[Doug Nelson]

http://www.apple.com/aperture/

[Kraellin]

interesting. a bit pricey at $500 for what it does, but since its native format is RAW, i could see some advantages.

i see this as a pre-photoshop editor. simple stuff for a quick fix you could use Aperture and for the more difficult ones, Photoshop.

Apple also just released a hand-held video player, like ipod only for video. at least that's what Leno reported on the Tonight show last night. it has a 2 1/2 inch screen.

Craig

[proxy]

Some interesting interviews with three pro photographers that give a really good idea of what Aperture is about can be found here

I'd agree that this is going to be a complement to Photoshop and not a direct competitor. While Aperture can do a wide amount of Raw adjustment it's not an app for complex manipulation. Apple actually advertise one of the features as being 'one click to Photoshop'. Looks a very nice app.

[smiley guy]

Someone over at ehmac.ca called aperture "Aperture looks to me like iPhoto on steroids, irradiated, and running on Nitroglycerin." Sounds like an apt description to me. Looking at the style and the interface it looks in some ways similar to the latest version of iPhoto for sure. Obviously it does a whole lot more but it also does the production end of things with the print interface and the books etc.

Looking at the website it looks to me like a Photoshop lite in a way. The quick adjustments (albeit powerful ones) but fewer bells and whistles than Photoshop.

I will look forward to reviews.

[WilliamD]

I think it's a mistake to compare Aperture & Photoshop. Despite the name Photoshop was never developed as a photographer's tool, and it's core market has never been photographers. Whilst there are a number of applications aimed at sorting/storing/manipulating images, there hasn't been anything that really offered an all in one solution to professional photographers - despite the rapid development of digital cameras.

Professional photography covers a wide variety of working styles, and for many the incorporation of digital shooting into an existing film based work environment has been far from easy: Aperture is here to address that.

Frankly, Adobe could probably have produced something like this a few years back, but why would they have bothered? The Pro market is very small, & they'd all be buying Photoshop anyway...

Personally, I hope to incorporate Aperture into my workflow from capture through editing to RAW conversion: Images will then go into Photoshop when needed, but hopefully that will become less common, & Aperture will be the only app most of my images will ever see. But it's too early to tell; that's just wishfull thinking :)

Anyone using Photoshop for retouching/art/graphic design/web design will probably have little interest in Aperture, it does seem to be a highly focused tool, aimed at professional photographers.