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• The Aperture is Closing?

  The small corner of the internet that I lurk in is abuzz today about this Think Secret articlethat has heard that Apple has sacked the Aperture engineering team. I’m not sure it’s nearly as big a deal as some people say (software engineering teams come and go), and don’t think Aperture has been the resounding failure some do, but I also don’t have the same disdain for the program as a lot of people seem to.

  I actually love Aperture, yes LOVE it. Once I got over the 1 Library file model, and adapted myself to it’s somewhat crappy file outputs, I quickly found myself using it nearly 100% for my photography needs, with the requisite trips to Photoshop for proper exporting (sans the extra sharpening Aperture applies). I love the non-permanent adjustments model, and find myself trying news things (like extreme crops or black and white conversion) that I might not have done before, knowing that I’d have to save a copy of the file just to hang on to those experiments, and losing any link between the newly adjusted file and it’s original.

  Now, that being said, I hear there are lots of problems with the program, but I think I’ve managed to avoid them because of one huge difference in my workflow: I’m still using film.

  Most of the bitching and moaning about Aperture (not that it’s unwarranted) has been about it’s RAW processing. I do still use my Canon 20D on a less then regular basis, but rarely do I do much with the files beyond a quick web gallery for family or friends to see (I mostly use it when traveling or just messing around). So I think I’m sidestepping 60-70% of the problems people have with the program and it’s processing of digital photos (it could also be that I expect digital photos to look like crap). Aperture’s TIFF processing is nearly flawless, and while it’s a little slow to edit the 50+ mb files coming from medium format film from theNikon, the final product is great, and I would be extremely sad to see Aperture go away.

  A little rundown of some of the discussion going around:

  • A (gasp) useful Slashdot comment summarizing some of the problems people are having with Aperture
  • The Slashdot article that comment was on
  • Aperture and FEDM at Tow.com
  • Discussion at Aperturetrick.com
  • More at MacRumors
  • Flickr’s Aperture Users group
  • The most informed thoughts always seem to come from Mr. Gruber
  6 years ago