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Full Version, Platform(s): Mac; Standard License, Package Type: Retail, For 1 User/s, DVD-ROM |  |
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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Managing and Tweaking Photos
Having used both Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture, I have to say that I am more comfortable working in Aperture. It has something to do with not feeling locked into an interface structure that I don't particularly want to come back to time and again. Aperture is open and I can accomplish what I need to do without feeling constrained. | 5 | Today | Aperture 2.0 has been released!
In other words, you should not buy version 1.5. (You will for a while get an upgrade for 9.95 from Apple.) But since the new version is $199... Well, you do the math.
Looks like a ton of new and improved features, so check it out. | 3 | Today | Let's talk candidly!
5 stars because it is a promissing new program positioned for very strong success due to Apples market position and its use, and availablity on its Mac computers
The good news:
This is a great program for viewing, organizing and performing basic editing using RAW files. The presentation ablilities of this software are magnificent. I will mainly use it to organize, display, present, email, create slideshow or DVD's, and maybe print from my databases on my Mac.
For advanced photo editing features you will have to rely on other methods.
The not so good news:
Aperture 1.5 is the second in the line from Mac for Mac use. Photoshop would be the obvious choice for any type of advanced photo editing or graphics creation softwares. If that is your thing, get Photoshop or one of its dirivatives. Or install vmware fusion or parallels and work windows XP or Vista on your Mac, and use the wide variety of photo processing applications available for windows. You can save the file in RAW, Jpeg, Tiff or whatever, and then open it up in Aperture for any additional presentation commands within your Mac.
Again hopefully this product is in its early development stage. The folks at Aperture must add a slew of editing features to remain relevant as other softwares catch up and exceed the demands placed by the new Dual Core technologies which are emerging.
What it doesn't do:
Take Layering for example, or working with layers. Take one click auto fix commands for contrast, levels, lighting, sharpness, exposure etc.(somewhat,but very archaic) Along with macro adjustments for the same. How about one click Black and white, spehia, antique, negative or other conversions. iPhoto does it. how about a back and forth over changes command for quick do's and undo's.Where is Hue alteration(found it!), Diffuse glow, texture and color, copy, and clone features. Paint, text, edges, and filters. good gracious, where are all the filters? Why cant you cut, copy, duplicate and paste from one pic to another?
I guess it depends on where you have been regarding advanced photo processing features offered by all the variants of photoprocessing softwares. And what you are ultimately trying to create.
This is 90% workflow and organizing software/10% editing.
Again, Hopefully the folks at Aperture plan to expand this products capability before the plethera of available softwares make it irrellevant. It would be nice to have one software for everything. Aperture is just one part of the solution at this point.
| 5 | Today | Niche Product Without a Niche
I have Aperture, but I haven't touched it since Apple introduced iPhoto '08.
For organizing your photos--even by the thousands-- nothing beats iPhoto. Better still, iPhoto '08 comes for free on a new Macintosh, or can upgrade to it for eighty bucks with the purchase of Apple's latest iLife suite. For 90% of what I need to do, iPhoto does just fine. For the other 10% of my photo editing needs, the heavy-duty stuff, nothing but full-on Photoshop CS3 will do.
So where does that leave Aperture? In between the cracks of iPhoto and Photoshop.
There's nothing wrong with Aperture. But it's not the organizer that iPhoto '08 is, and it's a much weaker editor than Photoshop. Save yourself the money and don't bother. | 3 | Today | iphoto with more teeth
This program is basically a more involved iphoto. You can change levels, crop or straighten, add all your meta-info and organize the photos. If you want this to take place of photoshop cs3 or something like that, you aren't going to be happy with Aperature at all. badbadbad for image manipulation..goodgood for adjusting contrast or exposure. Actually, iphoto is good enough. Dont buy this, get photoshop. | 3 | Today | Pretty Good, but not outstanding
Nice set of features. Pretty good raw converter, however noise reduction algorithms can be improved. Major drawback for me is under heavy usage - Aperture (with latest patches etc) regulary (once in couple of hours) crashes. | 4 | Today | Powerful, flexible and a resource hog
I am an amateur photographer who shoots a lot of RAW files. I bought Aperture because I liked the powerful organizational and correction tools, as well as the flexibility built into the work flow. I really like being able to tag my files with keywords during the import process. Stacks are a wonderful way to quickly reduce the number of photos at which I am looking. Non-destructive editing of my files is great and I really appreciate that Aperture conserves hard drive space by not creating a new file when I apply changes. Unlike Photoshop Lightroom, which I also tried, Aperture makes it easy to do the photo management and improvement steps in any order that I choose. The one big problem is that Aperture can be very slow. I have an Intel iMac with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 3 GB of RAM. Aperture still slows down on a regular basis and makes me wait for it. The issue may be that I have only 128 MB of video RAM. I would recommend trying the trial version if there is any doubt about the speed of your Mac. | 4 | Today | Terrific photo organization product - and then some.
Apple has again outdone themselves and created a terrific tool for organizing and cataloging photographs. There is a small learning curve, as to be expected with any product that provides so much flexibilty, but the user's manual that came with the product is excellent and walks you through everything you need to know - easily and understandably. Some of the best money I've ever spent. | 5 | Today | Apple Aperture V1.5
This is truly a professional level digital photography post-processing package. It is also excellent for handling and storing digital imagery. It sports several features that are very unique, for example if you already have a photographic file structure you can have Aperture pull the images without moving them and changes made to these images do not impact the original files.
This is a must have package if you do digital photo post processing on the Macintosh. | 5 | Today | Outstanding RAW Conversion and Photo Organization/Management - Highly Recommended!
I have been using Aperture since version 1.1, and love it. The few issues/disappointments I had were resolved with version 1.5.x.
In terms of my camera, it is Nikon's top-of-the-line D2X. As such, the RAW files that Aperture has to deal with are large 12-megapixel images. And Aperture handles said images with ease. (Bear in mind that I am running Aperture on a first-generation MacBook Pro 17" laptop.)
I also evaluated Adobe Lightroom -- both during Beta and after the 1.0 release -- and it is also a great program. But I much prefer Aperture's UI, as it does not "get in the way" as much as Lightroom's does. (Having to switch between Lightroom's various modules -- Library, Develop, etc. -- tends to impede my workflow.)
My personal preferences aside, both Aperture and Lightroom are outstanding applications. The only caveat is that both require powerful hardware when working with large RAW files.
Bottom line, you may want to download the trial version of each, to see which is more comfortable. Otherwise, at least as of this writing (Aperture 1.5.x vs. Lightroom 1.0.x), both are evenly matched feature-wise. | 5 | Today |
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