Digitalopia

The Aperture SDK (Software Development Kit) was announced a few weeks ago to much excitement in the Aperture community. Apple have today released the SDK and made available for download from Apple Developer Connection.

The SDK allows third-party developers to create Edit Plug-ins that can be integrated into the Aperture workflow. Two types of plug-ins are available for Aperture, Edit Plug-ins and Export Plug-ins. Edit plug-ins allow the Aperture adjustments to be extended to third-party image editing software and tools, similar to the plug-ins available for Photoshop. Export plug-ins allow Aperture to export images to third-party applications and services; examples include iStockPhoto and Picasa. The SDK supports development of Edit Plug-ins.

Apple included a sample ‘Dodge & Burn’ plug-in when they released Aperture 2.1 that showed the capabilities of the new plug-in architecture. There was some debate on forums regarding the requirement for Aperture to generate a TIFF file that is passed to the plug-in, rather than being more seamlessly integrated into the Aperture adjustments. This creates a break in the non-descructive editing workflow, requiring the plug-in to load and save a new version of the image. It will be interesting to see how developers overcome any hurdles that this may introduce.

A great site to bookmark is Aperture Plugged In, a site dedicated to the plug-ins available for Aperture.

Apple has already started to include plug-ins on the Aperture download page. The following demo plug-ins are available for download:

• Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite 1.0 - Tiffen Company
• Light! 3.5 - Digital Film Tools
• Ozone 2.5 - Digital Film Tools
• Power Stroke 1.0 - Digital Film Tools

Other plug-ins known to be in development include:

• Viveza - Nik Software
• dpMatte and HDRtoner - dvGarage
• Fisheye-Hemi - Image Trends
• Noise Ninja - PictureCode

For initial comments on the available plug-ins, Ian Wood has a great post over at Inside Aperture. Ian makes some good points regarding the increasing cost of plug-ins and the rather poor plug-in interface design of the initial plug-ins.

For people wishing to get their hands dirty, the SDK can be downloaded from Apple Developer Connection.

Hopefully we are seeing the start of an exciting time ahead for Aperture.

In the previous article ‘iPhoto - Emailing Your Photos, we covered the method for sending photos using Mail directly from iPhoto. This feature is also available in Aperture, and whilst it will not be as widely used, it is worthwhile including.

We first need to set up our email preferences. Unlike iPhoto, these can be found in the main application preferences. Also unlike iPhoto, there are a wider number of options available. Start by opening the Aperture -> Preferences… menu and selecting the Export tab.

The Email images using drop down allows you to choose between the default Mail, Microsoft Entourage, Eudora and America Online. The other options are only available if the respective application has been installed on your Mac.

The Email Export Preset drop down allows you to choose from a wide range of image formats and sizes, including JPG, PNG, PSD ad TIFF. Aperture has included 3 defaults for emails, Email Small, Email Medium and Email Original Size, and these would typically be used.

Clicking the Edit… button allows you to adjust the default Aperture set of export presets.

To send a photo as an email, you simply select the photo from your library and choose the File -> Email… menu. This will create a mail message with the selected photo(s) embedded using the image settings selected earlier. As with iPhoto, multiple photos can also be selected.

With Aperture 2, Apple have further integrated Aperture into Mac OS X, giving an even more seamless experience.

Having recently upgraded to Aperture 2, I was looking forward to its tethered shooting features. Whether you are shooting studio shots, stock and macro photography, or taking shots for an eBay listing, the ability to control you camera from within Aperture is a real benefit. The real-time feedback also provides a faster shooting workflow, and can be a real asset for studio photographers that want to give instant feedback to their clients.

Not all camera models are support by Aperture, and Apple maintains a supported camera list. Currently, it seems that only Canon and Nikon models are supported.

Read the rest of this entry »

Whilst most photographers have a recommended way of managing and arranging their photos, I thought I would share my preferred approach I use in Aperture. I have also included details of how I manage submitting photos to stock photography agencies.

I start by first creating a specific project and respective folders/smart albums for the project. I have included a screen grab below for reference.

