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Apple releases Aperture v3.3 with iPhoto integration

Jun 11, 2012 at 00:56:43 GMT

SOFTWARE NEWS APERTURE APPLE IPHOTO

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Apple has announced Aperture v3.3, which features a series of updates including sharing its catalogue with the simpler iPhoto program that comes with iOS. Other improvements include support for AVCHD video, a revised Highlight & Shadows tool and more sophisticated white balance options. The software has also been designed to make use of the MacBook Pro's 'Retina' display. Aperture v3.3 is free to existing v3 users or can be bought for $79.99 from the Mac App Store.

For more details about the update, click here

Comments

Total comments: 41

I've always hidden the color icons anyway. I prefer the basic text on top. The icons just make the view smaller and throw off my color perception compared to the image I'm editing.

0 upvotes

I'm disappointed in Apple for making this update exclusive to OS 10.7.4. I like Snow Leopard, and yes, I DID try OS Lion for a while. I'm not a Lightroom 4 user, but I will check it out now. If Adobe stays compatible with older Apple OS's I may just switch.

5 upvotes

Incredible enough to cut off 10.6 users. This is a real shock for me.

0 upvotes

You really should try Lion again. I recently finally upgraded to Lion and it has worked just as smoothly as Snow Leopard and Aperture is quite a bit quicker now and that's with only 4 gigs of ram on an older iMac.

My Mac Mini on my big screen will keep Snow Leopard for Front Row, which to this day I can not understand why Apple removed Front Row with Lion.

0 upvotes

With all due respect to Lightroom, I much prefer Aperture's workflow and organizational scheme. If you're an otherwise-happy Aperture user, don't make a hasty switch. Aside from all the workflow changes, all your edits and sorting will be back to square one.

0 upvotes

I agree. Lion is buggy and a memory hog.

I've been loyal to Apple since 1986, but this was the last straw for me. I've dumped Aperture and moved on to Lightroom 4.

0 upvotes

I like the update!

I think the icons look more "professional" and clean and don´t distract from the main thing - the pictures. Anyway, I like the new minimal look and think Aperture improved as it seems more "focused". I prefer it over a colorful layout.

Do you think your camera looks boring too, because it´s all siver or black? :) Maybe Apple could put a choice like "grey icons or color icons" in the settings?

And a bugfix: the floating palette stays slim, after you made it smaller in full screen mode - I was missing that on my 15" Macbook Pro, when the palette kept getting "big" again after the next program start.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Well - I was horrified at first - my personal jury is still out on the grey icons, but I''m beginning to like them.
On the other hand, my impression is that it's faster - I've not had any hangs (even with my 50,000 + library. the new auto enhance button is cool.
Removing the RAW brick from the default is questionable, but it's only the work of 2 minutes to put it back in the default for good.
I've recently gone back to Aperture after 5 months working with Lightroom 4 - I wondered whether it would prompt me to make the big move to Lightroom, but quite the contrary - the clone tool, the cataloguing, the brush based adjustments, the printing . . . . . and now Lightroom 4 is out the speed - Aperture wins at every level. I just wish they'd get their camera updates in a bit more quickly!

3 upvotes

You do know that Apple improved on camera update speed as well, do you? At least they were faster to bring the D4, D800 and D800E to their platform, then Adobe was.

0 upvotes

Agreed. I had a similar experience when I tried LR4. I'm really happy with the new update to Aperture, but I'm still hoping for Aperture 4. With a few key improvements I feel they can give themselves the edge against LR.

0 upvotes

I loved Aperture... This new version is terrible! Icons are age old... it's slow, it keeps hanging often. Wish I didn't download this new version... Can I go back to the previous version? Please...

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Where did the colour Icons go how do I get them back????

Thanks Apple

2 upvotes

Ugly icons are ugly. I loved that Aperture had a little colour in its interface. Now it looks as boring as all heck. Thanks Apple.

