Aperture 4 Wish List

Don Trammell wrote:

Lightroom has had many more upgrades than Aperture and is simply currently not as good.

So, Aperture is still better, right?

LR has many features that Apertures have been screaming and begging for so your "opinion" that the pro world does not want frequent upgrades is spurious.

Aperture is not perfect, I agree. There are some things I have to apply to an image in another program or with a plug-in. Lens distortion, for example... But that doesn't mean that I want frequent updates. Every update contains the risk that something goes wrong, resulting in a loss of time for fixing the problem (downgrading to the previous, working, version, for example).

We want upgrades that matter, save time, and provide a more efficent workflow.

That's absolutely correct! But what has this to do with the frequency of upgrades? For me it is absolute ok to wait a while for a bigger upgrade if the result is a version that is really functional and doesn't make things worse. Implementing lots of (new) bugs causing Library confilcts or frequent crashes etc. doesn't save any time.

Right now, no matter how you want to spin this, Aperture is about a year behing Lightroom.

Above, you said that Lightroom is currently not as good as Aperture, if I was getting it right. So, if Aperture is still a year behind Lightroom and even better, what will Aperture 4 be if it is released next year (maybe)?

I guess every program has its pro's and con's and implies the need of a special - mostly improvable - workflow. If you like to switch to Lightroom - where is the problem? You can start using it, whenever you want. Leave your old libraries in Aperture and create any new ones in Lightroom. In a few years you won't touch your old photos any more and you can remove Aperture from your system, if you like. I recommend to export the processed images before, as 100% jpgs or tiffs if you think you might need the extra quality. You can archive your RAWs in a different location and re-process single files again in Ligthroom, if you feel the urge of doing so. What do you think?

Edit: ok, you were faster... :-)

Hi Niko.n,

Sorry that I was not clear, I was saying Lightroom is cleary better at the moment, and is about a year or so ahead of Aperture. My feeling on the matter is this. Apple is undecided if they will continue with Aperture based on the market share verses Lightroom. It might not be a good biz decision to continue with Aperture, thus the silence. Many pro shooters have already abandonded Aperture and have moved over to Lightroom. A few high profile pro shooters posted publicly their displeasure with Apple and their reasons for moving to Lightroom. In short, I am going to download Lightroom 4 and start processing a few shots in it. If I can live with it, I will simply retire Aperture and move on. I do not see Apple supporting this app anymore... Again, this is just my opinion...

It might not be a good biz decision to continue with Aperture, thus the silence.

Except... they never announce their plans for anything until good and ready - thus the silence.

I do not see Apple supporting this app anymore...

Flick back the forum a couple of years... exactly the same comments and fears before Aperture 3, before Ap2 etc etc

LR4 has one main advantage over Aperture (and a couple of minor ones). The main advantage - the Develop module. Hightlight/Shadow recovery is better, Clarity is a bit better than Definition, along with Lens Correction (and possibily the ability to create custom camera profiles). Minor ones - more free presets available (from Matt K.).

Beyond that...Aperture excells at books (5 printer options vs 1 with LR, and Blurb's quality is sometimes questionable. Aperture's Slideshow can include videos, Ken Burns effect, custom slideshow timing, etc. LR's slideshow hasn't changed since it was introduced. Add in if you want easy image transfer with any other devices (iPad, iPhone, Android), you get to pay $6 a month for Adobe Revel. Aperture/Mountain Lion includes Photo Stream.

And you have here one more choice... Capture One Pro. It is little bit more expensive, but the results are better then Lightroom or Aperture, but you dont have so much free stuff for this software.

Hi OBW,

You make good points but in the end as far as I am concerned the advantages for Aperture are more so smoke and mirrors and consumer related fluff. I couldn't care less about Photo Stream. It has no relevance in my professional work flow. The same with slide shows. Easy image trnsfer is accomplished by selecting the images I want, putting then in a folder and syncing via iTunes. Does not get much easier than that. As I stated earlier, this is simply my opinion. Apple will no longer support Aperture as a full on professional app. You might get an upgrade here or there but nothing substancial...

@Terence,

I am not necessarily talking about Apple announcing their plans. The rumor mills are usually a good indicator of anything seriously happening with Apple. To date, nothing, zilch, nada, in regards to Aperture. I simply feel that Apple knows that they are well behind Lightroom (true enough in regards to market share as well as several pro Aperture users now jumping ship to Lightroom) and they are evaluating if it makes sense to sink resources into developing a pro app when clearly they have bastardized Aperture by linking it to iPhoto. No need to flick back. I tend to live in the present. Apple has clearly let Adobe run right past and Apple is clearly not even playing catch up. Sorry, but in my OPINION you can spin this how you want, Aperture is old and lacking in many of the key features that the pro shooters have asked for.

@piggee,

NIK makes some great plug-ins that are faster than PS in my opinion...

Don

There are those (such as Catherine Hall) that make heavy use of Aperture's slideshow function in their work.

As to "pro Aperture users...jumping ship to Lightroom), the only one I'm aware of is Scott Bourne. Others such as Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally, Catherine Hall still use Aperture.

I have to agree that it gets frustrating not knowing what Apple's intentions are. It'd be nice to know what Apple's intentions are for Aperture. That said, given that they're still supporting FCP X and improving on it does give me encouragement.

Hey OBW,

Fair enough of the slide shows. If I need to present a slide show for someone, I tend to use my iPad with Retina and this is pretty darn impressive... I know about Scott but a couple friends have mentioned that a few of the names you mentioned have either jumped ship or made it loud and clear that they are about to.

I am not saying that Apple has to give a release date but to say that a date is on the schedule would be enough for me. WIth that being said, I will install LR and start to play with it. In the mean time, I will recommend to anyone that is considering to start with Aperture to forget it and start with LR as in the end it may be the last product standing.

Don - interesting that some of those mentioned are looking at switching. Food for thought. Thanx...

The rumor mills are usually a good indicator of anything seriously happening with Apple. To date, nothing, zilch, nada, in regards to Aperture

Well I would disagree about the rumour mills, and perhaps you missed the stuff about Aperture 4 books on Amazon. You're perfectly entitled to your opinion (or OPINION - what's the difference?) but if you're going to spread FUD with no evidence, don't be surprised if someone provides actual reasonable alternative explanations.

Do you mean google? 🙂 Yes, but it is still plugin. You couldn't editing your old photos made in this plugins, only make new one.

Wrong piggee. I can edit anything I want with the newly purchased by Google NIK software. I have edited photos from years ago so I do not know where you are getting your info from but it is incorrect...

Oh no. Amazon has a book that says Aperture 4. Then that settles it. This is factual infomation about a non-existent product. Yes you are correct. Don't believe rumors when I can simply turn to Amazon for the facts. Thanks for enlightening us... Glad to know that your Amazon facts don't count as FUD... I'll make sure that anytime I see something from you, I will consider it pure Amazon based facts...

Whoa there Don. You don't get to have it both ways. You're the one who says

The rumor mills are usually a good indicator of anything seriously happening with Apple.

But when I quote you from those self-same rumour mills - you know, those ones you claim are a good indicator - you sneer and get sarcastic.

Well which is it? The rumour mills are to be trusted? Or they are not?

As for FUD: you are the one announcing that Apple have discontinued Aperture and can adduce nothing in support of this opinion (and you never did explain the difference between that and OPINION). Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

You seem to be very upset about something, and you really should do something about it because it's making you contradict yourself.