It used to be one could get by with just Photoshop and your own folder management and manual organization system, but for photographers who routinely have days with photographs numbering in the hundreds or thousands, a good work flow application is now essential. Fortunately, this demand supports a good number of competing programs that are all struggling for a piece of the pro-photo pie. Two of the well known apps in this category are Adobe’s Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture. Having used both, I don’t think there will ever be a TKO and a clear winner. Instead, I hope to see both continue to push each other in new directions. In this spirit, I was very excited to see Apple release its long awaited version 3 of Aperture, with many of the features I’ve been hoping for. Here is a quick review of my favorite new features and what apple has to say about them. Watch for an upcoming article detailing my hands-on experience.
Major Improvements
Non-destructive Brushes:
I’ve been waiting for this one! This is one of the areas they are playing catch-up to Lightroom. Prior to this version, Aperture users were left with plug-ins such as Viveza. The polarizing brush and skin smoothing brush seem promising.
Make nondestructive image enhancements to specific areas of any photo using new adjustment brushes. Use brush strokes to modify — brush in or brush away — most of the standard image adjustments available in the Adjustments inspector. You can control the size, softness, and strength of each brush with intuitive sliders. Blend adjustments more easily — and achieve more realistic results — by taking advantage of the feathering tool available for each imaging adjustment brush. Turn on the Detect Edges option, and Aperture will detect hard edges as you brush, making it easier to brush adjustments into specific areas of a photo. Deepen color, and darken shadow areas and mid-tones, without affecting the black and white points in an image using the new Polarize brush. Use the new Skin Smoothing brush to apply a gentle blur effect, creating smoother-looking skin.
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