The best photo editing software for Mac has been created through the combination of the Aperture and iPhoto upgrades. The recent upgrades make it possible for iPhoto to open an Aperture photo library and vice versa. This flexibility means that you only need one photo library and can use the best of each app to organize and edit photos or order simple products from calendars to greeting cards. Learn more about why you would want both Aperture and iPhoto.
Retina Display Ready
Both Aperture and iPhoto have been upgraded for the new Macbook Pro Retina displays. Retina displays have a ridiculous number of pixels that create a display with gorgeous brightness and contrast. For you number lovers, the retina display has over 5 million pixels. As a comparison, a 1080p HDTV has 1920 x 1080 pixels. A retina display has 2880 x 1800 and has a 29 percent higher contrast ration than a standard Macbook display.
Okay, maybe I did clean my monitor and laptop screens, but it couldn't have made as much of a noticeable difference in brightness and detail as I noticed after upgrading the apps. Even if you don't have a retina display, you'll reap the benefit of crystal clear, sharp previews that bring new life to your photos.
Faster Previews
The improved quality of the previews doesn't slow down the app. The Aperture upgrade brings faster previews. If you have huge photo libraries, or work with RAW photo formats, you may join me as I yell, "Hallelujah!" Aperture has been notoriously slow to display previews, taking minutes for photos to load. With Aperture 3.3, photos pop up almost immediately.
One thing I always hated about iPhoto is that the only way to change from your default library was to reopen the program while holding down the option key. Now you can switch libraries while in the app in the same way you could in Aperture. And you can outright open an Aperture library in iPhoto or open an iPhoto Library in Aperture and take advantage of the features of each.
It's important to note that when you open an Aperture library for the first time in Aperture 3.3, the app will upgrade the library. To accommodate the faster previews requires more memory. One of my libraries required an extra 6 GB and could not be saved to the same hard drive that had run out of space.
Aperture is becoming more user-friendly.
Now that iPhoto and Aperture are sharing libraries, Apple decided to create consistent terminology. Aperture's "masters" are now called "originals." And while "metadata" has become "info," the word appears in certain panels.
While Aperture's strength is in its editing tools, the upgrade has added an "auto enhance" button to quickly adjust picture quality without a lot of fuss.
Photo organization has been improved, too. The library panel now includes "last import" to quickly access your recent photos. Manual sorting of photos has also been added so you can move around photos in a way that works for you.
If you are an avid photographer or have used these apps, these upgrades will be a welcomed improvement. In just a few days of use, it has made my workflow smoother and faster. Be sure to click on upgrade in the Mac App store to install the newest versions.
As a side note, I had problems loading the iPhoto app on my Mac as it would hang up and give me an error message. I resolved the problem by uninstalling iPhoto (it didn't affect my photos), restarting my Mac, then downloading and doing a fresh, complete install of the app. It's working perfectly no
What is you favorite photo editing app?
