Getting a new iMac has allowed me to try software that was not usable on my old G4 powermac, particularly in the area of photo editing.  When I ordered my mac I decided to give aperture a go. (dropping $200 is a lot easier when you’re already spending $2000 for a new computer…)

For reference, I was using Capture NX for editing, with iPhoto as an organizer. I was shooting jpeg due to hard drive space, speed, and an old version of iPhoto. (If I shot RAW I had to use ViewNX with its crappy interface for Raw conversion.) Capture NX is great, especially with the control points which were exclusively theirs until Nik started creating U-point plugins for photoshop and aperture. My time spent editing photos is very limited, so my use of capture nx was mostly limited to adjusting levels and white balance, with a little bit of sharpening. For most photos I didn’t even do that much.

Enter a new iMac and aperture…here are my major observations:

1. Hard drive space and processor speed are no longer issues. Also, aperture handles RAW conversions only when you export, and it’s all automatic. That means I can shoot RAW or jpeg, and it’s truly seamless. As a result, I’ve been shooting RAW a lot more, and it saved my ass one time when I was way over-exposed and trying to salvage blown highlights.
2. The interface is awesome. I go to full screen, mark rejects, mark favorites, pull up the adjustments pallet, and make my edits. It’s VERY fast to use.
3. There’s a flickr plugin (free, as opposed to the paid one I used with iphoto…) so sharing is a single step for flickr users like me.
4. The shadow and highlight tools do almost everything I used Capture NX for, since my typical editing is pretty time-limited.
5. The integration with the other Apple apps is pretty seamless (as you would expect).
6. The project paradigm is working well for my organizational methods.
7. Keywords (and any other meta-data) are a snap to lift from one photo and apply to others.
8. Adjustments (and sets thereof) can also be lifted and copied to other photos (from the same lighting conditions, for example) very easily.
9. The retouch tool is amazing.

Of course it’s not perfect, and of course it has no layers and compositing tools, but for me that doesn’t matter. I need a robust program for organization and typical photographic edits. For that, it’s golden.