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Aperture 2

Way ahead of the competition

Written by CC from Ottawa

Oct 19, 2008

There are several amazing features about this product that makes it the best in its class (for quick photo edititng and organization). First of all, its interface is extremely clean and well organized so that it makes it very easy for the user to find everything that he needs. Also, this product has great features for organizing your phtots and finding them very quickly, viewing your photots in full screen mode and making quick but important adjustments to your photos. Overall, their is nothing tht compares to this product. Plus, it is virtually bug free and works the way you would expect an apple product to work. Keep up the good work apple!!!!

563 of 636 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Worth and useful for photographers

Written by VC from Brooklyn

Oct 2, 2008

I am an amateur photographer, and this has proven to be more useful to me personally than iphoto w/more functions in terms of its software specializes in filing, comparing, editing, exporting your work. In a metaphor it's a cabinet that holds all your pictures in an orderly manner; it allows you to lay it out on a light table digitally, photoshop is there to polish the specifics of individual pictures. It's worth an investment.

568 of 657 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Your Snow Leopard Ate My Aperture!!

Written by BW from Chicago

Oct 4, 2009

What a bummer! After successfully upgrading my MacBook to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, I was horrified to learn that my perfectly good version of Aperture will not work with the new ops system. It would have been nice to have been warned about this before the fact or have been provided the opportunity to purchase a compatibility enhancement. This really stinks Apple:-(

274 of 304 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Excellent program for any serious hobbyist

Written by MP from COLORADO SPRINGS

Oct 11, 2008

iPhoto on steroids! The seamless integration with iPhoto and intuitive design are ingenious! I've been using this for a few months now and have been amazed at how well the non-destructive photo editing features work. The exposure correction options, for example, work much better than iPhoto alone. Some features I even prefer to use over the equivalent in Photoshop CS3. The only disappointment is the gee-whiz stuff like making greeting cards, but then you can use iPhoto (which has a few more built in designs) for that type of thing anyway.

182 of 193 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Why I didn't I look at Aperture sooner?

Written by AD from Highlands Ranch

Apr 12, 2009

I never took much of a look at Aperture until the number of photos I had started approaching the 10's of thousands. I needed a better way to get a grasp on managing them. A number of pro photographer buddies kept insisting I should take a look at Aperture. They kept telling me how wonderful it was for managing photos, but I wouldn't listen.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I became frustrated with my current management system. I downloaded the demo and became enthusiastic about it. Needless to say I purchased Aperture 2 and signed up for Apples One to One. I have been working with the trainers to learn it better and the more I learn the more I like Aperture.

Now I just keep kicking myself for having not taken a look at it sooner.

189 of 211 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Excellent Value

Written by TF from tempe

Nov 8, 2008

I upgraded from an iBook PPC based laptop to the late 2008 macbook pro and wanted a pro application for it. I'm an amateur photographer so Aperture was a no-brainer. I've heard about this Aperture for quite awhile and wondered how it differed from iPhoto. I downloaded the trial and bought a key less than a week later. Basically, iPhoto is a consumer product, Aperture being pro. What I love about Aperture is that it integrates seamlessly with iPhoto, which I still love to fall back on for the 'fun' stuff. You can share libraries with just a few mouse clicks. All of iPhoto's elements(i.e., albums, events) can be imported into Aperture. However, Aperture is so much richer and robust than iPhoto even as it's features make it's way into iPhoto. For example, Aperture is much more configurable than iPhoto. The controls are more finely tuned (especially for RAW). Searches are amazing with almost any metadata capable of being searched. This is useful for large libraries of images. Projects can be saved and backed up elsewhere. Whole libraries can be saved in special files called vaults which can also be backed up. The interface is clean and uncluttered. Dual monitor support is available which is nice when I can afford that new LCD Cinema Display(on my wish list.) Best of all is the value. The features built into this software are worth so much more than $199.99USD. I recommend buying the book 'Aperture2' from Peach Pit Press to guide you through this feature rich application. It is part of the Apple Pro Training Series and is Apple Certified. The only reason I didn't give this product 5 stars was because I think it still has room to grow.

140 of 149 people found this useful

Aperture 2

A happy Windows-based photographer has seen the light...

Written by RT from Harleysville

Dec 8, 2008

I was a happy Windows-based photographer that spent a considerable amount of time perfecting my work flow on a Vista machine. I had all five of the applications I used in my work flow "streamlined" and was getting good results.

In September I won a contest to shoot with pro photographers in Grand Teton National Park and learn Aperture. I had recently purchases an iMac to do some iPhone development so I could "play" with the software.

Fast forward three months. All of my photography (actually all of my computing) is now on the Mac and managed through Aperture. My work flow went from five apps to one, my time to turn-around images has fallen by 70% and the quality of my work is vastly improved. Best of all, I'm making considerably MORE MONEY using this setup.

Nothing, since the switch to digital, has changed the way I shoot, process and output images more than my switch to Aperture. It's simply THAT GOOD.

140 of 152 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Aperture 2 is awesome.

Written by SN from Myrtle Beach

Apr 6, 2009

If you have ever had to struggle with photoshop or any other photo editing program you will immediately fall in love with Aperture. All of the tools are right there at your fingertips literally one or two clicks away, and its all contained within the simple clean layout with the trademark apple style. Editing photos has never been smoother.

