Thursday
Feb212008
Aperture 2: Did I Get My Wishes?
Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 12:21AM
A while ago, I blogged about my wish-list for Aperture 2. Now that we have the update, I thought I would take a look back:
GPS Metadata Editing
Still waiting for this one!
Ability to lock versions
Nope!
Comments field on Projects
Nope!
Better Handling of externally processed RAW Files
It appears that nothing has changed here since 1.5.
Allow the use of Adobe Camera RAW instead of ImageIO
Well, not entirely. The new baseline DNG support means that Aperture will read anything that Adobe's DNG converter will process, so there's some improvement in accessibility of RAW formats there.
Secondly, Apple improved the RAW conversions in Aperture to the point where it's no longer obvious that ACR is significantly better.
Expand Stacks into Grids
Nothing to see here.
A Keyboard Shortcut to "Move Next" while focus is in a textfield
We got this one! Cmd-{left, right} arrow will take you to the next and previous images while you're editing a metadata field. My only regret is that they managed to override a standard Mac text editing keystroke.
Lens Model Metadata
We got this one too, and FlickrExport has been updated to use these tags as Flickr tags.
A visual warning when soft proofing is on
Nope!
Summonable HUDs
Nope!
More than two metadata overlays
Nope!
Search Presets
Nope!
Support Photoshop Plugins
It is said that there is a new plugin API for image adjustments, but there is no documentation yet.
Steal the Split Toning, Clarity and Vibrance adjustments from Lightroom
Clarity and Vibrance made it, but no Split Toning. Two out of three ain't bad.
GPS Metadata Editing
Still waiting for this one!
Ability to lock versions
Nope!
Comments field on Projects
Nope!
Better Handling of externally processed RAW Files
It appears that nothing has changed here since 1.5.
Allow the use of Adobe Camera RAW instead of ImageIO
Well, not entirely. The new baseline DNG support means that Aperture will read anything that Adobe's DNG converter will process, so there's some improvement in accessibility of RAW formats there.
Secondly, Apple improved the RAW conversions in Aperture to the point where it's no longer obvious that ACR is significantly better.
Expand Stacks into Grids
Nothing to see here.
A Keyboard Shortcut to "Move Next" while focus is in a textfield
We got this one! Cmd-{left, right} arrow will take you to the next and previous images while you're editing a metadata field. My only regret is that they managed to override a standard Mac text editing keystroke.
Lens Model Metadata
We got this one too, and FlickrExport has been updated to use these tags as Flickr tags.
A visual warning when soft proofing is on
Nope!
Summonable HUDs
Nope!
More than two metadata overlays
Nope!
Search Presets
Nope!
Support Photoshop Plugins
It is said that there is a new plugin API for image adjustments, but there is no documentation yet.
Steal the Split Toning, Clarity and Vibrance adjustments from Lightroom
Clarity and Vibrance made it, but no Split Toning. Two out of three ain't bad.


Reader Comments (6)
Perhaps you should consider being James Duncan Davidson.
http://duncandavidson.com/blog/aperture_20_they_listened/
Hello,
well, as a way to see Search Presets how about the smart folders?
I am very excited too about the new Plugins, but I don't think these are going to be Photoshop Plugins. If so, the whole Lossless Workflow were Aperture leaves your images untouched would be dead. Photoshop Plugins do touch your pictures, if I am not wrong.
I send already an Email to Nik about getting something like Viveza as an Aperture Plugin. This would address my main unheard most wished feature for Aperture: local editing!
PS I highly encourage to drop them a line too, if you want to have one of the most advanced localized editors as an Aperture Plugin. (wishlist@niksoftware.com)
Best regards
Bernt
On-screen proofing indicator is in fact one of the 100+ features.
-Seb
Nice to see the lens tagging, but is there any chance of having the option of setting it as a machine tag instead of a human-visible one? Personally I'd go for "camera:lens=[lens info]" but there's also a http://flickr.com/groups/mtags/discuss/72157594499016762/" rel="nofollow">machine tags group discussion suggesting a more granular approach.
I suppose I could instead machine-tag locally and then rely on tag syncing to take care of it, but I thought I'd ask anyway. (Despite not using Aperture, for the moment.)
A bit more detail on Seb's point - as long you're not in fullscreen mode, turning on soft proofing will show 'Proofing Profile:' and the name of the profile along the bottom of the Viewer pane.
Ian
Still no linear DNG support, so still hasn't graduated to "useful". Oh well.