Tech & Biz

Aperture 3: Apple Announces Photo Editing Software Update

by Jordan Yerman | February 9, 2010 at 08:08 am

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Apple has announced Aperture 3, an update to their pro-level photo preproduction software, which is creeping more and more into production territory. An update has been long overdue, since Aperture and iPhoto currently share too many common denominators for a pro to want to spend more money on Aperture. Adobe's equivalent, Lightroom 3, is currently in public beta.

Aperture 3 just hit the Apple website this morning, and the new features look pretty good: mainly the Brushes feature, which steals a feature from Photoshop, and the Adjustment Presets, to assign stored custom color profiles to an existing image. Normally you'd do this in-camera, if you camera supports custom profiles.

At the moment, though, I'm good with Aperture 2, since I output to Photoshop anyway, but we'll see. If you've never used preproduction software, I recommend trying Aperture or Lightroom- not useful for small quantities of photos: I open Aperture for anything over 50 images that I plan on editing.

There's a new image-refinement tool called Brushes, which allows users to paint adjustments directly on to images. And a new Projects feature adds flexibility. Aperture 3 will run in 64-bit mode on Snow Leopard and 64-bit processors.

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Uwe Paschen

at 08:13 on February 9th, 2010

What will be the price tag of this new software? And will it be worth the investment?

Jordan Yerman

at 08:23 on February 9th, 2010

It's $199 in the US; definitely pricier elsewhere. As to whether or not it's worth it... depends on how many photos you edit. I couldn't work without preproduction software: Bridge is okay, but I like Aperture more. I was one of the early beta testers for Lightroom's initial release, which whetted my appetite for streamlined photo management (that's a weird thing to type, but still). Also, Aperture's versioning and stacking processes are awesome.