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Heads up for Aperture users ...

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  • FlowtographyBerlinFlowtographyBerlin Posts: 477Member
    @Flowtography You're aware there is a dust and spot removal tool in C1? Less intuitive and non-sensitive to pen pressure when working with a Wacom digitizer or the like, but still, better than nothing.
    Yes, I know. It's good for what its name is: spot removal. But it really only does spot shapes, you can't use it as a brush, you set a spot and then adjust the size, plus the quality isn't really nice for "spot" removal on skin. It just doesn't work, I really tried. I hope they extend that tool in Version 8.

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  • PB_PMPB_PM Posts: 4,494Member
    edited July 2014
    Heads up guys and gals, there is a beta program (currently version 0.4) out now that will export all original RAW files and edited versions from Aperture Libraries into a Lightroom friendly format (with keywords etc stored in .xmp files)

    Aperture Exporter
    Post edited by PB_PM on
    If I take a good photo it's not my camera's fault.
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  • KnockKnockKnockKnock Posts: 400Member
    FWIW, I downloaded the new Capture NX-D and gave it a run through. I've never used the higher-end versions of this, but coming from a user who started with just files and Photoshop, then iPhoto, then Aperture, then dabbled with Lightroom 2, then back to Aperture 3...

    I'm impressed with NX-D. The quality of the 16-bit TIFFs is excellent. I shoot with an older D60 which doesn't have in-camera corrections for lens distortion or purple fringing. So it feels like I've been given a Expeed4 option in post. The corrections are much more intuitive and spot-on than playing with PTLens. The noise reduction is better than in my camera, but not quite as good as Dfine2. The color, dynamic range (with Active-D options) and smoothness of processing RAW is better than anything I've seen.

    No, it's not a full solution for Pros. It doesn't have all of the metadata, stacking, organizing options I came to rely on with Aperture... but I can imagine an enthusiast with a Nikon camera using it as a primary tool.

    For me, I think I'll start shooting RAW+JPG, and if/when I come upon a special image that I want to blow up, print or just love, I'll push the RAW file out to NX-D, run noise reduction in Dfine2, and bring the TIFF back into Aperture, add it to the image stack as the primary. Not a perfect process, but not too bad.

    Perfect would be running Aperture with an NX-D plug-in which added a layer (not a full TIFF) of Nikon special sauce down as an adjustment. Maybe Photos of the future will aim this high. Here's hoping.
    D7100, D60, 35mm f/1.8 DX, 50mm f/1.4, 18-105mm DX, 18-55mm VR II, Sony RX-100 ii
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  • henrik1963henrik1963 Posts: 567Member
    @KnockKnock: Why TIFF? I am asking because I have never used TIFF. Is it better than NEF - Raw?
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  • IronheartIronheart Posts: 3,017Moderator
    Because he wants to use NX-D as a pre-process to aperture or LR. The only way to keep those changes is to convert to TIFF (lossless) or JPEG (lossy) as the NEF files is never modified.
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  • henrik1963henrik1963 Posts: 567Member
    I see :-) Thanks
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  • KnockKnockKnockKnock Posts: 400Member
    Yup. The only export options from NX-D are TIFF and JPEG.

    I looked very closely at 100% and saw compression artifacts in the highest quality JPEGs that NX-D output. At 50% I could barely see them. At 30%, they looked identical on screen. Compared to TIFFs, I have earned a newfound respect for the compression Nikon crams into NEF files. Then again, they are "only" carrying 12-bit on my old camera vs 16-bit for TIFF data.

    Off-Topic, is there any movement towards 12-bit JPEG? Hmph.
    D7100, D60, 35mm f/1.8 DX, 50mm f/1.4, 18-105mm DX, 18-55mm VR II, Sony RX-100 ii
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  • itsnotmeyouknowitsnotmeyouknow Posts: 481Member
    Apple has been sticking its fingers up at professional users for some time. For those in the film or music industry Logic Pro and FCP were high end and very expensive programmes - about £2k for the two. Now you can get them from the app store for much much less.

    Great for consumers but bad for pros who used to get pro support. Much like the mac.com email system. It used to have a fee and was a professional email system with proper support. Now it is consumer you get 5GB of data -you can upgrade for a large fee - and they are carp at dealing with spam and when your storage is used up and you delete ,000s of spam emails it takes them days to release the storage.

    You phone up and they say: "sir, this is a consumer system so the fact that you rely on your email for business is of no interest to us." I spent weeks going an froing and in the end I was told by an Apple Supervisor based in Dublin that "You have to be nice to us, we are super important".

