Software update: Apple Aperture 3.0

Apple Aperture is a comprehensive image manager for Mac OS X that allows you to view and edit digital photos. Apple has on this page There are several online videos that explain certain actions within this program. In addition, you can this page watch a number of videos where professional photographers give their thoughts on Aperture. The developers have released a new version with 3.0 as the version number and with the following accompanying text:

What’s new in Aperture 3?

Faces and Places. Brushes for precision retouching. Dozens of adjustment presets. True full screen browsing and editing. And that’s just part of the perfect picture.

faces

Faces makes it faster and easier to search thousands of photos for shots of a particular person.

Find a face in a crowd.
Faces automatically detects faces in your photos. Once a face is detected and identified, Faces can recognize that face and then scan your entire library — or individual projects — to find others just like it. It can even find a specific face in group shots. The more you use Faces, the smarter and more accurate it gets, making it easier to find shots of a particular person.

Put a name to the face.
When Faces shows you an unidentified face, simply type in the person’s name. When you export your final images, the name is embedded as a keyword.

Aperture takes faces further.
Aperture 3 expands on the power of Faces in iPhoto ’09. Not only can you view the people you name across the entire library, you can now see them in individual projects. And the new Show Unnamed Faces pane displays all the detected-but-not-yet-named faces in a project to help you easily add names.

Places

Now you can use GPS location data to explore your photos by the places they were taken. Better still, find them on an interactive map.

Organize your library by location, location, location.
If you’re shooting with a GPS-enabled camera, Aperture 3 uses reverse geocoding to convert location coordinates into familiar location names, then displays those locations on the Places map. If you’re using a separate GPS tracking device, the path of your photo journey appears on the map when you import a track log. You can even extract locations from iPhone tracker apps or your iPhone photos. Which means you can instantly find all your Yellowstone photos, for example, without typing the word “Yellowstone.” Photos can be organized by country, state, city, or a point of interest such as Old Faithful or the park visitor center.

Put your photos on the map.
If a photo doesn’t include GPS metadata, simply drag the photo to the spot on the map where you shot it. A pin appears. Then, when you’re searching for photos, use the map’s navigation menu to quickly find the location. When you click the pin, Aperture displays all the photos taken there.

Easy course corrections.
If you need to change the location of your shot, drag the pin on the map across the street or across the country. The GPS data associated with the photo updates automatically, so you know where your photos are at all times.

brushes

New nondestructive, edge-aware brushes let you selectively apply powerful adjustments to photos.

Precise brush control.
Brushes let you paint in a wide range of effects to selectively fine-tune your photos. With precise control of the size, softness, and strength of each brush, you can adjust only the parts of the image you want, leaving the rest untouched. For example, you can burn the green of a palm leaf lying on a beach to decrease the exposure and make it darker, without touching the rest of your photo. Or you can dodge just its shadow to increase the exposure and bring out the detail of the sand. No matter how much you change an image, you can always go back to the original.

Brush in special effects.
Never before have so many special effect options been so easy to use. Smooth skin, change the color of the sky, blur the background, sharpen lines, intensify colors, and more.

Quick Brushes for quick fixes.
Fifteen Quick Brushes handle the most common touch-up jobs with just a few strokes. Dodge and burn, for example, or add a polarizing effect. Smooth imperfections in skin, reduce saturation, or sharpen detail. All Quick Brushes are easily accessible from the tool strip.

Brush inside the lines.
The Detect Edges option helps you make adjustments exactly where you want them. Say your image is of a dark mountain skyline against a red sunset. The brush actually sees the edge of the mountain, so you can brush color into the silhouetted mountain without splashing color into the sky. Or darken the red of the sunset without affecting the mountain. Detect Edges makes retouching easier and saves you time.

Adjustment Presets

Dozens of new adjustment presets give your photos a wide range of looks. In just one click.

One click quick fixes.
Ready-to-use Quick Fix adjustment presets sharpen images, pump up vibrancy, perform quick exposure shifts, make easy white balance changes, and recover blown highlights. You can also experiment with a variety of effects, from sepia to cross process color shifts to black-and-white in different contrast grades. Apply any combination of adjustments with a single click. And because adjustments are nondestructive in Aperture 3, another click can remove effects and return your photo to its original state.

Experiment with different processing techniques and styles.
How would your photo look in sepia? Or in high contrast black and white? What if the shot had been taken with a toy camera? Adjustment presets let you apply these effects and others instantly to a single photo or across an entire project.

Instantly see adjustments in a preview screen.
It’s easy to see how different adjustment presets will change your image. Move your cursor over the different preset options, and a pop-up window previews the image in each effect as quickly as you can scroll.

Create your own adjustment presets.
If you’ve created just the right look for a photo and want to apply it across a project, Aperture 3 saves you hours of work. Just save your refinements as an adjustment preset and apply it wherever and whenever you like. You can also import adjustment presets created by other Aperture users or export your own to share.

Full Screen Browser

Take advantage of your Apple display to get a big, uncluttered, full-screen view of your library.

Full screen everything.
Browse through your entire library in the full-screen Browser, quickly moving from project to project without leaving full-screen view. Make selects and compare them side by side. Zoom from 25 percent to 1000 percent to study details. Just browse your video. All on your brilliant Apple display.

No obstructions, no distractions.
You want to see your photos, not control panels. The Aperture 3 Vanishing HUD feature lets you temporarily hide the Adjustments inspector so you can work on your photos full screen, with nothing in the way. Just select the control you want and hold down the Shift key. Everything but that control melts away, leaving you an unobstructed view of your work.

Instantly browse through your projects.
With Aperture 3, browsing through your library becomes a visual feast. Use the Library Path Navigator to instantly move between projects, then view resizable thumbnails using every inch of your screen. Not only is it easier to find what you’re looking for, you get a beautiful view of all the great shots you’ve taken.

Advanced Slideshows

Create spectacular multimedia shows with photos, HD video clips, titles, layered soundtracks, and professionally designed themes.

Use familiar iPhoto ’09 slideshow themes. And more.
If you’re moving from iPhoto ’09, the slideshows you created with themes such as Snapshot and Shatter are preserved in all their brilliance. Aperture 3 includes all iPhoto themes and two new themes: Watercolor Panels and Photo Edges. Each theme gives you a professionally designed layout, title treatment, and transitions to create a distinctive backdrop for your photos. Choose a theme, drop in some photos and HD video clips, and produce amazing slideshows in seconds.

Combine photos, audio, and video clips in one show.
If your camera records video, you can import it into your library along with your stills and include it in your slideshow. Just drag a video clip into the slideshow as easily as you add a photo.

Create and edit layered soundtracks.
To personalize your slideshow, just add music from your iTunes library (DRM-free only). Then drop in audio clips stored in your Aperture library — voiceovers, narration, or other sounds recorded on location — for a multilayered soundtrack. If you’re including video in your slideshow, you can add the audio from the video, too.

Tap out the time of your fades and cuts.
Talk about fingertip control. With Aperture 3, you control the pace of your slideshow with the tap of a finger. As you watch the slideshow, press the Return key to determine when each slide begins and ends. As you tap out each slide change, Aperture 3 records your custom timings.

Add titles, borders, and colors.
When using the Classic and Ken Burns themes, you can add titles anywhere in the slideshow in your choice of font, size, and style. Choose borders and background colors. Scale photos. Even control fades and adjust transition times.