Aperture 2.0, overview and new features

>After much breathless anticipation, much debate and a good deal of speculation, Apple has taken the wraps off of a new version of Aperture. Aperture 2, announced today, is a significant update to the program and the list of improvements and additions is based on a large amount of feedback from photographers.

We know this because the AUN has been working actively with Apple since just after 1.5 launched, and have provided a good deal of feedback to developers and project managers—much of it directly from the members of the AUN who posted tirelessly to the website and gave us quite a lot to pass on at our events.

We’ve also spent considerable amounts of time talking to the Aperture team and have seen them sweating over the details of this update. This has been a huge endeavor carried on by a lot of people with serious passion for this application.

We’ve had the opportunity to work with Aperture 2 for several months now, and have been compiling tons of content on the update, which all starts with this overview.

Aperture 2.0 is a major revision to the program, even more significant than the 1.5 update that introduced the paradigm of referenced images. There are few aspects of the program that haven’t been improved upon, and some of the more sweeping changes will make Aperture easier to use and more powerful than ever.

Some things introduced in this update are extremely powerful, but the effects of that won’t be felt until they’re leveraged. For example, the new image editing plug-in architecture (covered more below) will allow programmers to create plug-ins for Aperture that can be used to do just about anything to an image. Think Alien Skin for Aperture and you get what we mean.

Other changes are more subtle, but equally powerful. The new interface tweaks, tethered camera support and background exporting abilities show that Apple’s really been listening to photographers.

Our series of articles covering the new program will delve into each of these (and for more you can sign up for one of our Road Tour or Aperture Intensive classes, will bring demonstrations and hands-on training to members around the globe) so here then is a guide to the newest features in Apple’s workflow application.

Speed Racer

If there were unified driving goal for the Aperture team, it would have been “make it faster!” In nearly every conversation with photographers we’ve had, the issue of speed has been the key concern to photographers. Aperture’s unique raw worfklow was groundbreaking enough with version 1.x, but for those who’ve spent decades working on deadline (and using programs like PhotoMechanic) the need for speed is obvious and paramount.

So Aperture 2.0 addresses speed issues in two ways. First, the team re-wrote the database that’s at the heart of Aperture, making it more efficient and significantly faster. This is obvious in all aspects of the program’s operations, where the new engine, (combined with optimization of the program’s code itself) just screams. This is in contrast to the spinning-beachball effect that many high-volume 1.x users were familiar with.

The second speed increase comes from the Quick Preview mode, a new metaphor for working with images that I’ve grown unable to live without. Here’s the idea: for most photographers the first edit is the most important. After importing your photos the first task is almost always to pick the key shots from the rejects. It’s not important to adjust your files, there’s no need to do extensive edits. You want to find the images that are composed well, and work with those.

Likewise, when reviewing a project full of images you want to be able to quickly move through thousands or tens-of-thousands of shots without anything slowing you down, until you find the image you’re looking for.

This is the beauty of Quick Preview mode. By hitting the “P” key, Aperture toggles to working only with the JPEG previews of the images. Scrolling through images is lighting-fast, it’s possible to do a first edit in a fraction of the time that it used to take. Even better (for those PhotoMechanic die hards) it’s easy to leave Quick Preview mode and work with the full resolution versions of the files, without having to leave the program. Simply press the “P” key and you’re back to Aperture’s full (now much optimized) raw workflow engine.

This can work in conjunction with the built-in JPEG previews that are written by every major camera while shooting in raw-only mode. You can tell Aperture (via a preferences setting) to utilize these preview images when available, which allows the program to forgo it’s own preview generation, making it even faster.

These improvements are enough to revolutionize working with Aperture, and they’ll also make it possible for users of “slower” systems to see tremendous speed boosts.

Nip and Tuck

Another of the key tasks the Apple programmers and designers tackled was to streamline the cluttered nature of Aperture’s interface. By design, Aperture 1.x packed a lot of power, but many of the features were hampered by ill-placed buttons or confusing interface elements.

