Apple's Aperture 1.5: Ready, Steady, Go!

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Apple has set to release its Aperture 1.5. Apple's Aperture 1.5 brings to a user a new open library, seamless iLife '06 and iWork '06 integration, XMP metadata support, new adjustment tools and an export API that makes it easy to extend the Aperture workflow to third party applications and services. Managing RAW, JPEG and TIFF images in Aperture 1.5 is incredibly flexible, with a new open library system that allows photographers to store image files wherever they want - either within the Aperture library itself, or in other disk locations, including external hard drives, CDs or DVDs.

Apple's Aperture is able now to generate high-resolution previews of each image so that users can review, rate and organize images as well as perform slideshows - even when the master images are offline. The previews, which can be generated at a range of size and quality levels, make it possible for photographers to keep their original images safely stored on a desktop system at home or in the studio, while still being able to take a compact version of their entire photographic library on-the-go using a MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Apple's Aperture 1.5 is now supported across Apple's full line of Macintosh computers, from Mac mini to Mac Pro, and offers new integration with the iLife '06 suite of digital lifestyle applications and iWork '06 productivity software. The tight integration means that photographers can build complete websites with iWeb, create self-contained slide presentations with Keynote, or produce stunning DVD slideshows with iDVD, all using JPEG versions of photos directly from their Aperture library, which is never more than a click away. Integration also includes syncing to iPod using iTunes 7 and the ability to access and copy Aperture photos from within iPhoto.

Aperture 1.5 streamlines the process of adding metadata to photo shoots with new pre-filled IPTC Metadata Presets. Captions, credits and other critical metadata that photographers rely on can be added on import automatically or via a batch process at any point in the workflow. Another major enhancement to metadata support within Aperture is the ability to export RAW images with IPTC data stored in XMP sidecar files for easy use with other applications like Adobe Photoshop and even the ability to generate XMP files automatically through AppleScript. New adjustment options in Apple's Aperture 1.5 include a sophisticated luminance-based Edge Sharpen filter for extremely high-quality sharpening results and a new Color tool that lets photographers tune the hue, saturation and luminance of specific color ranges within each image. Aperture's Loupe magnifier has been dramatically enhanced with a set of onscreen controls, smooth zooming with up to 1600 percent magnification and a new option that enables it to be detached from the cursor while making adjustments. Individual image adjustment settings can now be saved as presets that can be automatically applied through a menu command, so that photographers can quickly and easily make standard adjustments.

A new export API plug-in architecture in Aperture 1.5 allows third party developers to tap into the expanding Aperture user community with plug-ins that seamlessly connect Aperture's workflow to complementary applications and services. Aperture 1.5 is available this week in English, French, German and Japanese as a free Software Update to current Aperture 1.0 customers.

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