TWIP #129 – Aperture 3 – Ready or Not?

This week: Aperture 3 release…ready or not? We dive deep into the new software release and discuss this important new tool from Apple.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Ron Brinkmann, Derrick Story, and Joseph Linaschke

NEWS & DISCUSSION

Apple Releases Aperture 3
The panel reacts to the release of Aperture 3 and shares their thoughts and opinions.

Ron thinks that the image editing and localized brush controls are the best new feature of Aperture 3. Ron also thinks that the workflow/organization stuff has been cleaned up a little bit. Derrick likes these features too but he also really likes being able to work with video and the improved import dialogue. Joseph thinks that one of the most important features for him is the metadata presets. He also likes being able to work with multiple libraries. Being a Lightroom user, Fred thinks that the biggest differences between Aperture and Lightroom is Aperture's ability to create books and the places & faces feature.

The panel goes on to discuss other features and benefits including the ability to work with video clips, the integration with other Apple products, lack of availability of 64-bit plug-ins, speed issues, sideshows, and other topics.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question #1
Lloyd Lestyn from Wales, UK asks: Now that Aperture 3 has the places feature, I would like to start shooting my images with a GPS adapter to make full use of this feature. I've tried searching the web [for an adapter] but haven't really found anything. Is there an adapter you could recommend?

Joseph: There are a couple of options. If you are a Nikon shooter, there are 3rd party adaptors that you can plugin to your camera that will capture the GPS data. You could use your iPhone to capture GPS information by taking some shots with your iPhone and then syncing that data with your other photos. You can also get a 3rd party GPS receiver which will record your location every few seconds and then sync that with your images. If you don't want to spend $100, you can do this with an iPhone using an application but that will chew through you battery. Ron suggests the Amod data logger.

Question #2
Zoe McEnery writes: The laptop I am currently using does not meet the system specs for Aperture 3. Would I be able to run Aperture 2 on my laptop for when I'm away from home, do my keyword tagging, project sorting, and then be able to export/import those projects onto 3 on my desktop for image editing? Also, does anyone know if 3 runs faster than 2? I'm still running into the spinning beach ball of death when I lift and stamp large groups of photos with 2.

Derrick: You could do this but I wouldn't recommend it as an efficient workflow. This does sound like it's time to buy a new laptop in order to have a good experience.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Being this was a special show devoted to Aperture 3, the guys are going to pick their favourite Aperture 3 features:

Ron – My pick is an anti-pick. I would love it if they would change the crop aspect ratio so that it doesn't default to fixed sizes like 8×10, etc. I'd like to be able to turn that off and have it stay off.

Joseph – Project portability and being able to work with multiple libraries along with curves

Derrick – The adjustment brushes are one of my favourite new features. My tip is that you can turn off Faces in preferences if you don't think you'll need that feature at first

Fred – Being able to load a brush with blur is great. I typically use a plug-in called Focal Point from onOne Software when working in Lightroom.

WRAP UP

Visit the blog at www.twiplog.com and the Flickr critique group. We also have a new Facebook group so be sure to check it out.

Joseph Linaschke – www.apertureexpert.com or www.twitter.com/apertureexpert

Frederick Van Johnsonwww.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan

Ron Brinkmann – www.ricksammon.com or www.twitter.com/ricksammon

Derrick Story – www.derrickstory.com, www.thedigitalstory.com or www.twitter.com/derrickstory

Show notes by Bruce Clarke at www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke

Bandwidth provided by Cachefly. Intro Music by Scott Cannizzaro

Show producer Aaron Mahler at www.halfpress.com or www.twitter.com/halfpress

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2 Comments

  1. I downloaded the Aperture Trial last week. It is a significant improvement on Aperture 2, but I’m finding that it is a bit unstable, especially when editing a slideshow. I’ve had it crash on me several times while rearranging slides in a slideshow. It happens so often that it is almost predictable. I’ll wait for a point release before I upgrade.

  2. I noticed that you guys acted as though Aperture 3 is just another program that works well, has it’s good points, has it’s limitations and so on. Fine, but did anyone google something like "Aperture 3 crashes" or something similar. If you had, you would notice that lots and lots of people cannot even get Aperture to work at all. Some even can’t get it to work after being on the phone with Apple support for hours. I personally have both an 24" iMac and a 17" MacBook Pro (both of which are fairly new and have 4GB of ram) and cannot get it to work properly on either. Constant crashing (on the iMac), bad importing from iPhoto, sluggish performance, intermittant logging off, are some of the problems. I’ve spent countless hours now with workarounds, reinstalls, upgrades to 3.0.1, reimporting iPhoto libraries, etc. and have just given up. The program just will not work! Maybe when it gets to 3.3, or 3.6, or 3.99, but not now.
    Have you guys heard about this? If so, what is your response? Have any of you experienced any of these problems? I really want this to work but I feel like I’ve just been transported back to the PC world.

    Craig