Designers took a hard look at the way people use Aperture and made a number of changes to improve workflow, but none so important as the combination of the inspectors into a single panel. Instead of breaking Aperture down into three main columns—projects, viewer/browser, and adjustments/metadata—Aperture now combines these three into a single pane, both in the main viewer mode and in the HUD. By default this lives on the left of the screen (though you can toggle it to the other side) and the new set up takes vastly less space, but provides the same level of functionality. Pressing “w” toggles between tabs of the inspector, “i” hides it. The result is a workspace that’s vastly larger and more comfortable.

A nice side effect of this change is that there’s now a floating metadata inspector, simply cue up the Inspector HUD and leave it set to Metadata and this inspector will change with any image you click on.

A tremendously useful “filmstrip” view mode has been added to the browser, showing a single row of images that can be quickly scrolled with the scroll wheel. It’s supremely faster than using the old thumbnails for most tasks and it can be swapped with the older thumbnail mode with a click or key press.

There have also been major but sometimes subtle changes to the look of the program.

For example, the row of icons in the toolbar seem larger and more recognizable (although they’re the same size, the default is now to have icon + text), and all the “new” commands live under one drop down. Editing tools have moved under the viewer (since they’re only available when in viewer mode anyhow) and the browser has had enhancements to better identify stacks.

Aperture has also inherited a trick from iPhoto, allowing users to scroll through photos as “Events” by dragging the cursor over thumbnails of each shoot. Simply click on the new All Projects icon on the Projects tab and drag across the events.

Double clicking now moves between a full version of an image and the browser (it’s a great way to toggle modes) and the “Holy Blue Folders,” (my name for the default quick-select items under Library on the Projects menu) now look inside stacks by default, instead of ignoring images inside stacks. This is true for Smart Albums as well.

For those who really like customization, Aperture 2.0 allows for custom keyboard shortcuts to be created for any menu or keyboard command.

Finally, you can change the colors of the background in the browser and viewer to exact greyscale values, not just the quarter-tones in the previous version.

Raw Rewrite

Aperture 2.0 not only features speed improvements, but features quality improvements as well. Apple has spent a lot of time on their raw decoding engine, and are positively giddy at the results. I’ve always been a big fan of the 1.1 conversion engine, but the 2.0 seems even better. It also provides the ability for Aperture to do a lot more with adjustment tools (see The Right Tool for the Right Job below) which makes for greater creative and retouching possibilities.

One of the foremost principles of Aperture though is that you shouldn’t have to change the look of your images until you want to, so Aperture 2.0 retains the ability to work with images in either the 1.0 or 1.1 raw conversion engine. By default all old projects will stay in their original processing engine, which means they’ll all look the way they did when they were imported. The Migrate Project command will allow older projects to be converted to the 2.0 engine, and it’s possible to have Aperture create new versions (leaving a version of the original 1.0 or 1.1 converted file) and convert al images, only images with adjustments, or only images with no adjustments.

Cable Management

For users looking forward to real, live, tethered shooting, your time has come. Aperture 2.0 features a “Tethered” choice underneath the file menu. Simply select “Start Session” and the program will start a tether connection, importing images directly into Aperture without the need for any AppleScript monkeying around or intermediate steps. Each image appears directly in Aperture, and a new Tethering HUD can control the action.

DNG-In

Users of non-directly-supported cameras will be happy to know that Aperture 2.0 now supports DNG import. This means that any camera that can be converted into a DNG file by Adobe’s DNG Converter program can now be sucked into Aperture. (It also means that in the future when new cameras begin to ship it’ll be possible to start working with them as soon as DNG Converter can support them.

Plug-In Your Edits

I think it’s important to mention one of the greatest new features of Aperture 2.0, but the one that’s likely (at first) to be overlooked. Apple has added the ability to create editing plug-ins for Aperture, which will, over time, revolutionize the program. Having an edit plug-in interface means that Aperture users will be able to do just about anything to their images. It’ll be possible to create plug-ins that replicate film effects, add borders, allow for selective edits like dodging and burning—the possibilities are pretty endless. For the purist who only wants to focus on Aperture’s image editing tools, there’s no need to ever add a plug-in, but for those who have been hankering to extend the program’s capabilities—your wish has been granted.

e Right Tool for the Right Job

One of the comments most often heard at our training classes is “I love Aperture, but Lightroom’s got some neat adjustment tools.” As a former original Lightroom Alpha tester, I have to agree, I like the way that some of the program’s editing tools work, and I like what they can do.

