∞ Aperture 3 first thoughts from an iPhoto user

Written by

I’m not a pro photographer by any means. In fact, Apple’s iPhoto satisfies most of my needs quite well, so that’s how I decided to take a look at Aperture 3.

Being an iPhoto user doesn’t mean that I don’t want more advanced features. Having things like facial recognition and GPS locations of my pictures was huge for me. As expected, Apple enhanced these features for Aperture 3, making them more powerful.

These are advanced features I can use. Being able to use Faces on a single project is a great addition. Similarly, the ability to use more advanced GPS locations is a function I can see myself using quite a bit.

Even though I’m not a pro, I still take quite a few photos — especially if I’m on vacation or on a trip with my family. I like to document my trips the best I can.

Using Aperture’s new GPS log tracking functions, I can take a photo and drop it on a map where I shot it and Aperture will automatically drop the rest of the pics where they were taken.

Aperture is built for the pros, there is no doubt about that, but Apple is making it easier for the rest of us to upgrade and make use of the features. Apple’s music and movie apps have a consumer, prosumer and high-end packages, but with photography they seem to be setting on iPhoto and Aperture.

With the integration I’ve seen so far, they have done quite well in making it something we can all use.

Things like importing your iPhoto Library is very simple — it’s just a menu item. All of your metadata stays in place, so anything you did with the pictures come with them to Aperture.

Of course, Aperture provides many more advanced features if you want them, but they also have presets available for one-click corrections.

Aperture also has access to MobileMe, Flickr, email, and Facebook, all with a single click.

These are the types of things that give iPhoto users like me a reason to upgrade to Aperture.


  • http://twitter.com/zweigand @zweigand

    Out of all the iLife apps, I use iPhoto almost exclusively. I'm intrigued by this version of Aperture, but I'm also wondering how much more powerful the next version of iPhoto is going to be. Is it going to be 64-bit as well? Is it going to have other consumer friendly features not found in Aperture that I'd be more interested in? Until the new iLife suite comes out I'm going to have to hold off buying anything.

    Excellent to see it finally arrive though!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

      Good point, but there's still a lot of stuff in Aperture 3.

  • Simon Therm

    I must admit, as an Aperture user since day 1, that the lines between iPhoto and Aperture get blurry, especially when some of the features of iPhoto were BETTER than Aperture (mobileme, creating books and slideshows, ability to import/sort video, etc.).
    So now Aperture has all these features (including facial recognition, something pros insist they don't need, only because they haven't used it, INVALUABLE).
    I'll do the update, but with the fear that the next iPhoto will have stuff Aperture doesn't!

    • http://twitter.com/foothillsteve @foothillsteve

      Just think of iPhoto as a big public beta for Aperture. It gives Apple a chance to work out bugs and add refinements before adding them to the high-end version. They do similar things with Garageband & Logic.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

        HA! Good way to look at it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/flargh Peter Cohen

    As workflows go there are perhaps some comparisons between iPhoto and Aperture. Both help you catalog, organize and print your photos. Apple's very aware of this – in fact, they now market Aperture as "Pro performance with iPhoto simplicity."

    But where the comparisons fall apart is in editing. Aperture is designed from the ground up to enable you to non-destructively edit and change your pictures either using built-in features and plug-ins or an external editor such as Photoshop, while retaining total control over your original images.

    Aperture is also much better at handling comparing and selection of photos. Let's say you take 100 shots of a vase – perhaps not important for the casual photographer, but something very conceivable for a pro studio photographer – all with subtly different lighting and exposure variations. Aperture makes it dead simple to compare your photos and tag them so you can go through them later, something that you can't do nearly as easily in iPhoto. Aperture also makes it much easier to work with and sort based on image metadata.

    The list goes on and on. The bottom line is if you're an iPhoto user and you're happy with it, stick with it. But pros who need more can turn to Aperture, much in the same way that Apple has a GarageBand -> Logic Express -> Logic workflow, as foothillsteve points out.

  • http://twitter.com/hanineal @hanineal

    Of course, there is really no "upgrade" here. You have to outright buy Aperture.

    It would be nice if Apple cut a break for previous purchasers of it's iLife suite, but I understand that they feel you got adequate value from iPhoto and that you should have to pay to enjoy the benefits and improvements of this Pro level program.

    • http://www.hypermouse.com.au hypermouse

      …I don't think anyone is suggesting that Aperture is an upgrade for iPhoto users…

      As someone who has previously purchased Aperture, however, the fact that Apple is offering an upgrade path is definitely appreciated, albeit at a minor discount.

  • http://twitter.com/gheedon @gheedon

    Do you think The Loop could post a review of Aperture by a photographer? As Peter Cohen above states, the tool is aimed at pro or semi-pro photographers, so it would be worthwhile getting a photographer to review version 3 from that point of view.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/jdalrymple Jim Dalrymple

      Definitely and Peter is the man to do it. He's at Expo this week, but we'll talk about it as soon as he returns.

  • Marcia

    I had a One to One session yesterday at one of the ATL stores to learn about Aperture. It would be something new for me. I am interested in knowing more and will check back when Peter posts his point of view. Me–a casual photographer want to know more. I have about 3,000 photos in iPhoto and there are lots of things I can do with them in this new software.

  • http://web.me.srvercellono/personaldesignbysandra Sandra R. Vercellono

    I would like Aperture to offer soft focus feature because the digital camera I have is not a SLR but it's all I have right now. That feature would give me some depth of field editing that I want to use. I have found this feature in Picasa but I am not able to transfer my pictures from Picasa to my Pages or other work. Anything I'm missing?

  • Alex

    On thing I have noticed in the iPhoto to Aperture import path is that the event comments I created in Iphoto do NOT transfer to the project description field. I have not tried with 3.0.3 to see if this is fixed, but its a real show stopper for me moving all my iPhoto data into Aperture, I have about 200 events per year, and 10 years of photos, so even with cut-paste this is not a task I look forward too. I have submitted Aperture feedback to get this fixed.

  • JOC

    I'm also now trying to decide to buy Aperture 3. Use only iPhoto now, but want more editing strength. I have PS3, but that's too much for me. Thank you all for your comments, which I will happily subscribe to so I can follow the disucssion and learn from it.

  • Not worth the money

    Unless if you have extra money to throw around but it’s not worth it. I took me awhile to learn Aperture 3 and I thought if it’s better then it’s worth to learn new thing, But there is not thing new and can do that iPhoto can’t. OK, there is GPS location of the photo but who doesn’t know where New York is. Cropping is terrible and after 10 minutes I had to transfer back to iPhoto to crop my pic, You can’t just click and drag to crop, it’s all preset.