Apple Apperture 3 full Review

Like:
Unified library formats; Some improved tools;
New Auto Enhance tool
Dislike:
Uninspiring grey interface

Review:

Aperture is Apple's professional image-
cataloguing and image-editing tool. It's also
what iPhoto users migrate to when they need to
step up to something more advanced, and
version 3.3 makes this a lot simpler with a new
'unified' library format.
Both Aperture and iPhoto store images in
standalone 'library' files (though you can use
them to reference external files in their existing
locations, too). In the past, the Aperture and
iPhoto libraries had two different formats. If you
wanted to use both apps, you had to maintain
two separate libraries.
The new, unified format means you can open your
iPhoto library in Aperture, complete with your
Faces, Places, slideshows and albums. You can
do it the other way, too, opening Aperture's
library in iPhoto and using templates and other
design tools.
And it does work well, though there are
inconsistencies in some of the more advanced
options. In Aperture you can 'stack' related
images, but if you view a stack in iPhoto, you
only get to see the top image, not all the others.
There are new tools and tweaks, too. The
Highlights and Shadows tool is more
sophisticated. You can recover shadow detail
without sliders, and the Highlights slider uses the
extended highlight detail in RAW files.
A new Auto Enhance button enables you to
improve substandard colours and exposures with
one click, and the White Balance tools have been
extended to include Skin Tone and Neutral Gray
modes. These are improvements, but apart from
the inclusion of support for the AVCHD movie
format, the other new features focus on usability
and appearance.
For example, you can now opt to use embedded
JPEG previews in imported images, rather than
waiting for Aperture to render its own. It speeds
things up initially, but then you still have to wait
for them to be rendered when you view or edit
them properly, and it's then you realise that the
embedded JPEG and Aperture's own rendition are
quite different, so you might prefer to get it to
render your previews on import after all.
Aperture is an excellent tool for professionals and
keen amateurs alike, and version 3.3 improves it
in a number of ways. But it's more of a
maintenance release than anything else, and
Aperture is in danger of falling behind its rival,
Adobe Lightroom .
Aperture is still faster and neater at image
cataloguing, but the gap to Lightroom's editing
tools - which include everyday staples like
automatic lens corrections and digital graduated
filters - is growing just a little too large for
comfort.