across an entire project.
Instantly see adjustments in a preview screen.
It's easy to see how different adjustment presets will change your image. Move your cursor over the different preset options, and a pop-up window previews the image in each effect as quickly as you can scroll.
Create your own adjustment presets.
If you've created just the right look for a photo and want to apply it across a project, Aperture 3 saves you hours of work. Just save your refinements as an adjustment preset and apply it wherever and whenever you like. You can also import adjustment presets created by other Aperture users or export your own to share.
Full-Screen Browser
Take advantage of your Apple display to get a big, uncluttered, full-screen view of your library.
Full-screen everything.
Browse through your entire library in the full-screen Browser, quickly moving from project to project without leaving full-screen view. Make selects and compare them side by side. Zoom from 25 percent to 1000 percent to study details. Even browse your video. All on your brilliant Apple display.
No obstructions, no distractions.
You want to see your photos, not control panels. The Aperture 3 Vanishing HUD feature lets you temporarily hide the Adjustments inspector so you can work on your photos full screen, with nothing in the way. Just select the control you want and hold down the Shift key. Everything but that control melts away, leaving you an unobstructed view of your work.
Instantly browse through your projects.
With Aperture 3, browsing through your library becomes a visual feast. Use the Library Path Navigator to instantly move between projects, then view resizable thumbnails using every inch of your screen. Not only is it easier to find what you're looking for, you get a beautiful view of all the great shots you've taken.
Advanced Slideshows
Create spectacular multimedia shows with photos, HD video clips, titles, layered soundtracks, and professionally designed themes.
Use familiar iPhoto '09 slideshow themes. And more.
If you're moving from iPhoto '09, the slideshows you created with themes such as Snapshot and Shatter are preserved in all their brilliance. Aperture 3 includes all iPhoto themes and two new themes: Watercolor Panels and Photo Edges. Each theme gives you a professionally designed layout, title treatment, and transitions to create a distinctive backdrop for your photos. Choose a theme, drop in some photos and HD video clips, and produce amazing slideshows in seconds.
Combine photos, audio, and video clips in one show.
If your camera records video, you can import it into your library along with your stills and include it in your slideshow. Just drag a video clip into the slideshow as easily as you add a photo.
Create and edit layered soundtracks.
To personalize your slideshow, just add music from your iTunes library (DRM-free only). Then drop in audio clips stored in your Aperture library--voiceovers, narration, or other sounds recorded on location--for a multilayered soundtrack. If you're including video in your slideshow, you can add the audio from the video, too.
Tap out the time of your fades and cuts.
Talk about fingertip control. With Aperture 3, you control the pace of your slideshow with the tap of a finger. As you watch the slideshow, press the Return key to determine when each slide begins and ends. As you tap out each slide change, Aperture 3 records your custom timings.
Add titles, borders, and colors.
When using the Classic and Ken Burns themes, you can add titles anywhere in the slideshow in your choice of font, size, and style. Choose borders and background colors. Scale photos. Even control fades and adjust transition times.
You've taken a great shot. Now you're ready to make it even better. Aperture 3 gives you all the tools you need to turn your photography into so much more.