2 upvotes

That's what your pictures are supposed to provide. ;-)

1 upvote

The Lightroom fans who are Aperture haters are really having fits these days because they know that most of LR's "new" features were simply lifted from Aperture and that any day now Ap4 could leapfrog LR4 again, just as Ap3 leapfrogged LR3. Thing is, no matter what happens to the feature lists, LR still has a modal interface and a "loupe" that's not a loupe but just a zoom renamed "loupe" to make it seem more like Aperture but not really.

4 upvotes

I am a lightroom user, but fully agree with your statement.
Aperture is the better of the two.

Unfortunately there is no PC version of aperture and it doesn't comply with the Adobe XMP standard. Otherwise I would be back to Aperture without thinking twice about it.

1 upvote

Well, that's not really true. Lightroom has a long list of features that Aperture still has to catch up on and will no doubt be "lifting" in the future like better noise reduction, lens corrections, etc.

0 upvotes

That's right, no longer works with the popular Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I for one am not turning my photo desktop into a phone so I'm glad I abandoned Aperture and switched to Lightroom when 3 came out.

Now that the 30" is gone, the 17" laptop looks dead, along with the Mac Pro you have to wonder if Apple are still in the graphics business.

I'm not going back to running PS and pallets on a 15" laptop screen no matter how many magnifying glasses you're going to need to see your work.

6 upvotes

Have you actually tried Lion? I've used Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion on an iMac and MacBook Pro and find Lion the most stable and fastest of these. Yes - I'm not a fan of Launchpad - so I don't use it.

1 upvote

Agreed!

Pixel count won't compensate for 17inch real estate in the long run, owning a MacBook Pro 17inch (my second one), I am sad that this is discontinued.

Having the ability to use LightRoom or Photoshop on the road, with real screen space to display the floating pallets, and also a true 1920x1200 where I could work on a per pixel basis is incredibly efficient.

By it's very own nature, you could not work pixel/pixel on a Retina Display, so in this case your best bet will be 1440x900 using 2X scaling, it's a loss!

0 upvotes

Marcus, because of Apple and Epson not co-operating on their professional printer drivers I will reach a point where I cannot drive my Epson 3800. Rosetta instal and all that.

1 upvote

Actually, I prefer SL to Lion, but Lion has a must-have feature for me (full disk encryption.) I've learned to live with it. But I think overall Apple's moving in the wrong direction by trying to make everything look like an iOS device. Maybe it's because I've been using computers for 35 years, but I don't mind dealing with the file system as the primary focus of the computer.

0 upvotes

It seems like there's quite a bit of misinformation about how the "Retina" display scaling actually works. While UI elements and text and other things are scaled up so you don't have to squint, things that require pixel-accurate rendering are still displayed at their true resolution. Everything isn't scaled at a fixed 2x, it's more like a hybrid variable-scaled interface. Only old programs not yet updated for the new display will be rendered entirely in 2x.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 7 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Using Aperture here for small shoots, cataloging and I/O.
For serious work (1500 shot weddings) Lr4 is a must have. No debate.

It comes as a significant disappointment that in a field where Apple should outright dominate, they're a big fat nowhere. Why go to all the pain of producing a fabulous new laptop and then cede the market to Adobe with such a weak app?

Honestly, I really want to use Aperture, but it is nowhere close to the raw energy and power of Lightroom. Apple, if you ever want to step up your game and kick Adobe's keister, now would be a nice time to do it.
I'm waiting.

2 upvotes

Thank you Adobe fanboy or is it fandroid? "raw energy and power of Lightroom"! Really? Even by DPRs undemanding standards, this is drivel.

2 upvotes

No debate, huh? Well, I'm here to debate you. You make some big fat generalizations. Care to back them up with specifics? I use Aperture to process 5,000-shot conference jobs, and its interface is far superior to LR's for quickly ranking, selecting and organizing large volumes of photos. I especially like that I can tweak adjustments as I select without having to switch back and forth between "Library" and "Develop" modes. Really, modal operation is for morons. Adobe is the Microsoft of imaging software.

