Aperture 2 Product Overview February 2008 Product Overview Aperture 2 Contents Page 3 Aperture The Essential Tool from Import to Output What’s New in Aperture 2 The Mac Platform Advantage Page 10 Optimized for Speed Quick Preview Faster and More Powerful Searches Advanced Metadata Support Background Export Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts Faster Navigation and Scrolling Tethered Camera Support Page 14 Intuitive and Accessible Streamlined User Interface All-in-One Inspector Innovative Project Skimming iPhoto Browser Sample Projects Online Video Tutorials Page 18 Powerful Image Processing Next-Generation RAW Image Processing Highlight Recovery and Black Point Vibrancy and Definition Vignette and Devignette Retouch Brush RAW Fine-Tuning Highlight Hot and Cold Pixels Page 3 Enhanced Output Publishing to .Mac Web Gallery 16-Bit Print Support Custom Book Options Page 6 Resources Page 28 Technical Specifications Page 33 Product Details Product Overview 3 Aperture 2 Aperture 2 Powerful photo editing and management Aperture 2, Apple’s groundbreaking photo editing and management software, gives photographers powerful tools to manage massive libraries, speed through photo edits, make essential image adjustments, and deliver photos online or in print with ease. Whether you’re a professional photographer or a photo enthusiast, Aperture delivers a simple, integrated workflow that takes photos from import to output with uncompromising quality every step of the way. With more than 100 new features, Aperture 2 delivers advanced, next-generation RAW image processing, significantly faster image handling, powerful new image adjustment tools, a streamlined interface, and an integrated Mac workflow, making it the ideal workflow tool for people who are passionate about photography. Product Overview 4 Aperture 2 The Essential Tool from Import to Output Aperture 2 has been designed to help photographers import, manage, enhance, and deliver photos in a single, integrated workflow that dramatically streamlines every aspect of digital photography. Import images fast—manage them professionally Aperture starts its flexible, fast image import the moment you attach a camera or memory card to your Mac. It instantly displays thumbnails of every image and offers streamlined ways to add copyright, keywords, and other metadata during import. You can also import photos from cameras, card readers, memory cards, DVDs, and hard drives, or pull shots directly from iPhoto. Once the images are in your library, you can organize them logically by using Aperture projects, folders, albums, and Smart Albums. Find images quickly with powerful search tools that let you search by any metadata field or image 1 Shoot tethered adjustment. And the flexible Connect a camera to your Mac via USB and open library system lets or FireWire, control it from Aperture, and you store your images wherever and however you like—directly in Aperture, on save the photos in an Aperture project. external drives, even on a network storage device. The robust file management tools allow you to easily move your original photos to a new storage location at any time, so you’ll never run out of space for your library as it continues to grow. Make selects quickly and easily After adding hundreds of new photos to your library, Aperture provide the fastest and most efficient way to review them all and pick the very best. Aperture lets you edit photo shoots using tools such as Quick Preview mode for rapid-fire image review and Compare mode for easily evaluating images side by side. With Aperture, you can even zoom and pan multiple images at once for tight comparisons before making a pick. You can use the stacks feature to automatically group images shot in Using the Loupe a sequence, and speed through big The versatile Loupe magnifies images projects using keyboard shortcuts to from 50 to 1600 percent. Use it to apply ratings and keywords. compare details in similar images. The Light Table gives you a freeform space for grouping images visually, letting you resize, overlay, compare, and organize images into comp layouts. Product Overview Aperture 2 Adjust and enhance images precisely Aperture adjustment tools help you make your best photos look even better. Aperture takes you far beyond the basics of straightening, cropping, and improving exposure. Powerful toning controls let you correct exposure, fix white balance, set black point, enhance colors, and recover blown high- lights and shadow detail. The soft-edged Retouch Brush removes spots, dust, and blemishes precisely. The new Vibrancy and Definition tools let you selectively enhance detail and saturation in specific areas of an image. Copying adjustments from one image to another is simple using the Lift and Stamp tool, which allows you to batch-process Make selective adjustments adjustments on multiple images with one Use the enhanced color controls to click. And because all adjustments are select a hue. Then make perfect spot nondestructive, you don’t have to worry adjustments with Luminosity and about damaging your original master Saturation sliders. images. Aperture never touches them. Take