Anyone still using aperture

For me it’s not a case of feature parity with aperture as a case of trust. I don’t trust apple anymore regarding photo software. I don’t want to put the effort needed to catalogue and develop my pictures in photos just to find out later that apple has decided to axe the app.

Case in point. I really liked the photobooks you could create with aperture, and thought that maybe the new photos app could be somewhat similar in that aspect. So, almost three years after the introduction of photos for macos, I opened the app and started a new book of photos of my newborn twins.

Fast forward one week, I open the app to continue working on the book and I’m greeted by a message stating that apple will not provide printing services anymore from september 2018.

So I really don’t trust apple anymore. These last years seem like they are trying to figure out what to discontinue next. If it weren’t for fcpx I’d already be in windows land.

TheCuerco wrote:

For me it’s not a case of feature parity with aperture as a case of trust. I don’t trust apple anymore regarding photo software. I don’t want to put the effort needed to catalogue and develop my pictures in photos just to find out later that apple has decided to axe the app.

Case in point. I really liked the photobooks you could create with aperture, and thought that maybe the new photos app could be somewhat similar in that aspect. So, almost three years after the introduction of photos for macos, I opened the app and started a new book of photos of my newborn twins.

Fast forward one week, I open the app to continue working on the book and I’m greeted by a message stating that apple will not provide printing services anymore from september 2018.

So I really don’t trust apple anymore. These last years seem like they are trying to figure out what to discontinue next. If it weren’t for fcpx I’d already be in windows land.

Again, DITTO!

and Amen!

tim eversince apple dropped aperture, professional photographers software, i have tried numerous times to find a replacement. i have taken courses on lightroom and studied it only to reassure my feelings that’s nothing could replace aperture. it is so user friendly and logical. could you PLEASE RECONSIDER RERELEASING IT. I MISS IT SO. I STILL USE IT AND HAVE NOT UPGRADED MY IMAC 27 inch desktop because i was afraid i could not keep using it. it is getting more and more difficult to use it. many problems but i assure you nothing can replace it . please reply if you read this

ps my web site is still run by iweb. go daddy supports it. once you make good software it is hard to find a satisfactory replacement. those two software applications have the apple magic of being so user friendly and unequal to any other replace

i can never get over the decision to drop aperture. could you please reconsider?

Hello Robin,

I just upgraded my iMAC 27 2013 to an iMAC 27 2017 two days ago. On the new iMAC, I just restored a Time Machine backup and Aperture is working fine on the new iMAC 27. Don't be afraid to upgrade your h/w, as long as you use Time Machine.

For the rest, I agree with you. I'm on a 30-day trial period now for Capture One. I would love to keep using Aperture.

Guy -

I agree with you... I have been a huge Apple fan for years, I even used to work for Apple for a time... but, I was hugely disappointed when they bizarrely just baled ship on Aperture (and I think it also was Final Cut)... I believe they've since gotten back on board supporting that, and I was hoping they would redouble their efforts to support Aperture again as well. Its terribly disappointing that we can't find another program to switch over too. I was sincerely hoping that On1 RAW would be a good answer, but its still slightly lacking as an all around answer... And I've considered even trying to get by with Photos, but Apple limits such things as the ability to Export more than 10 photos at a time... which hinders developers to create plugins such as the ability to upload directly from Apple Photos to SmugMug's photo sharing website.

I'm still using Aperture, though I boot into Sierra when I need to perform very detailed and meticulous brushing (Aperture frequently crashes under High Sierra when retouching and zoomed beyond 100%). Lately, I've been watching a ton of videos on using Affinity and have been very impressed with its capabilities for RAW processing and image editing, though the UI does not appear as seamlessly intuitive as Aperture. What it lacks, of course, is any DAM functionality, an area where Aperture still excels. The ability to compare multiple images at once, or quickly A/B compare two images taken of the same scene using a tripod is just so easy with Aperture. It makes me wonder how long I could continue using Aperture for asset management if, at some point, the editing functionality become unstable. Much of the DAM in Aperture is what I would call "straightforward software" that does not rely of graphic drivers and accelerators, where as editing and image manipulation is much more fragile as Mac OS evolves.