The only advantages of LR right now are lens correction and NR, and both are available in Ap3 via plugins. Most of the stuff that was recently added to LR4 was lifted from Apeture... Version 1.0... From 5 YEARS ago. Lame.

"Raw energy and power"? Give us a break.

9 upvotes

"lens correction and NR, and both are available in Ap3 via plugins" - creating a separately saved TIFF file, correct? That is not remotely the same thing, practically speaking. You can do the same things in LR using plugins; it is a considerable advantage if you do not have to.

There are always tasks (unique to an individual image) which necessarily call for an image editor instead of a program such as Aperture / LR / whatever. But for those more routine tasks that may need to happen the same across many images, the parametric approach is IMO greatly preferable. In due course, I would expect Aperture to integrate these things too, and for Apple and Adobe to continue to leapfrog each other technically. However, millions of Windows users out in the wider world, have no plans to switch to MacOS anyway; Aperture is irrelevant there.

0 upvotes

I think you have never tried Aperture.

I am a Lightroom user because of the compatibility with other Adobe software and because it cross platform.

But you are plain wrong in saying that LR rocks... while it actually pretty much sucks against Aperture's processing power.

You go with the mass because you think the mass is right.
However they are not!

If there would be a PC version of Aperture too, I would switch back in a second. And I'll bet many of those PC people would switch as well once they tried Aperture's power.

1 upvote

I second that opinion: try both Lightroom and Aperture for a significant amount of time, and then draw your conclusions which one is better for your particular cameras, style, and processing needs.

Remember, while on the outside they may look similar, but after a closer look you will likely find that they actually work quite differently, but in the end are designed to help you manage and process your photos.

When working with two products like these, we run a risk of bringing our biases acquired with one tool to the other, which is not correct. For example Lightroom 3's curves tool is very simple and I rarely use it, but the curves tool in Aperture 3 gives you more options and more precision, and is one of my favorite tools to use there. So we should not be discouraged to try all the tools and options before drawing conclusions in favor of one tool or the other.

2 upvotes

It's a nice upgrade but Apple really need to up their raw processing game in light of the big improvements Adobe have made with ACR.

1 upvote

You mean like blotchy blue skies like you get with Adobe?

0 upvotes

Excellent news, it is annoying that there is this divide between Aperture and iPhoto where you can import an iPhoto library, but that is a "snapshot" of the library at that time... with proper integration you can do the simple stuff in iPhoto and move over to Aperture to do the more serious management with versions, keywording etc.

0 upvotes

It's about time to make me ready for a change. I hate it, because I really learnt a lot in Aperture and I love to use it. But now, after long and lazy times of no significant improvements, Apple decide to go completely grey, but still doesn't offer lens corrections. No way to "downgrade" to dull and ugly Lion 10.7 just for that cosmetics.

1 upvote

ahhhh now all icons are grey here too. (like iTunes). Folders look like projects look like albums. can this be called progress??

2 upvotes

Sad that this bugfix release requires you to dump a solid OSX install (10.6.8) and upgrade to a buggy new OSX release (10.7.4).

3 upvotes

The longer you can avoid Lion, the better! I wasn't so lucky.

1 upvote

Don't fret: Snow Lion is out in July.
After torturing myself over Lion for months I got it and.... it's perfectly fine.
Oh, and there's always W8 with it's lovely elegant 'metro' interface. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

4 upvotes

It's interesting that some people have this experience / view. It is the same whenever a "new" upgrade to OS comes out (I remember the ranting when 10.6 came out over 10.5, and 10.4 before it). Personally I've found 10.7.4 the most stable release and fastest in all I've tried.

2 upvotes

Would like to see an announcement for Aperture 4 or whatever they want to call it. Lens corrections and better de-noising features please. And more performance too!

6 upvotes

If Aperture 4 will indeed incorporate these features and combine them with its excellent UI, I will be happy to wait for quite a while. Right now, Aperture does not exactly make me a crippled photographer either.

2 upvotes

Is there an elegant way to use Capture One and leaving Aperture?

0 upvotes

Total comments: 41


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