Which is why we’re so thrilled to see a new spate of adjustment tools available in Aperture 2.0, under the new Exposure, Enhance, Vignette and Devignette panels. Aperture 2.0 can no perform exposure changes with highlight-recover, black point adjustment and brightness controls.

The Enhance menu adds a “definition” slider (think of it as an unsharp masking tool) and a Vibrancy slider, which boosts colors of only the parts of the image that need a boost, leaving the rest of the tones alone. These tools, along with the Levels tools now display the portions of the image they’ll affect if the Command key is held down during adjustment.

The Vignette and Devignette tools will either add a vignette to an image or remove a lens-vignette, depending on which you choose. The Color tool has gained the ability to eyedropper-select a region of color to be adjusted with the sliders, making it a much more useful tool

Color Matching

The Color tool in Aperture’s always been a sort of strange beast. Allowing photographers to tweak colors in certain ranges is great, but more useful would be to pick the specific color and adjust that.

Aperture 2.0 adds an eyedropper tool for direct selection of a color (think the exact hue in bride’s eye, or the orange of a sport team’s logo) so you can tweak just the specific colors you want. It’s a much more precise way to work.

Clone Wars

The Spot and Patch tool in Aperture 1.x is pretty widely used for removal of dust, but that’s really where its functionality ends. I’d say that probably ninety-percent of my trips to Photoshop these days are to use that program’s Healing Brush and Clone tools. Those trips are over for me, as the new Retouch tool supplements the Spot/Patch tool adding real localized “repair” and “clone” functionality. And like the other tools, you can use Lift and Stamp to apply the changes across multiple images. (Combine this with the new plug-in engine I mentioned above and Aperture 2.0’s really got the ability to become a truly powerful image editing tool.)

Time Management

One of the complaints often heard about Aperture 1.5 was that exporting images could take a long time, and it locked up the system. While Aperture was processing images, nothing else could happen. That’s changed now, with completely background processing of exported images. Output one or a million images and Aperture will handle them while you continue with other tasks. For some photographers this little change alone will be the price of admission.

Ex Libris

Aperture’s book making tools are fantastic, they’re even better in some ways than many page layout programs because of the drag-and-drop simplicity of adding images, and the tool’s ability to tweak image directly in the pages. The one limitation (and it’s a major limitation) in Aperture 1.x is that you can only create books the size of Apple’s pay-for-print ordering system, even if you plan to save them as PDF files and print them yourself.

Aperture 2.0 overhauls this with a custom book size that allows creation of books to any dimension. Simply setting a custom size (and you can make any number of custom sizes) allows you to finally print to any book shape or size.

Since you can always print a PDF document from a Mac print dialog box, this should open up huge worlds of possibility for photographers to work with the hundreds of custom book publishers on the market.

I’ve found another use for the book tool though, I’ve used it to create custom “picture packs” for the times when clients ask for multiple images of specific sizes. It’s a snap to create a page with, for example, a 5×7 and three wallet size pictures. In fact, I Just created a single “book” that has the most common package settings, and use that as a template.

And since you can lay out text and other elements to pages, you can also use these pages to create custom output with the name of your studio, or with headshot information.

Sharper Image

An issue that comes up often when printing is the inherent softness that’s created when an image is sent to a printer. Blame it on the fact that printers work by shooting jets of ink onto a page, but there’s often a need for increased sharpening when making a print.

In Aperture 1.5 it was of course possible to make a version for printing and apply a bit of sharpening, but Aperture 2.0 adds a print sharpening tool, and now the Loupe is enabled in the print dialog box. It’s a snap to make a page that’s got the right amount of sharpness for any application.

Aperture 2.0 also now supports 16-bit printing, and support for the newest models of Epson and Canon printers.