the final steps and showcase your best work Aperture makes it easy to delivery professional photos online or in print. With flexible export options and integrated online and print publishing capabilities built into Aperture, showcasing your work has never been easier. Flexible export option Save finished photos as JPEG, TIFF, or PSD.2 Output at exactly the size and resolution you want, embed ICC color profiles and metadata, and protect your photos with a watermark when you publish. Send photos to colleagues via Mail. Include the photos in iLife or iWork documents, taking advantage of the direct integration of Aperture with iMovie, Keynote, Pages, and other applications.3 Sync them directly to your iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV. Or use an Aperture export plug-in to send photos to Flickr, SmugMug, Gallery, Zenfolio, or Picasa. Publish online Aperture offers fully integrated .Mac Web Gallery support, so you can publish a port- folio using your .Mac account in minutes.4 Use your password-protected Web Gallery to deliver photos, letting others download JPEG or original RAW masters directly from your site. One-click syncing means any changes made in the galleries are reflected in Aperture and on the web instantly. With the effortless HTML-based Web Page and Web Journal options of Aperture, photographers have the tools they need for instant, effective web publishing. Professional-quality books to order Aperture provides all the tools you need to create custom-designed books in small, medium, and large formats. You can place, resize, rotate, and mask photos, so your book looks exactly the way you want. Hardcover books include a full-bleed, wrap- around dust jacket. Choose from eight elegant designed themes, adjust to your own specifications, then place your order—all right within Aperture. High-quality printing With new built-in support for 16-bit printing, Aperture lets you produce high-quality prints with smoother gradients and better color fidelity. The new Print dialog also features print sharpening controls for fine-tuning sharpness for print. You can also order traditional lab prints directly from Aperture in a variety of sizes (wallet size to 20 by 30 inches). Product Overview 6 Aperture 2 What’s New in Aperture 2 With more than 100 new features, Aperture offers dramatic improvements in speed, ease of use, and image quality. It gives photographers significantly faster and more powerful photo editing, processing, and management tools. It offers a more stream- lined intuitive user interface that lets you get up and running quickly. And because photographers simply shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to image quality, Aperture delivers next-generation RAW image processing, powerful image adjustment and enhancement tools, and 16-bit printing. Optimized for speed Virtually every photo management task across the workflow is faster, thanks to powerful new preview and search options, a more streamlined user interface, and a more responsive database. • Quick Preview provides a lightning-fast way to speed through high-quality image previews and compare, rate, and make selects with virtually no lag time. • Faster and more powerful searches, based on a dramatically optimized database, let you sort through huge libraries quickly and perform sophisticated searches by any metadata field or adjustment. • Background export lets you keep working uninterrupted during rendering and final output while a revamped Activity window lets you track the progress of background processing. • Faster navigation and scrolling facilitate switching between projects and scrolling images, thanks to a faster database and a speedier thumbnail browser. • Customizable keyboard shortcuts let you define your own shortcuts for the commands you use the most so you can work with greater efficiency. • Tethered camera support lets studio photographers connect cameras directly to their Mac for immediate, fullscreen capture directly into Aperture during photo shoots.1 • Advanced metadata support includes the ability to embed IPTC metadata in RAW masters on export and to adjust EXIF time and date stamps, making previously labor- intensive metadata tasks fast and effortless. Intuitive and accessible No other professional workflow application offers the ease and depth of Aperture photo management and editing tools, including a streamlined interface that’s easy to navigate and puts tools where you need them. • Streamlined user interface offers ease of use, is highly customizable, and provides simple one-key navigation to switch between views. • All-in-One Inspector combines the Projects, Metadata, and Adjustments tools on three tabbed panels to maximize screen real estate and speed up switching between tools. • Innovative project skimming in the new All Projects view gives you a visual overview of your entire library by displaying one representative image for each project and letting you skim through the photos within projects with a flick of the mouse. • iPhoto Browser lets you browse your entire iPhoto library from within Aperture, and drag selected iPhoto images, albums, or events into Aperture.