Camera Labs

For the Mac/Aperture users out there. If you haven't already then I'd highly recommend giving the new Aperture 2 Trial a go. I tried it last night and It's really quite impressive!

Among some of things they've changed/added;

The rendering time of adjustments has been greatly reduced as well as the addition of the new RAW 2.0 module (upgraded from 1.1), which adds a whole host of new RAW adjustments. They've combined the Project Inspector, Metadata and Adjustments Inspector into one tabbed HUD on the left, Maximising screen real-estate. It sounds restricted but in practice it's actually really easy to flip between all the info you need without taking away any screen space away from the photo viewer.

Apple have also introduced Project Skimming to come in line with the new Leopard and iLife '08 features (skim the mouse over a Project Thumbnail and it flips through all the photos in that project)

One of my wish-list items also made it in version 2 in the form of the vignette and devignette adjustments tool. Lightroom has this already and I was a bit gutted that Aperture 1.5.6. didn't.

If you use Aperture 1.5.6 currently then DON'T FORGET to rename your Aperture.app and your library database BEFORE installing the Aperture 2 trial. Upgrading your current library to Aperture 2 is a one-way process!

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There are also some pretty informative tutorials for 2.0 HERE.

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Yes it is great! I have the trial and it is a major improvement over 1.5.6 as it includes RAW support for several new cameras including my Canon G9

I am planning on buying it over the weekend and having the latest version. I plan to take some RAW shots and possibly print out 20 by 30 photos.

Also I couldn't open my Aperture 1.5.6 version in the trial because it wont let you unless you have a fully licensed version for the program which is sorta good because if you don't like the trial, you can go back to 1.5.6 and use that without rendering your library unusable.

Anyone else have/plan on getting it?

What's the difference between Aperture 2.0 or Photoshop Elements 6? Are they virtually the same?

Aperture is easier to edit with, sort your pictures into projects and categories and it runs a lot faster with RAW images since the 2.0 upgrade.

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1D Mark III | 5D Mark II | G9

Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8 L | 70-200 f4 L IS | 50 f1.8 II | 85 f1.2 Mark II L

580EX | 580 EX II

iMac, i7 MacBook Pro + Aperture & CS5 Master collection
My website

so for a complete newbie beginner who knows nothing about editing but wants to learn gradually, aperture 2.0 is more suited than Photoshop elements 6?

I started with Aperture myself so I can safely say that's easy to get into for a newbie, in my opinion. I've tried Elements on my father-in-law's laptop and I found it really clunky personally.

If you have a Mac then try the demo!

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Id say Aperture 2.0 is the way to go. Most of Apple's software is very simple to use and produces great results. There are also several tutorial videos on the Apple site for their applications including Aperture 2.0. For those who are really technologically challenged there are in store 1 on 1 tutors for it too.

All around I'd say that Aperture is the most intuitive.

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1D Mark III | 5D Mark II | G9

Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8 L | 70-200 f4 L IS | 50 f1.8 II | 85 f1.2 Mark II L

580EX | 580 EX II

iMac, i7 MacBook Pro + Aperture & CS5 Master collection
My website

is iPhoto redundant once you get Aperture then? should you transfer all your photo library to the Aperture library, or is iPhoto still useful?

They actually work hand in hand.

With Aperture 2 you can work with iPhoto still and import all your images as referenced files.

After going to Aperture, I did not want to go back to iPhoto (you may if you print photos and want to do so easily, then again with Aperture 2 its much simpler to do.

As other people described it, "Aperture is iPhoto on steroids"

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1D Mark III | 5D Mark II | G9

Canon EF 24-70mm F2.8 L | 70-200 f4 L IS | 50 f1.8 II | 85 f1.2 Mark II L

580EX | 580 EX II

iMac, i7 MacBook Pro + Aperture & CS5 Master collection
My website

Have to agree. I personally didn't find any use for iPhoto after moving to Aperture. The limited text searching in Aperture works like lightening and with the various 3rd party export plug-ins for things like Flickr and general FTP (I use this to upload to PhotoBox personally), Aperture is all I need.

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If anything, I think Aperture should be compared to Lightroom, not Photoshop Elements.

As for myself, I was already using Aperture and i have to admit that version 2 makes it even way better - I'm more and more happy to have a mac for photography.

The two programs do different things. I use aperture and PS3 or PS CS3 (how ever you want to say it). Yeah and I been using Aperture 2 great.

Tip: If you take images out of aperture and into photo shop and do a little editing and then put the images back into aperture you can do it all with out having to save anything.

If you go into your Prefs you set the external image editing software to photoshop and then when you want to edit a image in PS you (From the top of my head) Right click or maybe you have to go into the tool bar. Im not sure but it automatically opens up your image as a tiff into photo shop you do the editing and as your changing the file in PS you can see the changes in aperture. It is pretty cool then when your done close PS (don't even need to save it) and the image is in aperture as a new image.

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Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm IS
Knowledge of Photography: Hours of reading and videos.
Computer: iMac 24inch 3.06Ghz 4gb ram 500gb HD Nvidia 8800 GS 512mb

hi!
has anyone gone from (with aperture 2) the trial first and then bought the version? what's the transition like? i read from the apple site, you just get given a new serial number? so is the trial version the same as the full version from the shop?
Do you just get the full version from a retailer and just use the serial number from that, no need to re-install anything?
thanks,

Yup, when you purchase Aperture 2 you just get a serial number you have to enter in the trial version and...voilà

So yes, the trial version and full version are exactly the same.

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D40 User