Since it
was released in 2005, Aperture has held a special place in MacUser’s
heart. For one thing, it’s a capable, fluid photo editor by a company that
isn’t Adobe, and there’s no disputing its suitability in professional
photographic workflows. However, Apple has had to work hard to keep up:
Photoshop Lightroom (MacUser,
30 March 2012, p26), has gone from strength to strength, building on its core
usability and editing strengths, and now includes decidedly consumer touches
such as Apple-challenging Book and Maps modules.
Familiar face There
are no major user interface overhauls here - Apple is likely to be saving those
for Aperture 4, whenever that eventually arrives
Lightroom
has also become more competitive. When Aperture first moved into the App Store
in 2011 at $72, it knocked spots off Lightroom’s $320
price tag. Now, with Aperture costing $88 and Lightroom’s
price slashed to $166.4, the choice for serious photographers has become less
clear.
With such
tough competition, scrutiny of each application’s point releases - Lightroom’s now up to 4.1, and the most recent update to
Aperture brings it to version 3.3 - gets closer, and there’s no doubt that
Aperture 3.3 is the most well-featured version of the software yet.
Many of the
new features fall into the “nice to have category”. But one that users will
appreciate immediately whether they wanted it or not is the far, far tighter
integration between Aperture and iPhoto. Given that every Mac sold comes with
iPhoto, the fact that Apple’s flagship photo editor hardly interfaced with it
at all was odd: after all, the chances of one person with access to your Mac
wanting to use a high-end photo editor while someone else simply wants to
muddle about in iPhoto are very high. Now, finally, users of iPhoto ’11 and
Aperture 3.3 can use a single, common catalogue. No more importing images into
each application separately, and it allows you to use
Apple’s two pieces of photo management and editing software interchangeable
depending what you want to do.
The common
catalogue means various bits of metadata carry through both applications: label
a photo in iPhoto with someone’s face, for example, and the label will appear
in Aperture. The same goes for the geotags you add.
It all means that if you prefer to simply use iPhoto for scanning through
images and exporting them for the web, you can do it without needing a catalogue
for Aperture images and another for finished images in iPhoto.
There are a
few editing changes, largely aimed at simplifying the editing process. For
example, the white balance slider has gained a long-overdue Auto button.
There’s also an all-purpose Auto-Enhance button for those who don’t want to
engage with Aperture’s more complex features. We think this is a slightly
confusing message: why a photographer would use Aperture and resist learning
how t use tone curves or sharpening is beyond us. In
practice, though, the new button works well and intelligently. It added a
subtle tone curve to most of our images, as well as a touch of vibrancy and a
gentle pull on the shadow slider, instantly adding a little extra punch and
depth to images.
Not all the
changes are necessarily for the better. The re-labelling
of ‘metadata’ and ‘master’ as ‘info’ and ‘original’ stand out as sops to the
less technical - the plain-Eng-lish
approach may be welcome to some, but may feel a little patronising
for more experienced users.
For those
still on the fence about which one-stop workflow application to get, Aperture
3.3 makes the decision harder still. The changes to this version make it more
suitable for consumer photographers who want a high-end application but don’t
want to spend the three figures required by Lightroom
for professionals, Lightroom continues to be our
recommendation - its interface remains arguably the more refined of the two
apps. But for aspiring photographers, this relatively large update makes
Aperture more compelling than ever.
Tough decision The gap
between Aperture and Lightroom continues to narrow,
and which to choose is becoming a matter of personal taste rather than
superiority
Blowing hot and cold Aperture’s white balance control
finally gains an Auto button for those users who don’t want to get tangled up
in the consideration of colour temperatures
Playing tag New iPhoto
and Aperture integration means keywords, geotags and
face tagging carry between Apple’s two editing apps
Information
Price $88
From App Store
Pro Unified iPhoto/Aperture catalogue
* New auto editing buttons
Con Newly simplified language won’t
suit everyone
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