Apple Introduces Aperture

First All-in-One Post Production Tool for Photographers

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Apple(R) today
introduced Aperture, the first all-in-one post production tool that provides
everything photographers need after the shoot. Aperture offers an advanced and
incredibly fast RAW workflow that makes working with a camera’s RAW images as
easy as JPEG. Built from the ground up for pros, Aperture features powerful
compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing, color managed
printing and custom web and book publishing. 
  “Aperture is to professional photography what Final Cut Pro is to
filmmaking,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications
Marketing. “Finally, an innovative post production tool that revolutionizes
the pro photo workflow from compare and select to retouching to output.”
  “Until now, RAW files have taken so long to work with,” said Heinz
Kluetmeier, renowned sports photographer whose credits include over 100 Sports
Illustrated covers. “What amazed me about Aperture is that you can work
directly with RAW files, you can loupe and stack them and it’s almost
instantaneous—I suspect that I’m going to stop shooting JPEGs. Aperture
just blew me away.”
  Unique compare and select tools in Aperture allow photographers to easily
sift through massive photo projects and quickly identify their final
selections. Aperture is the first application that automatically groups
sequences of photos into easy-to-manage Stacks based on the time interval
between exposures. In an industry first, Aperture allows photographers to
navigate through entire projects in a full-screen workspace that can be
extended to span multiple displays, tiling multiple images side-by-side for a
faster, easier compare and select. With Aperture’s Loupe magnifying tool,
portions of images can be examined in fine detail without having to zoom and
pan across large files. In addition, a virtual Light Table provides the ideal
canvas for building simple photo layouts, allowing them to be arranged,
resized and piled together in a free-form space.
  RAW images are maintained natively throughout Aperture without any
intermediate conversion process, and can be retouched with stunning results
using a suite of adjustment tools designed especially for photographers.
Aperture’s nondestructive image processing engine never alters a single pixel
of original photos so photographers have the power and flexibility to modify
or delete changes at any point in the workflow. As Aperture allows users to
create multiple versions of a single image without duplicating files,
photographers can experiment without risk of overwriting the master image or
using up large amounts of hard drive space. Aperture images can also be
launched directly into Adobe Photoshop for compositing and layer effects.
  Aperture features a complete color-managed pipeline with support for
device specific ColorSync profiles and a set of high-quality output tools for
photographers to showcase their work. Print options include customizable
contact sheets, high-quality local printing and color-managed online prints.
Aperture provides a deceptively simple layout environment where photographers
can quickly create and order custom professional-caliber books and publish
stunning web galleries. Aperture makes it easy to back up an entire library of
images with a single click and streamline complex workflows with
AppleScript(R) and Automator actions.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture will be available in November through the Apple Store(R)
(http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a
suggested retail price of $499 (US). Full system requirements and more
information on Aperture can be found at http://www.apple.com/aperture