Loving Aperture 2

Willis · 26 Oct 2008 at 07:42

Well this weekend I have been at my Girlfriends with my new D300 and been snapping away. I just started using Aperture 2 (photo editing program) on my mac and have to say I love it. So easy to use and the results are great. I have Photoshop but find it a bit full on sometimes. Anyone else use Aperture and if so what do you like about it or do people just use PS for editing.

I know this is Apple only software but it seems more and more people are getting Mac's now. Don't want to turn this thread into a Mac v's PC debate as this is about photography editing only.

Rwac · 26 Oct 2008 at 09:33

You are definately right about Aperture being a friendlier program to use - sometimes you want the process to be a bit less intensive.

Go get yourself a nice Mac Pro now

: o )

Willis · 26 Oct 2008 at 09:51

Rwac said:
You are definately right about Aperture being a friendlier program to use - sometimes you want the process to be a bit less intensive.

Go get yourself a nice Mac Pro now

: o )

As much as I would loved a Mac Pro I think my iMac displays photo's very well and much better than my old 24" Dell screen when I had a PC. Will see what the new Cinema displays are like when they get a refresh then I might get a Mac Pro

The_Abyss · 26 Oct 2008 at 12:43

Lightroom 2 is a good alternative. IIRC Aperture isn't exclusive to Mac, although the workflow is certainly better on Mac by all accounts.

Moredhel · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:15

I prefer lightroom personally, but there's not much in it. The main reason I prefer lightroom is that Apature 2 only works on OSX while Lightroom works on both.

Spleen Sauce · 26 Oct 2008 at 15:13

I remember trying out Aperture 1 and found it a bit cluttered. I've just bought myself an EOS 450d and decided to give the Aperture2 trial a shot - ended up buying it within a day. Much improved.

Edit: Forgot to mention, using Aperture 2.2 with dual monitors is an absolute dream! Highly recommended.

V-Spec · 26 Oct 2008 at 18:58

I was totally settled in with Aperture 2 on my MacBook pro, connected to an Eizo 24" graphics display..

However, I noticed that images being viewed in Aperture had an ever so slight increase in saturation and a red cast. This was only noticeable in Aperture itself, an export to anywhere else seemed to get rid of the red cast/saturation.
This was extremely irritating because photoshop was opening things and displaying them slightly differently,

In Lightroom the colours are matched perfectly from LR to Photoshop and without the red cast. They are anywhere else apart from Aperture, anything viewed there has this problem.. I've had some very experienced graphics and press people look closely at my problem and they can't explain it. I checked my monitor ICC profile then had them rechecked by others who confirmed they're fine.. The fact that LR works flawlessly confirms its not a colour management issue, but more Apeture *doing something* when viewing images in it..

For now i've gone back to Lightroom, as Aperture was useless for adjustments... Hopefully i'll find the reason for it in due course, for now its LR which I don't like as much but at least its not adding casts and oversaturation! :mad:

Willis · 26 Oct 2008 at 19:10

V-Spec said:
I was totally settled in with Aperture 2 on my MacBook pro, connected to an Eizo 24" graphics display..

However, I noticed that images being viewed in Aperture had an ever so slight increase in saturation and a red cast. This was only noticeable in Aperture itself, an export to anywhere else seemed to get rid of the red cast/saturation.
This was extremely irritating because photoshop was opening things and displaying them slightly differently,

In Lightroom the colours are matched perfectly from LR to Photoshop and without the red cast. They are anywhere else apart from Aperture, anything viewed there has this problem.. I've had some very experienced graphics and press people look closely at my problem and they can't explain it. I checked my monitor ICC profile then had them rechecked by others who confirmed they're fine.. The fact that LR works flawlessly confirms its not a colour management issue, but more Apeture *doing something* when viewing images in it..

For now i've gone back to Lightroom, as Aperture was useless for adjustments... Hopefully i'll find the reason for it in due course, for now its LR which I don't like as much but at least its not adding casts and oversaturation!

I have Light room on my iMac but yet to use it as I seem to be loving Aperture at the moment but when I get home tomorrow i might give Light room a try.

V-Spec · 26 Oct 2008 at 19:15

Willis said:
I have Light room on my iMac but yet to use it as I seem to be loving Aperture at the moment but when I get home tomorrow i might give Light room a try.

They're both great really, I find LR a lot faster, however with Aperture a lot of people say the end result is slightly "better" I find they're both good, i'm just annoyed by my issues with it, which nobody else seems to get..

For an example of the problem:

http://www.doorslammers.co.uk/comp3.jpg

One on the left is a screengrab in PS, the one on the right is the image being viewed in Aperture.. Obviously people looking at this will have different monitors, however the difference should be apparent between the 2.

Willis · 26 Oct 2008 at 19:21

V-Spec said:
They're both great really, I find LR a lot faster, however with Aperture a lot of people say the end result is slightly "better" I find they're both good, i'm just annoyed by my issues with it, which nobody else seems to get..

For an example of the problem:

http://www.doorslammers.co.uk/comp3.jpg

One on the left is a screengrab in PS, the one on the right is the image being viewed in Aperture.. Obviously people looking at this will have different monitors, however the difference should be apparent between the 2.

Yeh I can see it, it very subtle thought.

The_Abyss · 26 Oct 2008 at 21:28

Red levels are increased on the right.

Size is different too.