129 of 137 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Snow Leopard messed up my Aperture

Written by GF from Needham

Sep 10, 2009

My Aperture program was wonderful until I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Now it has problem's including sending out photo's in the mail program that don't change size and blink on the screen 3 times before it stops the moment.

129 of 151 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Excellent

Written by RV from Louisville

Jun 17, 2009

I find Aperture to be a fantastic photo editing software program. Please don't think it's Photoshop because it not. I find it does great job with RAW conversion. I also use the B&W conversion with added plugins for great results.
Much easier to use than PS.

108 of 116 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Not Photoshop

Written by KD from Albuquerque

Jun 13, 2009

I really like this software but I thought it would do more photoshop type editing. You cannot add text or put borders around pictures. I should have researched Aperture a further but I expected more. It does a lot of cool advance editing and features but I also thought it did photoshop type editing too. I am sure I will enjoy this product more the longer I use it.

146 of 195 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Impressed

Written by DM from Brandon

Aug 8, 2009

I have been using LightRoom for almost 2 years, and tried Aperture about 6 months ago, I didn't give it enough time. LightRoom has been getting slower and slower the more I use it, I really like the additional tools like gradient shading, but I wanted to give Aperture another shot. I bought Aperture a week ago, and I am very impressed as I really gave the software a work out, I love it. I really do get better results faster in Aperture, and I can make edits at any point in my workflow, something that cannot be done in the LightRoom modules. Truly every aspect of Aperture is excellent, from RAW 2.0, all the way to printing (I love the full screen editing), I even like the Web and book creation, more editable than iPhoto for book layout. I uninstalled LightRoom, all I need is Aperture and Photoshop for all my photography editing and output. Great producr, really brilliant. (Now if Apple will just get camera RAW updates out a little quicker).

93 of 98 people found this useful

Aperture 2

P3 - Picture Perfect Photo's

Written by DL from San Diego

Dec 25, 2008

I just got Aperture 2.0, (I have not used Aperture 1.0 before) and believe that after viewing all the tutorials that I can now use it to "tweak" my photo's and share them in a whole new way!

This is a "Serious" powerful application (the box is heavy with multiple disc's) and even though the tutorials make it look simple; i know, (for me) that it will take some "quality time" to absorb all the "power of it's Force" as I strive to become one with Aperture 2.0 to better correct/share my photo's..
+
Apple is wise to provide an ever increasing number of these tutorials; the better Apple help us "learn" Aperture 2.0, the more folks will seek it's Power to make their photo's look professional!

Look out Adobe/CS/Photo Shop; Aperture is HOT & MUCH EASIER TO USE!

98 of 114 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Great App plus Plugins

Written by MT from Calgary

Jun 16, 2009

Hi

After using Adobe (windows) for a few years I dumped my PC and bought an iMac. I got Aperature and bought the NIK complete collection plugins ($300 for those). These work extremely well together and do just about everything you could imagine. If you ever did any work in a darkroom in B&W then will think you went to heaven with NIK Silver Effex & Aperature. I can create awesome shots with this - what could Ansel Adams have done with this! Works very well with RAW. For indoor sports I use Aperature sand Dfine (from NIK) to remove noise in low light.

85 of 93 people found this useful

Aperture 2

A couple of minor limitations .. easily overcome.

Written by WH from Mission

Mar 8, 2009

This is an extremely versatile program. It handles raw images with ease. Adjusting the "levels" histograms is superior to adjusting curves ... it makes more sense to me. A limitation I found is in regard to text. I often include text within my images. This software allows me to run PS Elements within Aperture which completely solves my text problem. Similarly, perspective control can also be done on PS (from within Aperture). Numerous useful plug-ins are available. Try the trial version ... enjoy.

79 of 87 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Great App

Written by LM from Dallas

Oct 18, 2008

I have dove in with both feet and feel the software is more than I expected. From an amateur's perspective, I find that it does what I need it to do, however I have started looking at Plug In's for extra capabilities. I recommend watching some video podcast for shortcuts and explanations as the software is intensive and comprehensive. Some of the things you can do with other software programs are not done with the same type of key strokes or menu logic. But there does seem to be a real good reason for most everything. I like this program a lot. The more you use it, the better you get at putting just the right finishing touches on that once in a lifetime shot.

75 of 86 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Good to go!

Written by CK from Alexandria

Sep 19, 2008

User friendly GUI and awesome keyword searching capability. Probably the best $100 you can spend for storing mass quantities of photos.

81 of 113 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Aperture 2: Weak on Performance & Stability

Written by CB from Columbia

Oct 3, 2009

I've been using Aperture for years, updating from 1.x to 2.x and always been impressed with its rich feature set and polished interface. However, there are chronic performance and stability problems.

My library isn't that large (certainly not on par with a pro) and I'm glad to have Time Machine backups because the library has become corrupted on more than one occasion. Unexpected crashes, increasingly slow load times, and periods were it goes unresponsive while seemingly to do nothing (CPU, disk, memory, and network practically idling) are increasingly motivating me to try Lightroom.

57 of 66 people found this useful