Hi all,
I am still using Aperture on MacOS Sierra, but the end of the line for Aperture is clearly coming (whilst it’s working for me, I sometimes have trouble importing photos and have to try a few times). So I am considering what I will do when I eventually have to move. I’m not wedded to the idea of on app to do everything, and there are clearly some excellent editors out there. And in terms of photo organisation, I have fairly basic needs. But the two areas where I find Aperture indispensable, and cannot find anything that even attempts to match it, are:
1) RAW+JPEG support
2) Comparing/selecting/rejecting photos.
Aperture has an amazing compare feature making it possible to bring up two photos side by side, cycle through the one on the right and reject ones not wanted, and quickly set the photo on the right as the new ‘Compare Item’ on the left. As well as being able to set the star rating or rejection of the photo on the right, it is also possible to reject the ‘Compare Item’ on the left, set the photo on the right as the new ‘Compare Item’, and continue cycling through the next set of photos. All of this can be controlled from the keyboard, making it very fast to cycle through similar photos and get down to one or two picks. Whilst doing this, one can also zoom and use the loupe (again from the keyboard), and it’s possible to scroll through the two zoomed photos in sync by holding down the shift key. Taken together, this results in an amazing way to quickly go through dozens of photos, make detailed comparisons, and narrow down to just a few. And because of Aperture’s great RAW+JPEG support, this all happens on my photo pairs, without having to tediously clean up duplicates.
I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t find something that allows such a quick and powerful selection workflow before Aperture stops working! Does anyone know of anything out there (even if that’s all the app does)? I have Macphun’s SnapSelect, but it gets too many of the details wrong to be useful to me. RAW+JPEG pairs are not handled properly regardless of the settings I use, and it’s not possible to reliably swap compare items, or keep the position of the left photo. Anything else that people have used?
Thanks!
Made sure to buy all my Macs before Sierra was released. 2 MacPro 2013’s, one at the beginning with Mavericks 9.2, now updated, the other with El Capitan before Sierra. No Sierra here. Will not be going forward unless Capture One Pro or my video editing requires it, and then only on a partition. Have installed OWC Aura 4TB SSD on the 2013 that started with El Cap. Have partitioned the 1TB SSD on Mac Pro #1 with Mavericks and Yosemite and on the Aura Mac Pro #2 4TB with 3 systems on 3 partitions (Mav, Yos, El Cap) plus 2 large Data partitions. All systems latest versions. Common denominator, all will run Aperture. Also have a Mid 2015 Retina Macbook Pro 11,5 running Yosemite and Aperture 3.6. Also a 2011 17” Macbook Pro completely rebuilt at Applecare expense with Aperture, currently at 10.8.5, but will probably move to Yosemite. El Cap is said to be working fine on El Cap and below by the folks at Apple Pro Apps. YMMV, but El Cap as highest OS is my plan currently working on one partition of the #2 2013 Mac Pro. Sierra in testing at ProApps, but I am doubting that will work out reliably for Aperture 3.6.
Will be using in Phase One Capture One Pro as I move very slowly out of Aperture. Also Phase One Media Pro SE for flat file selection and light adjustment tool. Will be moving everything from Aperture to Media Pro SE as first stop of all selects from Aperture. I see Aperture in my workflow for the life of these computers. Years most likely. Have licenses for the Phase One applications and will probably end up there, moving slowly in, but not completely till all of these Macs are truly dead. Also very much love Nikon Capture NX2 (no longer available, has NIK control points) for very best RAW conversion for my Nikons up to a full frame D610. Couldn’t give that software up either. Absolutely kicked my Adobe habit, such as it was. No rental for me, period. Affinity Photo doing fine for what little I need of it as PS replacement. Will be watching the software scene like all of us are in the future, especially DAM capabilities. For that and much else, nothing like Aperture, IMHO.
JimW