Dave Horvath
12 Feb 2008 12:24
Cupertino based Apple has announced today that Aperture 2, a major upgrade to its workflow and lossless image editing software for photographers, will be available to consumers shortly. Current Aperture users can upgrade to the new client for only $99 while new clients will have to pay the full $199 price tag.
The new software adds more than 100 new features including a streamlined new user interface and image processing engine, according to Apple. A list of new tools have been added to give photographers an added edge in recovering highlights, bringing out color vibrancy, managing local contrast definition, doing soft-edged retouching and vignetting, and fine-tune RAW images.
Aperture 2 also integrates itself with the .Mac web galleries as well as syncs with the iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple TV so users can browse and showcase their photos on a number of their Apple devices.
Apple touched on complaints about the predecessor's heavy processing and performance issues by streamlining the new product into a faster and more efficient program. Indexing, searching, browsing large volumes of images has all been given a performance massage.