Top 10 New Features of Aperture 3
10. Feb, 2010 
22 Comments
Aperture 3 is an amazing upgrade. People had begun to worry about the future of the software, as it was two years since the last version came out, but I can see now that they’ve been doing some major work under the hood. I feel silly for doubting Apple’s commitment to the product now. What I find interesting though is that some of the features Apple has chosen to highlight as part of the marketing bumph, namely places and faces, while understandable from a marketing point of view, are not the software’s greatest additions. They really have put a lot of thought into this release and it addresses pretty much all the concerns most people had about it. It more than bridges the gap with Lightroom. There are so many new features though that it can be difficult to get your head around all of them. So then, here are my top ten, in reverse order !
10. Support for sRaw and mRaw
Owners of Canon’s DSLRs can now use the reduced size RAW format with Aperture. This has long been a bone of contention, as Lightroom had supported this feature. If you own a Canon DSLR with a high megapixel count, now you too can shoot at half the resolution, just the way your Camera manufacturer intended.
9. Import GPS Data from iPhone Photos
I think this feature is just brilliant. If you have an iPhone you can take photos while you’re shooting on your DSLR and then in Aperture use your iPhone photos as a GPS logger of sorts. This is a really clever thing for Apple to have done. I actually tried to do this manually on a project a while ago but gave up because it became too tedious. This makes it nice and easy!
8. Colour Labels and Flags
File this one under “it’s about time”. Aperture has long been limited (in my opinion) by only having a star rating for flagging images. The ability to assign a colour label in addition to a star and flag rating was one of Lightroom’s few organising strengths, and it’s good to see Aperture have that ability now too. They’ve gone one step further too, and synced colour labels with the finder, so if you label an image as red for example in Aperture, the file will be red in the finder too.
7. New Project on Import and Import options
This seems like a small thing but it was a pain in the old version of Aperture. You can now create a new project directly fro the import dialog without having to go back to the library inspector to set it up. There are lots of new import features actually that are great additions. For example “Import matching raw”. If you’ve previously only imported JPEGS this will find and import the corresponding RAW files. You can now also back up on import (finally) and apply adjustment presets on import (more on that in a minute).
6. Mobile Workflow.
You can now export part of your library to a separate library to work on your laptop, then sync the changes back into your main library. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to be able to do something like this.
5. Chromatic Aberration Filter and Halo Reduction
Ok, technically these are two separate features but I’m grouping them together. A Chromatic Aberration tool was another feature sorely missing from Aperture and makes it one less reason to have to go to Photoshop or an external editor. Halo reduction is another great feature especially for lenses that halo a lot. My Nikon 35mm f1.8 comes to mind. From the description on Apple’s website:
“Use Halo Reduction to remove blue and purple fringes sometimes produced with certain lenses on overexposed areas. Simply paint over the halos to remove unwanted fringing. The brush can be used to eliminate difficult halos when Chromatic Aberration alone cannot completely remove them.”
Awesome.
4. Curves Tool and Extended Range Curves
Aperture users have long cried out for a proper curves tool and now Apple gives us one. Only it’s a curves tool on steroids. Unlike the curves tool in competing products the Aperture curves tool lets you see the full extended range of values available in a RAW file and bring in and correct areas beyond the normal visible range. You could actually do pseudo HDR images with this tool. It’s pretty amazing, and it highlights one of the advantages of Aperture’s full 32bit image processing pipeline.
3. Support for Video
This is something that many people have longed for. You might ask: “why would I want video support in software designed for handling photos.” Well, with modern DSLR’s all shooting video this gives you a nice way of keeping your shots organised. I think too, a lot of times people will just shoot short clips, as if they were moving stills. You don’t need or want a fully fledged editing system on those occasions, but a way to organise, trim and post those clips is just what you want and Aperture now gives you that. I think this will end up being a big deal once people get their head around it. On the down side, library sizes will balloon out of control.
2. Brushes
When Aperture 2 came out people were upset that the dodge and burn tool worked destructively and cried out for a non destructive way to make selective edits. When Adobe added a brush feature to Lightroom 2 that disappointment became anger (well, for some). Now though, Apple have bridged the gap, vaulted over the fence and are half way down the field on the other side. Brushes isn’t just a bolt on feature, but seems fully integrated into the processing path. You can paint on any adjustment on top of other cool features like a skin softening brush or a polarising filter that you can paint on. There is allot to brushes, more than I’m going to go into here, but for now I think this is a killer feature, and again, it’s about time.
1. Adjustment Presets
I suspect that this is the feature most requested by every Aperture user out there. It’s something they’ve had in Lightroom from day one and it’s the one feature more than any other that would make me want to use Lightroom. Now, I now longer need to look in envy across the dock. Actually there’s one thing in Apple’s implementation that is pretty cool. You have the option to add the preset to your existing adjustments or to completely override your existing adjustments. Also, they have a really nice looking preset manager.
The thing about this upgrade that I’m most excited about isn’t any single feature or addition. It’s the fact that I can now consign Lightroom once and for all to the Trash. I’ve gone back and forward over the last few years between the two pieces of software unable to decide which one to settle on. I have always preferred Aperture but Lightroom had some nice features, particularly the ability to do selective edits. Yet every time I tried to use Lightroom for a while I always found myself returning to Aperture. With Aperture 3, all the features I used in Lightroom now have equivalents in Aperture, plus a whole lot more. This really is a substantial release and in my opinion makes Aperture stand head and shoulders above Lightroom. It’s been a long road, but it’s certainly been worth the wait.
