Adjustment settings can be saved and quickly applied to new photos.

 

We have thousands of digital photos, but still feel nostalgia for the days of leafing through prints crammed willy-nilly into dented shoeboxes. Wouldn’t it be nice to get your jumble of digital images out of their virtual shoeboxes? Blow up that favorite, or frame that one from last year’s family reunion and send it to your sister in St. Paul. Aperture 2 handles these tasks and more without the nagging clutter—or sneeze-inducing dust clouds—of those old shoeboxes. Meanwhile, it lets you nudge exposure levels and retouch problems. It essentially manages your photo library from import to export, keeping track of your changes and making the daunting task of cataloging hundreds or thousands of photos much easier than you ever thought it could be.

 

Aperture 2’s full-service workflow begins by importing images from a camera, flash card, or drive directory. It reads most image files, including a wide range of RAW formats. Our Canon 40D RAW files, for example, posed no problem. In our testing, the import process flowed smoothly, even in the background—though expect the app to tax your Mac’s performance if it’s an older, slower model.

 

Once your photos are imported, Aperture 2 helps you organize them all. We added tags and moved photos between different projects and albums. We even grouped photos of the same subject from the same angle, allowing quick comparison of different poses in the Viewer window. Our favorite organizational tool is Smart Albums. After assigning ratings and otherwise classifying individual photos, Smart Albums automatically creates groups. You could create an album of images that share a date range, come from a certain camera, and share a tag, for example. And any new images that fit those criteria will automatically be added to that album.

 

Updated in this version, photo-retouching tools expertly balance speed and simplicity. Hold the Command key with certain exposure adjustments, and an overlay clearly shows how your edits affect bright spots. New Retouch and Clone tools instantly fix skin blemishes and can erase sensor dust from the background. We were impressed with how easy those tools were to use and were thrilled by the instant results we achieved erasing dust from a solid background. With these powerful features at hand, most photographers can skip a standalone editor such as Photoshop.

 

After your albums are organized and edited, Aperture 2 exports the images. You can lay them out in a book or other mosaic, printing it at home or sending it to Apple, just as you can in iPhoto. Aperture 2’s exporting options allow you to process multiple photos, even working on them in the background while you make adjustments to other images. We especially like the feature-rich online galleries. Aperture creates simple HTML pages that you can host, while .Mac-only galleries support slide shows and stay synced to changes in your album.

 

The bottom line. Disorganized photographers will appreciate how Aperture expertly handles cataloging, basic edits, and exporting. This single tool might be the only photo software you need.

 

COMPANY: Apple

CONTACT: www.apple.com

PRICE: $200 ($100 upgrade from Aperture 1.0)

REQUIREMENTS: 2GHz or faster Intel Core Duo or dual G5 processors, Mac OS 10.4.1 or later, 1GB RAM

Manages total photo workflow. Smart albums and other tools assist organization. Exposure and retouching tools effectively rescue questionable shots. Wide image format support. Clean, HTML web galleries can run on any site. Universal binary.

Terrific Flash web galleries can only be exported to a .Mac site.