Apple's Aperture - Advice please....

[RedRobin]

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At loooong last I should be getting a new iMac very soon. Worth waiting for the new version which has just been launched, although there's always a new version imminent! So I'm thinking of Aperture (would be version 3) and wondering if anyone here has it and would recommend it or not or what shortfalls it has. I'll have Adobe CS 5.5 which includes Photoshop installed anyway.

Thanks for any info/input 

[rich83]

Ive got aperture 3 and its great for cataloguing.

After that it really depends on what you want to do. Sometimes I can achieve what I want in aperture, if I need to make adjustments in photoshop that can be achieve very easily too by either exporting the photo or by clicking the "edit in Photoshop CS?" from the menu system.

Aperture 3 is much more advanced that 2, there is a great black and white plugin by niksoft (Silver Efex) which integrates perfectly into aperture which i can let you have 

If you have specific queries let me know robin and il try and advise.

Rich

[RedRobin]

^^^^
Thanks, Rich  

It sounds ideal for me. Adobe Bridge is okay for cataloguing but has limitations. Aperture seems to have some straightforward editing features and that typical excellent Mac intuitive interface.

[rich83]

This is one of the great things with the photoshop integration.

In aperture elect the photo you want to edit in PS

Right click image "edit with adobe photoshop CS5"

(aperture duplicates the original image and automatically opens the image in PS)

Edit your photo and the just click save or press cmd+s, the image in saved directly into your aperture library.


So easy....

There are also lots of useful functions for editing photos in batches and watermarking etc etc. 

[alexperkins]

Aperture is truly excellent. Ive used it for years and Ver 3 is by far the best one yet 

[RedRobin]

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I assume you can upload pics directly from the camera into Aperture rather than iPhoto?

[rich83]

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I assume you can upload pics directly from the camera into Aperture rather than iPhoto?

Yes. Either from the camera, or by using a card reader.

Aperture will also import all your iPhoto pictures, so you wont lose anything.

Sleep time! 

[_Nathan_]

Look at Lightroom too, I switched from Aperture to Lightroom and preferred it, though this was on older versions of both.

[alexperkins]

I personally think aperture 3 is superior to lightroom these days

[Deako]

Aperture 3 fan as well here.

One thing, make sure you have a decent amount of RAM. Aperture kills my Macbook with 2GB Ram. I desperately need to upgrade this.

[RedRobin]

Aperture 3 fan as well here.

One thing, make sure you have a decent amount of RAM. Aperture kills my Macbook with 2GB Ram. I desperately need to upgrade this.

....My order is for 8 Gig of Ram as I use Logic - But thanks for the tip  . But surely 2 Gig on a MacBook is enough for Aperture? It's enough for Adobe CS.

[rich83]

Robin. I've got 8gb in my mac mini and it flys, aperture is very quick. Mines has to deal with up to 21mb images and it works fine. Dont get apple memory upgrade, it's a rip off. Get third party ram, I think I paid 120 quid fir 8gb.

[Betty02]

Never really used Aperture always just used Photoshop CS, is there anything more I can achieve in Aperture that I can't already in CS 5.5?

[andrewparker]

Another top tip; if you buy Aperture via the Apple Store online, or in-store, it costs in the region of £170. Buy it through the App Store on your Mac and it is £44.99

[RedRobin]

^^^^
Thanks, Andrew 

Apple already advised me to do that.