This marks the first fully 16-bit program on the market, from display through output and it’s a major advantage for photographers looking to get the most out of their color managed workflow.

XMP Out

While it’s a tenet of Aperture that the original raw file be preserved—which explains why Aperture won’t write IPTC data to your original raw file—the program took that a bit far in leaving IPTC out of exported raw files. This has been remedied with Aperture 2.0, now exported versions created with the Export>Master command can include IPTC data. (You can also still choose to leave the exported file IPTC-less or with an XMP sidecar file.)

Web Master
Many people are fond of the new iPhoto’s ability to create Web 2.0 galleries, galleries that look great and also offer the ability to add images collaboratively. It’s possible with iPhoto’s new web gallery to create albums that people can upload photos to, and to add images simply by emailing. Behind-the-scenes syncing add images back into the iPhoto Library.

This functionality is now available in Aperture 2.0 as well, and it’s easy to control. Simply create a new Web Gallery (as opposed to Web Album or Web Journal) and Aperture will log into your .Mac account and allow you to upload images directly. The new Web Gallery preference panel controls the functionality of this tool.

Time Traveller

One of the more trivial, yet irritating headaches for the traveling photographer is synchronization of the time on the camera with the time on the computer. I’ve personally never remembered to change the time on my camera body when I’ve been on the road.
This is also a vexing problem to the film scanner, as the creation date of the image equals the time the photo was scanned, not the original shoot date.
With Aperture 1.5 it was possible to change the time stamp for photos by increments of an hour, but Aperture 2.0 has added the ability to change the date and time of both original files and versions, and not just by whole hour increments. This will be incredibly handy to the photographer with cameras that are slightly off on time sync.

iPhoto Integration

The last version of iPhoto added the ability to work with Aperture libraries, but now Aperture has added better tools for working with iPhoto. Simply select the iPhoto browser and you’ll have access to all of your images from iPhoto. Drag-and-drop them into Aperture and they’re ready to go. It’s just one of the clever updates in Aperture 2.0.

Adjustable Filters

Aperture 2.0 has added the ability to search and filter albums by adjustments, which makes it easier than ever to find the photo you’re looking for. (This is one of the most commonly asked-for features in our classes, actually.)
Additionally, the program has the ability to select “is not” for search criteria in the search HUD.

One Brick At A Time

Another interesting tweak to Aperture has some pretty big implications for image quality. In Aperture 1.x the order of items in the Adjustment inspector didn’t match the sequence of an optimal workflow. The Aperture programmers call each Adjustment a “brick,” so the area in which you make changes to your Exposure would be the “Exposure brick.” White Balance lived several bricks from the top, which doesn’t match workflow—it’s better to start with balancing your white point because everything else moves on from there. Additionally, the bricks weren’t always in the optimum order for image output.

Aperture 2’s bricks are in the correct order for a flow of image correction adjustments, and now process in order, which will result in simpler workflow and better image quality.

Keyboard Mapping

Taking a cue from Final Cut Pro, Aperture 2.0 now allows you to assign any key combination to any action in the program, even things you wouldn’t suspect you could control. For example, you can set a key to activate Relocate Master, something you normally have to activate under the File menu.

Via the Aperture>Commands setting it’s possible to customize keyboard layouts, switch between keyboard layouts and save them, allowing photographers to take their custom settings with them on the road.

Price Factor
Despite the major advances to Aperture, Apple decided to lower the price of the program, making Aperture 2.0 $199, and upgrades $99 for existing users. This is a huge boon to the prosumer and advanced consumer photographer who have long had to pony up as much money for Aperture as they did for their camera system, just to have access to the more professional features.

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Author: David Schloss

David Schloss is the director of the Mac Create Network and the Aperture Users Network, a professional photographer, writer, editor and photographic educator who specializes adventure sports, travel and lifestyle photography. Schloss is the author of the books Blue Pixel Personal Photo Coach: Digital Photography Tips from the Trenches and Blue Pixel Guide to Travel Photography: Perfect Photos Every Time. Schloss is the former Technical Editor for Photo District News, a position he held for six years.