As others have opined, yes, I find it frustrating that Apple has pretty much abandoned pro photographers, while continuing to support audio and video apps. I suppose part of the blame come from the success of smartphones where "everyone is a pro photographer" and iPhones are built with features that make it seem as if the phone is doing all the image processing for you. I don't think the market for pro level photo software has changed, but as a slice of Apple's revenue it certainly has.

Yes but not for new pictures. I‘ve kept my 2010 Mac Pro on Sierra, and kept a bootable Yosemite system just in case. Yosemite is the last system that Aperture was supported on. I am using Aperture primarily to clean up my library and metadata (keywords, location data, gps, copyright, description, etc.) and to rename my originals. Aperture handles this really well. All this is to get ready to move images to a new app. I won’t use Photos for the same reasons stated by other posters. I also will not rent or lease an app. That eliminates LR. Capture One is good but expensive. My new go to app for photos is ON1 RAW 2018, soon to be ON1 RAW 2019. I’ve waited 3 years for ON1 to become robust enough to replace Aperture. It does not require a catalog or database to keep track of your files. You organize in the Finder. It uses sidecar files to keep your metadata and edits. Want to move a file? Move the photo and sidecar files and you keep all metadata and edits. Want to search across all your images? Turn on the catalog feature - it will collect the data from your sidecars. Non destructive layers, coming soon. Lens corrections - already there. New camera, they probably support it. Plus you get all the stuff ON1 has always been known for like presets, effects, LUTs, panorama, HDR masking, etc. Moving to a PC because Apple won’t build the machine you need. It works there too and your license already covers both. If you haven't looked ON1 recently I recomend you do so. Their is so much more, but this post is too long already. BTW, I am not affiliated with ON1 other than as a customer.

I still use Aperture. It is by far the best app I have ever used for cataloging my photos, organizing my collection, making quick edits & exports. The workflows (importing, rating, keywords, albums, adjustments, exporting) are extremely well thought out and have never gotten in my way. All the other apps I have tried fall short on one or more of those features. I have reserved 2 Macs specifically for use with Aperture and probably won't upgrade them beyond High Sierra (Aperture 3.6 + High Sierra are running fine for me. I don't think I want to take chances with Aperture on Mojave.)

That said, I do use Luminar 2018 and am looking forward to the addition of asset management/library features later this fall. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it comes close to Aperture's cataloging & interface capabilities ... and that it will be able to import Aperture Libraries.

I evaluated CaptureOne and a number of other solutions but overall none have fit my needs as well as Aperture.

Martin, Your ideas and plans mirror mine so closely that it's almost scary.

I, too, am hanging my hat on Luminar though I must say I am a bit frustrated that Skylum has not met it's own deadline for bringing DAM back to photography.

However, I am hopeful that the delay means better software with fewer glitches and bugs.

Go Skylum!!

Hi Guys,

I am also a fellow sufferer of Apple's non-constant product philosophy.

I have lost all confidence in the konstants and foresight of Apple.

This is also a reason that I not will bought Final Cut Pro X e.g..

Despite everything, I have again bought a new iMac and will freeze it with Aperture 3.6. Thanks to the forum because of this information I saw 95% of a change, that Aperture is running with it and it is 98% good. Currently I'm testing On1 for 10 months, many things are good or better but the DAM feature is far from the effectiveness of Aperture.

Meanwhile, digital cameras are so good that 90% of my wedding pictures do not play a crucial role in RAW development, but the biggest time savings in DAM functionality are for the professional.

Thus, Aperture is still indispensable for me.

Hey guys in Cupertino, only with iPhones you can run the creek very fast and that can happen very fast. Think of Nokia. Already today, for example, Samsung better parts in terms of video compare to the iPhone and be sure the yellow fraction with 6Billion people makes it soon for half price, possibly 5% only less good.

