Apple Aperture software: “handles RAW files as easily as JPEGs”

Wedding photography has been one of the last professional photography film holdouts, but this bastion of silver halide is transitioning to pixels as wedding shooters’ technical objections are being addressed by technology changes. Apple touts its new Aperture software as being powerful workflow and image-editing solution that Apple thinks wedding photographers will embrace.

I had a chance to view a demo of Aperture and can confirm that, with proper training, any wedding photographer will see significant benefits to making Aperture a key part of their switch to digital. Indeed, any editorial or commercial photographer already invested in Mac computers and Photoshop and who shoots RAW images should consider Aperture for its time-saving workflow tool set, its intuitive image management, and for its easy integration with Photoshop.

The concern Apple addresses is the ability to quickly and easily post-process RAW files and make handling RAW files as easy as handling a JPEG. It does this by not touching the RAW file itself, but rather applying the selected commands to the screen image on the fly. The software offers a host of tools that streamline several workflow steps, but the minimum requirement of a Mac G5 with at least 1GB of memory (2GB is recommended) helps speed processing along.

One objection wedding pros have to digital is that digital sensors lack the wide latitude of color negative film. Since Aperture works with RAW files, it offers tools that can highlight blown-out highlights (such as a wedding dress) and fixes them in seconds. Another objection is that digital workflow is significantly different from film and requires more in-house post-processing where film can simply be sent to a lab for proof prints. Aperture offers a set of tools that let wedding photographers do quick fixes (including converting to black-and-white with red, yellow, green and blue filters that can be adjustable on the fly), and the ability to design wedding albums and web sites.

One issue Apple stressed is that Aperture is designed to work alongside Adobe Photoshop. For more extensive image editing, Aperture will open Photoshop and convert an image into a PSD file. Once changes are completed in Photoshop, the images is imported back into Aperture (in the demonstration, this was a seamless process) and the commands are applied to the RAW file which can then be handled in Aperture.

The Adorama Academy hopes to have a complete review of Aperture in the near future. Apple Aperture will be available in December at an expected retail price of $499. Adorama carries a full line of Apple computer systems.