    Yahoo has better spam tools, is also a consumer email supplier and gives 1TB of storage, free. I have had problems with each and every Apple product I have had - 5 macbook pros, iMac and iPhone. Just waiting for decent display on Windows laptop and I will see where my next laptop comes from - £2800 for a laptop and the trackpad goes funny on the retina and they give me a lead time of 15 working days to fix it.

    You can't call Apple for free with issues unless you take out Apple Care (in UK sale of goods legislation means that most faults are covered for 6 years from purchase date regardless of warranty) which is a waste of money.

    Sorry, RANT OVER!
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  • JK1231JK1231 Posts: 24Member
    Just a heads-up... Apple announced a Mac OS 10^3 public beta today. Started a new thread regarding possible Photos beta: http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/3098/mac-photos-beta-was-heads-up-for-aperture-users-
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  • henrik1963henrik1963 Posts: 567Member
    Just downloaded Lightroom - 30 days free trail version. If I like it I will either buy a standalone copy of Lightroom or join CC Photo - Lightroom + Photoshop.

    The Lightroom interface is different. Maybe it is like buying new shoes - you need to walk for a while before they fit. Right now I like Apertures interface so much better - if for no other reason that I know it.

    I will import all my vacation pictures and give it a try.

    Come on Apple. Tell us you have changed your mind and are coming with an update to Aperture :-)
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  • FlowtographyBerlinFlowtographyBerlin Posts: 477Member
    @henrik1963: Good! Please tell us about your experience after you've used it a bit!

    I have Capture One, but must say there are a few little features missing (i.e. you can't use the masking function on any adjustment but just 4 predefined adjustments) that are really a complete downturn.

    I'm hoping for Capture One 8 for Photokina, and if that's not announced, I guess I need to switch to LR, too. Please keep us updated!
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  • PB_PMPB_PM Posts: 4,494Member
    I've been working with Lightroom and several other programs as well. The biggest downside to Lightroom that I've noticed is that you cannot use stack or use multiple curve adjustments the way you can in Aperture. Maybe you can, but I haven't figured out how to anyway.
    If I take a good photo it's not my camera's fault.
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  • henrik1963henrik1963 Posts: 567Member
    @FlowtographyBerlin: OK first impressions. User interface could do with a cleanup compared to Aperture. But it is not too bad.

    OK I´m an idiot as my first try at importing was 862 D800 RAW files - from Berlin, Germany :-) Don't know where I left my brain :-)
    I wanted to try to put my working catalog on one hard drive while at the same time making a backup to another hard drive - nice feature. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere - both my working catalog and my backup ended up at the same drive. You really have to pay attention when you do your first import. Try with 10 pictures :-)

    Second try seems to be OK.

    I reviewed my photos before import. That worked fine too. Press "x" and you have marked a picture as a reject. DMD + backspace on a mac and your rejects goes away - nice.

    The reason I start with that many pictures is I want to see if I can get to know the app and if I can get a good workflow.

    I will keep you updated when I have been working on some photos.

    One thing I like about Adobe is that there seems to be a lot of tutorials on their web side.
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  • JJ_SOJJ_SO Posts: 1,158Member
    edited July 2014
    At first: @henrik1963 this is an Aperture thread. I'd appreciate it it doesn't become a "how I made the switch to LR / C1 / darktable / DxO" thread. For several reasons:
      Other people may want to switch, too and will appreciate to find those first steps and help from others in a separate thread.
      The switching or "testdriving" people will get help from the experienced LR users in a thread wihout "Aperture" in it's title - why should LR users care otherwise?
      Aperture users probably will share their first experiences with photos.app probably here and I feel, this belongs together
    Ao, maybe you want to create the "How I switched from AA to LR" thread?

    At second: the "x" in AA is "9" and the rejected can be displayed by using the selection in the search field on top right in a photos overview. ;)
    Post edited by JJ_SO on
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  • FlowtographyBerlinFlowtographyBerlin Posts: 477Member
    @JJ_SO: But the title of this thread is basically "They're killing Aperture, now what", so if it's just one or two posts of other Aperture users how they switched, that's pretty much what this is about. No?

    The thread is pooling all the poor souls and their problems with the Aperture shutdown. :-)
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  • JJ_SOJJ_SO Posts: 1,158Member
    @Flowtography I was referring to @henrik1963 "I will keep you updated when I have been working on some photos" I was afraid of, the Aperture thread could become one of those phantom threads like "D300 successor"...

