It wasn’t enough for Apple to surprise everyone with a Video iPod last week, a Windows-Media-Center-like iMac (interesting) and to begin offering network television broadcasts for download on the ITMS. Yesterday, in an event I wasn’t even aware of in advance, Apple took the lid off minor resolution enhancements to the current crop of Powerbooks (yawn), announced a new Quad-Processor G5 (wow), and released a new application called Aperture. This is what I’ve been waiting for.
More after the jump…..
iPhoto has been my ‘master library’ for my images for a long time now. Ever since it began to support the format, I’ve shot RAW images. But iPhoto can lag, and while it has a great interface and feels like a Mac application, it just doesn’t offer the kind of tools I needed. Enter Aperture. Apple describes it thusly:
Designed from the ground up for professional photographers, Aperture provides everything you need for after the shoot, delivering the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers.
Featuring a RAW-focused workflow, Aperture makes RAW as easy as JPEG, letting you import, edit, catalog, organize, retouch, publish, and archive your images more effectively and efficiently than ever before. From capture to output, you work directly with your RAW files, never having to first convert them into another format before viewing, adjusting, organizing, or printing them.
Apple also highlights SI Photographer Heinz Kluetmeier who I worked with in 1999 on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition 3-D shoot in Mexico. He gives it very high marks, and points out how helpful this applications becomes in sifting through large shoots – like the 1000 images he might typically capture at a football game.
The new app has some serious hardware requirements. Apple is suggesting a dual-2Ghz G5, but say it will run on a 1.25 Ghz Powerbook. But all that horsepower looks well worth it in this application, combining professional workflow, a truly Mac-like interface, and superb archiving tools. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one.