How Great Shots Become Spectacular

Import
Preview and adjust images while you import.
Aperture 3 lets you get to work faster.
The fun begins even before you finish importing your photos. Double-click thumbnails in the Import window to view images, play videos, and hear audio files before they're fully imported. If you're on a deadline, you can begin adjusting an image even if it's still being copied from your memory card to your Mac.
While the files are importing, Aperture 3 grabs data like shutter speed, aperture, lens, and focus points and starts sorting it right away. You can even add your own keywords and automatically apply an adjustment preset on import.
For extra flexibility, Aperture lets you store your images wherever and however you like--directly in Aperture 3, on external drives, or in their original folders. Choose to import RAW and JPEG images together or as separate images so you can work with them individually. And Aperture 3 can automatically back up your master images to a second drive during import.
Organize
Organize easily with Faces or Places or by project.
Organize by Faces.
The popular Faces feature in iPhoto '09 comes to Aperture 3, where it has even more power. As in iPhoto, Faces uses face detection technology to find faces in your photos. Once you identify a person, Faces quickly scans your library, or an individual project, to find more photos of that person. Let's say you want to find photos of the bride's father in the O'Rourke wedding project. Once you've identified his face in one photo, Faces finds other photos he appears to be in. You simply confirm the suggested matches to apply his name to those photos.
Check photos and videos you want to import, select a project or create a new one, and decide where you want the files stored. Click to enlarge.
You can group your projects by year to keep even the largest libraries well organized. Click to enlarge.
Display your photos full screen, side by side so you can see more detail when making selects. Click to enlarge.
Create dramatic prints and custom books with Apple-designed templates. Click to enlarge.
Organize by Places.
There's no easier way to organize photos than with Places. Places converts location data from GPS-enabled cameras and geo-tracker devices into common location names. Then it displays those locations as pins on the Places map. If your camera doesn't capture GPS data, you can assign locations by dragging your photos to the map. Later, when browsing your photos, just click the location pin on the map and all the photos shot there are instantly displayed.
Organize any way you want.
Group your projects by year or organize them in hierarchical folders to bring order to even the largest photo library. Add descriptive keywords, captions, or information such as copyright and contact details to any of your photos. Then use the powerful Aperture search engine to find photos based on almost any criteria. You can even search for photos based on the image adjustments applied to each photo.
Compare and Select
Use color labels and flags to make selects in the full-screen Browser.
Browse photos full screen.
Use every inch of your beautiful Apple display to make selects and compare images side by side. Browse your photos at high speed, instantly navigating between projects. When it's time to make selects, use ratings, flags, and color labels to organize your best shots. Use the Loupe to examine detail, or zoom and pan multiple images at once.
Perfect and Enhance
Retouch and enhance photos using powerful adjustment presets and brushes.
Adjustment presets.
Dozens of ready-to-use adjustment presets let you apply professional-style imaging effects to a single photo or across an entire project. Quick Fix presets can take care of common problems including blown highlights and low contrast. Other adjustment presets apply processing techniques and styles, such as a toy or vintage camera look. You can also create your own adjustment presets or import presets from colleagues. And since all adjustments are nondestructive, you can revert back from the changes you make at any time or even restore your original master images.
The Zoom Navigator displays a thumbnail to help you move around a zoomed image, so it's even easier to find and perfect details.
Precision brushes.
Nondestructive brushes let you make selective adjustments to specific parts of your image without creating masks or layers. Control brush size, softness, and strength while you dodge and burn or apply effects such as blurring, skin smoothing, and polarization. Fifteen Quick Brushes handle the most common touch-up jobs with a few strokes. Detect Edges makes it easy to retouch areas with greater accuracy--deepening the colors of a mountain range, for instance, while leaving the sky untouched.
Share
Share photos on MobileMe or popular sites such as Flickr and Facebook.
Custom multimedia slideshows.
Create impressive multimedia slideshows with photos, custom titles, HD videos, and layered soundtracks. It's as easy as dragging your photos and videos into one of the themed slideshow templates in Aperture. If you want a more customized slideshow, you can choose the Classic or Ken Burns theme and control transitions, background and border colors, and the font, size, and style of your titles. Sharing slideshows is simpler, too. Aperture exports your slideshows to iTunes so you can sync them to your iPhone or iPod touch, then share them anywhere.
Export. Easy.
When you're ready to share your photos, you can send them to Flickr or Facebook with a couple of clicks. Or take advantage of a variety of export plug-ins to upload photos directly to sites including SmugMug, iStockphoto, and PhotoShelter. Because Aperture is integrated with the Mac OS X Media Browser, you can easily include photos from your library in iLife or iWork documents. Or make them "to go" by syncing them to your iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV.
MobileMe Gallery showings.
Aperture offers fully integrated MobileMe Gallery support, so you can publish your photos using your MobileMe account. Simply select the photos you want to share and click the MobileMe button. Keep your gallery private, make it public, or share it with select people. Visitors can download JPEG or original RAW files directly from your site and even contribute their own photos to your gallery.
Print
Create dramatic prints and custom books with Apple-designed templates.
Your book. Made to order.
Create and order premium-quality photo books right from Aperture. You have the tools and professional book templates to design books in small, medium, large, and extra-large 13x10-inch formats. Use one of the 11 themed templates, or customize a template by adding, removing, and resizing text and photo boxes to create a one-of-a-kind book. For a professional touch, all hardcover books come with a full-bleed, satin-finish cover with a wraparound dust jacket.
New book themes.
Aperture 3 includes two new book themes: Photo Essay, a simple, elegant, photojournalist-style layout; and Journal, which includes scrapbook-style borders and large spreads.
Travel maps.
Use either of the new themes to illustrate your photo books with customizable maps, showing the locations of any or all the photos in your book. If it's a book of your travels, you can drop in a map that uses the location data stored with your photos to map your journey.
Printing prowess.
You have many printing options with Aperture 3. Customize the margins, crop on the fly to match the aspect ratio of your paper, and add borders in custom widths and sizes. Create a sheet of wallet-size prints or passport photos. Take advantage of the color-managed print engine for reliable color rendition. Adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness to fine-tune your images. Add metadata to large prints or contact sheets with your choice of font, size, and style. Include watermarks or your own header--including a logo--on every printed sheet. And when your settings are just the way you want, save them as a preset for future prints.

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