    And "heads up" as thread title has a bit more positive vibrations in than "They're killing Aperture, now what" :). Nikon was killing their own NX, too. And Apple itself was killing loads of their own ideas for sometimes better ideas which will become killed in time.

    My intention was, to keep the tears and wailings of us Aperture users abandoned by the guys we paid for giving us Aperture from the new shores of the all better DAMs ;;)
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  • henrik1963henrik1963 Posts: 567Member
    @JJ_SO: You are right. This should not evolve into a "how to move to Lightroom from Aperture" thread. And even if I wanted to I am not the right person to do it.

    But I hope that there is room for a little more than tears in here :-) I hope there is room for "what to do now that Apple is killing Aperture". And here Lightroom is one App that does pretty much the same job.

    We often get carried away in posts inhere. Sometimes it is a good thing sometimes not so much. I hope we can strike a balance here :-)
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  • PB_PMPB_PM Posts: 4,494Member
    In some ways we need to talk about replacements here, otherwise the thread is dead. We know Aperture is dead, there is nothing more to say about it. When Photos comes it should have a new thread, since it really isn't related to Aperture at all, being an entirely new app.
    If I take a good photo it's not my camera's fault.
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  • JJ_SOJJ_SO Posts: 1,158Member
    I'd say Aperture is changing into something else. To me that makes a difference, as dead is end of life and no more development like some apps Google is just switching off without any replacements.

    And in Aperture's case the app is merged together with iPhoto into photos.app. I'm not against a new photos.app thread, but it will have loads of Aperture stuff onboard. To me the question is if I can do what I can do today - so far with the end of life Aperture.

    LR 5 has really nice features, so maybe the ones willing to make the change will feel at home one day.
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  • PB_PMPB_PM Posts: 4,494Member
    I'd say Aperture is changing into something else. To me that makes a difference, as dead is end of life and no more development like some apps Google is just switching off without any replacements.

    And in Aperture's case the app is merged together with iPhoto into photos.app.
    There will be no new versions of Aperture, so yes it is EOL. No if ands or butts about it. T

    The Library may be read and imported into different software, but we have yet to see any solid evidence that Photos will be a true Aperture replacement. Considering that the original name for "Photos" was going to be iPhoto X (according to rumors), I highly doubt Photos will be a true Aperture replacement by any means of the imagination. It is targeted at consumers, so the app will be built with that in mind. The app might have more features than the current version of iPhoto, but that hardly makes it a real Aperture replacement.
    If I take a good photo it's not my camera's fault.
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  • proudgeekproudgeek Posts: 1,422Member
    Interestingly, if you go to the Apple App Store, you'll find an app called Exporter for Aperture, which sells for $14.99 USD. It basically allows you to move your Aperture Library into LR as seamlessly as possible. I'll be curious to hear what people think of this.
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  • PB_PMPB_PM Posts: 4,494Member
    Yes, I used some of the early beta versions, which were free. The developer had to change the name from the previously mentioned "Aperture Exporter" to Exporter for Aperture when submitting to the App Store, because Apple felt it was infringing on the name of Aperture, and might confuse buyers into thinking it was an official app. 8-| The App itself works well enough, maintaining the file structure from Aperture, and creating the needed .xmp files for Lightroom to read keywords, ratings etc. No adjustments transfer, so if you want to migrate adjusted copies then you need to set the app to export edited jpegs or tiffs.
    If I take a good photo it's not my camera's fault.
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  • Golf007sdGolf007sd Posts: 2,840Moderator
    edited August 2014
    Here is Adobe's guide for a "smooth transition" from Aperture to Lightroom.
    Post edited by Golf007sd on
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  • proudgeekproudgeek Posts: 1,422Member
    Preview of the Photos app. No mention is made of compatibility with 3rd party apps. This does not look like good news.
    https://www.apple.com/osx/photos-preview/?cid=CDM-US-DM-P0016475-335247&cp=em-P0016475-335247&sr=em&Email_PageName=P0016475-335247&Email_OID=f7b407bd5a0b8eecb46c212110c26b3f
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  • FlowtographyBerlinFlowtographyBerlin Posts: 477Member
    Plus, it looks like the "Photos" app on the iPhone, just for OSX. But hey, the target group is that of iPhoto, and I think they're doing a good job with that. It's just not gonna replace Aperture, but I never thought it would (and neither was it communicated like that).
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