If you’ve been using iPhoto, Lightroom, or Photoshop, Aperture 2 may be the perfect program for you. It combines iPhoto’s award-winning interface, Lightroom’s workflow capabilities, and Photoshop’s raw processing power.
As a long-standing iPhoto user with thousands of photos, I can appreciate how easy it was to switch my library over. Most of my photos are in RAW, which is supported in both iPhoto and Aperture, but Aperture 2 also supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, and almost every other type of image.
To import your iPhoto Library, just click Import iPhoto Library in the file menu. It’s that easy. You can even choose to keep those photos in the iPhoto library file, and just create links to them in Aperture 2 (this saves quite a bit of disk space).
The equivalent of an Event in Aperture 2 is called a Project. In a project, you can create multiple albums, web pages, light tables, and slideshows. When it comes to editing them, the Inspector allows you to either change elements in the main window, or edit fullscreen. The controls only show up when you need them, and are very easy to use. The only downside to Aperture 2 is that it doesn’t support Face Detection or Geo-Tagging. This may come with a later release of Aperture 2, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
I think Aperture 2 is well worth the $199 price tag (Save $20 off Aperture 2 in-store!). Don’t believe me? Try a demo in-store!