Have your own favourite new features? Please feel free to list your own in the comments below.
(Images courtesy of Apple)
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Much like Capture NX 2, Aperture 3 tells me what focus sensor was used for each shot from the D90, NEF or JPEG. Very cool.
I’ve been leaning toward the Lightroom 3 Beta since getting a 64-bit Intel Mac as Aperture 2 did not run nicely at all in Snow Leopard, but now…
So, can you export photos to Facebook, for example?
It’s built in now the same way it is in iPhoto – so photos will sync both ways etc
@geo, there are a number of excellent plugins available for Aperture for exporting directly to most online services; including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. I’ve been using a free Facebook plugin for about a year and it works great and is well supported.
I’m just ecstatic that an Aperture finally has support for Lumix-LX3 RAW images. I tried Lightroom, but it just didn’t click with me.
Having read Apple’s comparison between 2 and 3, I wasn’t bothered about upgrading, but after this I really am. They should probably take a read of this article so they know how to recommend their software to people who care more about the photo than they do about tagging a face in it.
Can you tell me, when you choose an aperture project to sync to an iphone, does it sort chronologically now, or is it still randomish?
Not sure – haven’t had the chance to try that yet.
I cannot get the syncs to be chronological. This is a MAJOR flaw in this program in my opinion. Other that better sorting by multiple criteria, the combination of Photoshop and iPhoto is better for my needs. Shame on Apple for not correcting this apparent flaw.
Have you figured out how to stack a few adjustments all together in one brush like LR? For example to whiten teeth I usually boost exposure, drop contrast, drop saturation all in one brush. Seems to be a lot more steps to do the same thing in AP3???
(I switched from Aperture to LR 6 months ago and would love to go back but I’m not convinced their adjustment brush is any better than LR)
You can add another “enhancement” brick and paint on the results. So this is the procedure – In the current enhance brick, under the popup menu choose “add new enhance adjust” and then from this choose “brush enhancements in”
the cool thing is you can do the opposite too. You can do an overall adjustment and then brush out areas. The only thing you can’t do with this is exposure. You’d have to do that separately unfortunately
The one thing I will say is that the brushes tool is VERY responsive. There’s no lag whatsoever.
Actually the whole program is very responsive. It’s much faster than the previous version. There’s obviously been some serious under-the-hood optimisation going on.
Understood @tomasfitzgerald, but painting over the same area 2x, 3x, etc just to get what I can do in LR in one brush makes me wonder why all the extra steps. If we could save multiple bricks into one custom brush that would be cool.
Do you know if Dodge is simply Exposure, or does it add some extra magic?
I am completely tormented with Aperture 3 and LR 3 Beta. I’ve been using Aperture since the beginning and have a 65,000+ photo library, but I have been doing all my 2010 work in LR 3 Beta and prefer the output better. Here’s an example: http://bbohling.com/color-examination-lightroom-3-beta-vs-apertur. I came across this one too: http://www.irvinenelson.com/blog/?p=179. I plan on posting more thoughts tonight, but I guess I’m just looking for reassuring that Aperture 3 is the way to go.
The raw processing in Aperture 3 for 5D Mark II files is substantially better. In my opinion it’s as good as or better than the LR3 Beta. The shadow noise problem has been addressed and there seems to be some saturation and colour changes too. If you reprocess an image for the 3 raw conversion depending on the content there seems to be more saturation. You can always adjust the colour in Aperture to get it where you want it and save it as a preset.
I’ve always preferred Aperture’s raw conversion than Lightroom’s. I’ve always found LR smears fine detail too much and I’ve always found Aperture slightly sharper. The colour has never really been an issue for me, but then I don’t shoot fleshtones that much. Try out the trial version of Aperture 3 and see if the new raw processing for 5dII makes a difference for you.
hi..i just bought my mac and i got aperture 3…how to you place a text or signature on the photos???
i need help…thanks
I have aperture 3 after editing adjustment to my photo how do I save my photo that I correct in aperture 3
I am trying to export my photos onto a thumbnail drive. I don’t understand what “versions…masters… and metadatas” mean in the drop down window from the file, export menu. HELP?
|I’m sorry – but that’s really beyond the scope of something that I can reply to in the comments here. I suggest you read the manual or if you’re using the trial read the help files. Also, on Apple’s websites they have some videos that explain the basics
Awesome article, thanks for taking the time to put this together. Definitely some good information and I like the pertinent info for owners of the 5DM2. I also shoot that camera and agree with thomasfitzgerald about the RAW conversions as compared to LR3. Maybe it’s because I’m more familiar with Aperture, but I also prefer Aperture over LR4 because I feel like the UI is a little less cluttered and more intuitive…
can we install the trial version but go back to the previous aperture 2 later if found not so worth of it? Of course, I will keep my library another copy….
what I heard of is that Aperture 3 still cannot make perspective adjustment or even worse: a simple lens distortion correction … sigh
Yes, I think you should be able to do this with no problem