Apple's Aperture

I've been using my Macintosh for over three years now, and one of my favorite features is iPhoto and its integration throughout the operating system. iPhoto slowly won me over as both it and I evolved until it has become one of my most-used and favorite applications. I've always known that there were high-end, "professional" solutions like Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperture, but the high cost of these applications and my relative lack of knowledge of what they add to my photo management and editing workflow left me uninterested.

Less than a week ago I updated my Mac to the latest release of OS/X and found that Apple had released the Mac App Store. I tried out the new marketplace and was impressed at how easy it was to find applications in a wide range of categories. But what jumped out was that Apple's Aperture, for sale traditionally for $199, was available for $80! For reasons I cannot fully explain I immediately made an $80 application my first App store purchase.

I've been using Aperture for several days and now I don't know how I lived without it! My iPhoto library was a mishmashy mess of events, half organized, and difficult to navigate. After a few hours with Aperture, I was able to import my photo library, organize all the projects (events from iPhoto) into a folder structure, and managed to finally have some semblance of order. But even more interesting is that Aperture includes just the right amount of photo retouch capability that I previously relied on Photoshop Elements for. I was actually evaluating Photoshop Elements 9 (an upgrade to 8 which I currently own), but found that after my latest Puerto Vallarta trip I did all my photo edits in Aperture, never needing any tools from an external application.

There is a learning curve to using Aperture. I spent some time with the tutorial videos and the manual to get where I am now. I'm by no means a power user, but have been able to get more than enough value to justify the purchase. In fact, now I would not hesitate to spring for the $199 license if I had to.

Aperture is also well-integrated into OS/X, just as iPhoto is, so I can access all my new, better photos just as easily as before.

At $80 Mac users who do a lot with photos should seriously consider Aperture. It is worth the cost and effort!