Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
has released the second major version of its professional-grade photo editing and management application, Aperture. The company packed 100 new features in to Aperture 2, including a more streamlined user interface and an entirely new image processing engine.
"Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images," noted Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of applications product marketing 
. "With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Aperture's power."
Key enhancements include new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning. The new user interface lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command, Apple said. Screen real estate has been maximized for images with an all-in-one heads-up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector.
More Speed
"The first major thing tackled in Aperture 2 is speed -- the whole program's been overhauled to provide a major speed boost, thanks to optimization of the underlying database, and the new Quick Preview makes Aperture one of the fastest programs around for quickly selecting from tens of thousands of previews," David Schloss, a professional photographer and director of the Aperture Users Professional Network, told MacNewsWorld.
That speed, which translates into increased productivity , is a key element for many pros.
"What I find is, anything I have in Aperture I can access more easily and get out the door faster," Jim Richardson, a freelance photographer who shoots for National Geographic magazine, told MacNewsWorld.
"I'm sitting here, and I've got 41,000 images in this one project. I'm scrolling down with 41,000 images and the screen is keeping up with me. Before Aperture, I would have to narrow it -- take my 2,000 selects out of the 41,000 -- and now I don't have to. I'll be interested to see how it is when I have 500,000 -- we'll see if it's still this much fun," he said.
Richardson's Aperture library is already at 100,000 images, and Apple said Aperture 2 will work with extremely large libraries of 500,000-plus images.
"Aperture doesn't do all the stuff (Adobe's) Photoshop does, but that's not my problem. The problem isn't pushing pixels around and correcting color, that's just one piece of the puzzle. Cataloging and access is a bigger issue -- dealing with huge numbers of files quickly," Richardson explained.
RAW Power
Many professional photographers prefer to work with RAW images, which are similar to digital negatives. RAW images come straight from the camera before they are processed into typical file formats like TIFF (tagged image file format) or JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). By working with a RAW image, pros can start with a more complete range of digital detail, some of which is lost during the conversion to a file.
"For people who are doing RAW conversion, everybody has the same problem with blown out highlights, and the new recovery tool in Aperture does an exceptional job of recovering highlight information in pictures that have issues like washed out skies," Richardson said.
Improved Camera Support
"Aperture 2 now supports the importing of DNG (digital negative) images. That means that Aperture can now import images from any camera that can be converted with DNG Converter or which shoots directly in DNG," noted Schloss. "That's huge."
DNG is Adobe's (Nasdaq: ADBE) own flavor for a RAW digital negative, and while camera manufacturers often use their own proprietary RAW formats, a growing number of cameras are using Adobe's DNG.
Mac Integration
Aperture 2 works seamlessly with other Apple OS X programs, including iLife, iWork, and .Mac, which means any image in Aperture can be accessed directly from other applications like Keynote, iMovie, Pages, Leopard's built-in e-mail program Mail, and even iPhoto.
Other key features include Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones; Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images; Vignette (Nasdaq: VIGN) & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects; and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas, Apple said.
Aperture 2 is available now and retails for US$199. Users of previous versions can upgrade for $99.
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