Apple Announces Significant Upgrade To Aperture, Free To Current Users
At the PMA trade show in Orlando today, Apple unveiled a significant update to their professional photo editing program, Aperture.
Version 1.1, which will ship in March, will bring many user-requested features to the application. The update, which will be free to 1.0 users, will be made available when Apple updates its suite of Pro applications, making them available on the Intel processor Macs. The update for Aperture will work with both PowerPC based Macs (G4, G5) and Intel based Macs (currently Intel based iMac and MacBook Pro).
We’ll have the official press release as soon as it’s available, but in a private hands-on meeting this morning Apple Product Managers showed off the new software to PDN.
Changes to this version revolve first around the issue of raw processing. Thanks to feedback from PDN users, Apple was able to massively enhance their raw processing engine, providing a level of raw quality they feel is equal to or superior to other systems. While they acknowledge that some users might prefer the default conversion of other systems, they’ve gone out of their way to bring new power to raw processing.
The version provides new algorithms for basic raw processing, but also adds several new raw tools. These include Boost, which adjusts the contrast curve of an image; sharpening, which is independent from overall sharpening tools and effects just the raw processing; Chromatic Blur, which softens the chromatic aberrations often found in raw images; and Auto Noise Compression, which helps to reduce sensor noise. This last feature is most impressive, as it looks at not only the profile of the camera being used, but looks at the camera settings. An image that has been shot at ISO 1600 for 2 seconds would get more noise reduction than a shorter exposure time image or lower ISO shot.
Images that have been adjusted in 1.0 can be updated to the 1.1 processing, or left alone, and the tool to migrate older processed images can be applied to any selected image, and the user can choose between processing all images, only those who have been adjusted, or only those that have not been adjusted.
All new raw tools can be applied via lift and stamp, and can be set as presets.
The program has also offered RGB display, a feature that’s persistently available above the historgram and is also viewable in the Loupe. Sample size can be varied between 1×1 pixel to 7×7 pixels, and the sample area is visible in the Loupe as well.
Aperture 1.1 will have the ability to manage layered PSD files. Images brought into Aperture can be exported back to PSD with their layers intact (as long as they have not been adjusted in Aperture, which flattens the image–just make a copy to perform adjustments on).
The program has also added DPI controls for image export, allowing photographers to create export presets for any image size and resolution.
The program is also implementing a new tethered workflow solution for Canon and Nikon cameras, and while it’s not a full-blown integration to the program, it works seamlessly. In our demos, Apple staff attached a 1Ds Mark II to a Quad G5, opened Canon’s pro software, and then ran an applet to tell Aperture what folder was set to receive the tethered files. From then on, images captured with the camera were auto-imported to the program. The company says that it’s working on even greater tethered support in future versions.
In addition to feature updates, the program has gained a much-requested speed boost as well, with many operations processing 2-3x faster on PowerPC systems, and twice again as fast on Intel macs. We used Aperture 1.1 in our demos on an Intel iMac, Macbook Pro and Quad G5 and the program ran significantly faster that version 1.0.
The update of Aperture will be made available via Software Update, and will be free. Intel-based users of version 1.0 simply need to install 1.0 on the Intel Mac, and then run Software Update to receive the Intel-compatible version of 1.1.
Go to: PDN