By default, all photos are rated with 0 Star when they are first imported into Aperture. I will then selectively rate the photos with either a Reject or 1 Star rating. I then filter (using the filter drop-down) the main project view for 1 Star or Better to determine what photos should be promoted to 2 Star. I then repeat this process to promote the 2 Star photos to 3 Star. It is the 3 Star photos that I usually perform some sort of image editing and adjustment. Also with Aperture 2.1, I do not have to make a round trip to Photoshop for basic Dodge & Burn editing.

The best 3 Star photos are then rated as 4 Star and are the photos that I will be submitting to stock photography agencies. The Selects smart album is configured to only show 4 Star photos. If I deem a photo worthy, I will promote it to 5 Star; however this rating is reserved for only the best Portfolio quality photos. I typically do not submit portfolio photos to stock agencies, so the 5 Star photos can be copied out to another folder.

To manage the process of submitting photos to a stock photography agency, I create a folder and album structure to reflect the various stages of the workflow I follow, ‘For Submission‘, ‘Submitted‘, ‘Approved‘, and ‘Rejected‘. I number the folders to ensure I have full control of their ordering, as they are sorted alphanumerically by default. After copying the 4 Star photos to the respective agency ‘For Submission’ folder (I may not submit the same photos to all agencies, so I may selectively copy them) I move the photos (holding down ‘Option’ whilst moving the photo) between the albums. The screen grab below shows an example structure for iStockPhoto with a example ‘Tethered Test’ project. I will post more of the tethered shooting capabilities of Aperture 2 at a later date.

Stock Photography - Folder
    iStockPhoto - Folder is created for each stock photography agency
        For Submission - Album
        Submitted - Album
        Approved - Album
        Rejected - Album
    Projects - Folder
        [Project Name] - Project is created for each shoot
            Rejects - Smart Album
            Selects - Smart Album

I am yet to find a quick way to copy the complete structure between projects, but I expect there is a simple a quick way!

I expect there are many different ways of arranging and managing your photos, but I have found this way to be the most productive. I have also found it helps when managing multiple stock agencies.

It seems that Apple is starting to take Aperture and digital photography seriously, with the release of Aperture 2.1 today, incorporating a number of key features that improve the already impressive feature-set of the recently released Aperture 2.0.

Whilst there are numerous bug fixes and small feature enhancements/additions, the biggest feature to be included is the open image editing plug-in support. This has opened the door to allow image editing plug-ins to be developed by third-parties.

The following is taken from the Apple press release.

“By clicking on one or more images within Aperture, users can choose from a menu of installed plug-ins and apply specialized imaging operations to either TIFF or RAW images. Apple is working closely with key developers to bring the most requested plug-ins to Aperture such as:

• Nik Software’s Viveza plug-in, powered by U Point technology, which provides a powerful, precise and easy way for photographers to selectively control and adjust color and light in their digital images;
• PictureCode’s Noise Ninja plug-in that delivers advanced high ISO noise analysis and reduction;
• Digital Film Tools’ Power Stroke plug-in that features a simple, stroke-based interface to quickly mask and intuitively perform targeted adjustments;
• The Tiffen Company’s Dfx plug-in that provides an expansive suite of creative filters and effects;
• dvGarage’s dpMatte plug-in, which is a high performance chroma key tool for creating seamless composites, and the HDRtoner plug-in that enables the selection of multiple photos to create a single high dynamic range (HDR) image; and
• Image Trends’ plug-ins that include Fisheye-Hemi to quickly and effortlessly correct fisheye lens distortion, ShineOff which automatically removes shine from faces and PearlyWhites that automatically whitens and brightens teeth.”

This is great news for Aperture users, a feature that has been requested since version 1.0. The number of vendors already building plug-ins for Aperture is very impressive, and will hopefully bring some of our favorite Photoshop plug-ins to Aperture.

An Apple developed plug-in ‘Dodge & Burn’ is included in the update. Even though Apple has provided it as an example plug-in, it provides a lot of the functionally offered by Photoshop. In itself this is a worthy inclusion, and will help to reduce the number of round trips to Photoshop for simple image editing.

A very impressive and worthwhile update to Aperture 2.0.