Though Aperture still works in Mojave, though not as well as it did in High Sierra, I finally migrated (extremely begrudgingly) all my libraries to Photos. The iOS/macOC integration and support for Live and Portrait mode tipped the scales. The older I become, the more I'm not willing to invest in third-party software like Capture One, and Lightroom's interface…well…is just too much "in my face" for my tastes, and subscription software isn't for me.

After doing everything possible to create "clean," managed libraries (most of mine were referenced) in Aperture, the migration wasn't too bad, but still experienced numerous issues. Would prefer to maintain referenced libraries, but Photos HATES that workflow. Also discovered many images that were edited using Aperture's healing/clone brushes don't convert well. Forgot I had custom fields in one Aperture Library, so had to start the migration all over again.

I also feel Apple can't be trusted anymore with their software. Throwing dedicated Aperture users under the bus was the straw that broke my back, after being burned by the iWork and iLife suites, which I also embraced whole-heartedly, only to be presented with far inferior "modern" versions. Yet, I'm sticking with Photos since it's on my Mac, and will likely function and may support technologies long after it is discontinued (as has been the case the Aperture…must give Apple credit for that!). With extensions, Photos is workable, although Affinity Photo sadly does not (yet) support the HEIC format.

For those of you who have embraced Photos, I urge you to PLEASE keep filling out those feeback forms with your feature requests! My top 5 are 1) Tabbed panes (ala Aperture's Library, Info and Adjustments panes; and those in Pages, Numbers or Keynote); 2) Dynamic resizing of the description and keyword fields, based on their contents; 3) Adjustment brushes (though Luminar 2018 does a fine job); 4) Side-by-side (2-up) view feature; 5) Batch rename File and Title names.

Wish everyone luck with finding their own solution!

I still using Apple Aperture. It still holding my 120,000 photos in the past ten years until today, it is still very stable, fast and handy. Keywords control, smart album, sync with iTunes and iOS are my favourite part. I also use Lightroom and Capture one for RAW editing, but using Aperture to organise all my final output as well as iPhones snap shots. I know LR and C1 offer similar function but not the way I love and cannot compare to Aperture. I still hoping Apple will release new version of Aperture someday, not "Photos" app.

I still hoping Apple will release new version of Aperture someday

Very unlikely.

What's a *lot* more likely is that soon, some change in the OS means that Aperture will n longer run, or only run in a limited fashion. You need to prepare for that day, and make your choice for an app to replace Aperture. You're living on borrowed time.

I'm still using Aperture, professionally, every day. Why? Simply because it's STILL the fastest workflow tool around. Import, automatically add caption & adjustments, and work on the last image even whilst the first hundred or so are still importing. The ability to swap between edits and meta-data changes quickly and work in a non-linear fashion.

I've tried everything else, LR, Capture One, OnOne RAW, PhotoMechanic. They all are cumbersome and slower than Aperture.

Since running Mojave I'm seeing more issues which is very concerning as there still isn't anything as good as Aperture to switch to yet. Still hoping maybe one day Apple will release Aperture's source code to the community, or a developer will make an application that mimics Aperture's workflow and speed.

My major concern is that Aperture can't write IPTC or XMP side-car files so getting 13 years worth of captioning information out of my 23TB database is going to be a major PITA.

I keep tweeting Tim Cook asking to #BringBackAperture or release it as open source. Maybe the members of this community can do the same and bring it back to his attention that people are still using it years after it was killed.

My major concern is that Aperture can't write IPTC or XMP side-car files so getting 13 years worth of captioning information out of my 23TB database is going to be a major PITA.

You probably know, that you can save the metadata fro selected images with "File > Export > Metadata.

It will write a tab separated text file with the IPTC metadata. This could be read into a Filemaker database or Microsoft excel database, where you can at least look it up by searching for the filename.

I used "Metadata > Write IPTC Metadata to Original" to embed all metadata into the original image files to save them for the migration to other applications.

A workaround to create an XMP sidecar file would be to migrate a copy of your Aperture library to Photos. Many Aperture metadata can be migrated to Photos, and Photos can export the original image files with XMP sidecar files.