Display and Printing questions.

Hi Adam,

You've stumbled into a large and not easily-digested topic: monitor calibration, which is part of a color-calibrated workflow. Here's a very brief start. Search this forum for "color calibrat*". And search Google for "My prints are too dark". Luminous Landscape and Northlight Images each have information that I found helpful.

If you are printing or sharing digital images, you will benefit from a hardware calibrator. I use and recommend (as a start) the Color Munki Photo from X-Rite. Afaik, this unit has been replaced by a new one. What you are trying to achieve is to calibrate your display to world-wide standards. When used with other devices calibrated to the same standards, you should see consistent color (and luminance) no matter the device used to display (or print) your images.

Software calibration is built into OS X. While better than nothing, it cannot compare to the results you will get using a hardware calibrator. You should use a photospectrometer; a colorimeter is not good enough.

Once you have calibrated your display, you should take advantage of Aperture's "Soft Proofing". Soft proofing uses the calibration data for a device (called a "profile") to show you on your calibrated device what the image will look like when rendered by the other calibrated device (very often a printer+paper combination).

HTH.

--Kirby.

AdamD81 wrote:

Also, off topic, I have been told I should not use Aperture since there are rumors of Apple not continuing to devolpe new version of the program or it will be "Dumbed Down". Any input on this?

The best advice I can give you is to consider the source. IME, there is never anything gained by changing my behavior based on rumors. My conclusion, based on Apple's history, Aperture's history, Apple's current marketing, and other things which have brushed my Internet antennae, is that Apple will release Aperture 4, and that it will further tie Aperture to Apple's mobile computing OS. That's just an informed guess. Anyone who knows anything can not talk, and anyone who does talk is sure to be making things up.

A more important question is: does Aperture 3.3 meet your needs? It's a powerful, flexible, and often delightful-to-use program. If it meets your needs, and is worth the cost to purchase, implement, and learn -- by all means make the commitment. Imho, it's one the best programs of any type available.

AdamD81 wrote:

Any must have plugins to run with Aperture?

Thanks again for the help Kirby!

Adam

You're welcome -- pass it forward -- 🙂 .

Here's my short list of "must-have" plug-ins:

BorderFX: free, powerful. Use it to create files with borders, superimposed text, and watermarks. I use it every day. Apple should buy it and fold it into Aperture 4. The UI is in places slightly baffling; be persistent: it does a lot.

PTLens: if you have any lenses that benefit from lens correction, PTLens either can do it, or you can send some test shots to the developer and have your lens added to the list. Specialized (not everyone will benefit from having it), but irreplaceable when needed. Also handles de-keystoning and perspective shifting.

That's _my_ list of "must haves". I have and use a noise reduction plug-in (the excellent DFine from Nik Software, which was purchased by Google in the fall for its "Snapseed" program, leaving the future of their excellent Aperture plug-ins in doubt), and the rest of Nik's excellent suite of tools, especially Viveza and Silver Efex (but don't buy these until their future is certain).

Even more important then useful plug-ins is having a capable graphics program as an external editor. I own and use Photoshop, but don't recommend it unless you already own it and use it deftly. Pixelmator is excellent and a great value (imho).

If you do any stitching or stacking (anything that involves combining more than one exposure), you will need a plug-in or stand alone program.

--Kirby.