| Aperture | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Aperture 3 running onOS X Mavericks | |
| Developer | Apple Inc. |
| Initial release | November 30, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-11-30) |
| Final release | 3.6 / October 16, 2014; 11 years ago (2014-10-16) |
| Written in | Objective-C |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Type | Image organizer,image editor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Homepage at theWayback Machine (archived April 7, 2015) |
Aperture is a discontinued professionalimage organizer andeditor developed byApple between 2005 and 2015 for theMac, as a professional alternative toiPhoto.
Aperture is anon-destructive editor that can handle a number of tasks common inpost-production work, such as importing and organizing image files, applying adjustments, and printing or exporting photographs. It can organize photos by keywords,facial recognition, and location data embedded in image files, it offers brushes for applying effects such asdodge and burn, skin smoothing, and polarization, and it can export to Flickr, Facebook,SmugMug, andiCloud.[1][2][3][4]
AtWWDC 2014, Apple announced that itsPhotos app would replace Aperture andiPhoto. The final release of Aperture, version 3.6, was released in October 2014, and subsequently discontinued and removed from sale on April 8, 2015.[5] Although support for32-bit apps, including Aperture, was removed inmacOS Catalina,[6] a patch created by an external party allows Aperture 3.6 to function on newer versions of macOS.[7]
Apple Aperture is a professional photo editing and management application that offers a variety of features for professional photographers. One of its key features is complete support for importing and exportingraw image formats, for supported cameras. It also offers tethered shooting support forDSLRs made byNikon andCanon; when photographers connect these cameras to their computers, they can be instantly imported without user action, for a more efficient workflow.[8] The app's Raw Fine Tuning feature allows users to manage and adjust the conversion parameters of different versions of RAW decode. In addition, Aperture allows users to choose whether to keep their master image files in place on their filesystem, or migrate them into the Aperture library upon import.
Aperture also offers a range of image adjustment tools, including specific color retouching, a luminance-based edge sharpener, and spot repair. It also has lens correction tools, such aschromatic aberration correction, to help improve the overall quality of an image. In terms of project management, Aperture offers extensive metadata and searching support, as well as the ability to group photos using autostacking based on the time between shutter clicks.
Aperture offers a number of features for organizing and managing photos. Autostacking groups photos based on the time between shutter clicks; users can also manually group photos into Stacks, and create multiple working copies of the same image using the Versions feature. The loupe tool allows users to view images at zoom levels from 50% to 1600%, while the Light Table feature serves as a freeform workspace for sorting and selecting images. Aperture also offers the ability to simultaneously zoom and pan multiple images to compare them. It supports a full-screen mode for editing and sorting images, and can span multiple computer displays.
In addition to its native support for theAdobe Photoshop PSD,PNG,JPEG, andTIFF formats, Aperture offersnondestructive image editing, customizable printing and publishing options, and the ability to import photos fromUSB andFireWire memory card readers or directly from a camera connected via USB. It also has read and write support forIPTC image metadata and customizable book creation tools. Finally, Aperture has a heavily customizable book creation feature, as well as the ability to create web galleries and blogs that can be uploaded viaFTP orWebDAV.
Unlike Adobe Lightroom, Aperture stores photos by default inside apackage, rather than inside normal folders, however it can also manage photos stored in regular folders (referenced files)[9]
On February 12, 2008, Aperture 2 was released with a new interface, new editing features, and a reduced price of $199 in the United States.[10][11] This was a significant decrease from the initial price of $499 for version 1.0. Aperture 2 included a streamlined interface and improved performance due to database optimizations and interface improvements. It also featured enhanced image processing capabilities with updated raw image format support and improved integration with macOS,MobileMe (now iCloud), and various software packages includingiLife andiWork. In addition, Aperture 2 introduced support for editing plug-ins, such as Apple's owndodging and burning tool, which was added in Aperture 2.1.[12]
Aperture 3 was released on February 9, 2010,[13] and required an Intel-basedMac, unlike previous versions which could run onPowerPC systems. Upon the launch of theMac App Store on January 6, 2011, Aperture 3.0 was made available through the store at a reduced price of $80 in the United States.[14][15] Apple claimed that the new version included over 200 new features. Aperture became a64-bit application capable of handling large files such as high definition scans, a face detection and recognition tool called Faces, a Places feature that automatically places photos on aworld map, native integration withFlickr andFacebook, nondestructive, edge-aware brushes for applying adjustments to photos, dozens of new built-in adjustment presets, the ability to create custom presets for download,[16] advanced slideshow capabilities, and the ability to handle and edit video and audio files.[17]
The summer 2014 beta ofOS X 10.10 Yosemite was incompatible with Aperture, leading to speculation that Apple may abandon the application.[18][a]
On June 27, 2014, Apple announced that Aperture andiPhoto would be discontinued in favor of the upcomingPhotos app.[18] Several users said Aperture had suffered from neglect and fallen behind competitors likeAdobe Lightroom, and that the discontinuation followed years of Apple neglecting professional users.[20][21] Apple announced a migration path to Photos, but not to Lightroom or other tools.[18] Adobe promised an Aperture import plugin for Lightroom, which they released in October 2014. This import plugin cannot import non-destructive image adjustments made in Aperture, so it imports both the original images, and a copy of each edited image.[22] Another import tool is CYME's Avalanche application.[23]
According to Apple, the upcoming Photos app would have "professional-grade features" like "library search, support for third-party plugins, and advanced editing",[21] though by its 2015 release, the Photos app lacked support for many Aperture features including tethered shooting, watermarks, separate projects within one library, plug-ins, editing in an external application, star ratings and color labels, an adjustment brush to apply edits only to certain parts of an image,[24] a loupe,Raw fine tuning, andchromatic aberration correction.DPReview's Jeff Keller said he was "not enthused about Photos" due to the missing features and "incredibly dumbed down interface", instead deciding to keep using Aperture and switch to Lightroom once it stopped working.[9] Most reviewers felt the new Photos app was "not suitable for professional users".[25]
French outletMacGeneration and reporterJason Snell noted that Apple continued selling Aperture, and that its sales pages failed to indicate that the application was discontinued.[26][27] The sales pages were updated to note this in February 2015,[28] and Aperture was removed from sale in April 2015, after the release of the Photos app.[29]
The last version of macOS officially supported by Aperture ismacOS 10.14 Mojave,[30] since Aperture is a32-bit application, whichmacOS 10.15 Catalina does not support.[31]
A free, open-source application[7] called Retroactive can modify Aperture to enable it to continue running on macOS Catalina and later macOS releases. Aperture remains fully functional except for the ability to play videos, export slideshows,[31] and support forPhoto Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing. Raw file may need to be reprocessed before they can be opened. Through Retroactive, Aperture is compatible withmacOS Sonoma. However, Aperture no longer works onmacOS Sequoia even with Retroactive.[7]
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