3 ms·

I'm still salty about how they had a pro photo app, Aperture, and then killed it unceremoniously in favor of a neutered approachable equivalent.

scoot 5y ago
You're salty? I bought Aperture a couple of months before they killed it! In hindsight I probably should have contacted my credit card provider, but I guess I naively thought Apple would do the right thing. No such luck.
CharlesW 5y ago
It's hard to lose a favorite app. You might check out RAW Power¹, which has some Aperture DNA in the form of Nik Bhatt². Last year I left Lightroom for Photos, which is surprisingly powerful when used with 3rd-party apps and extensions³. ¹https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos ²https://www.gentlemencoders.com/about/ https://www.gentlemencoders.com/about/ ³https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205245 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205245
- noyesno 5y ago
  Which extensions would you recommend for Photos?
  - CharlesW 5y ago
    I'm using it with the Photos integration provided by RAW Power¹, Affinity Photos², and Pixelmator Pro³. ¹https://www.dpreview.com/news/0399283051/raw-power-3-available-for-mac-and-ios-includes-workflow-improvements-and-new-editing-tools https://www.dpreview.com/news/0399283051/raw-power-3-availab... ²https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Extras/applePhotosExtensions.html?title=Using%20Apple%20Photos https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=page... ³https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/resources/a-quick-guide-to-the-new-pixelmator-pro-extension/ https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/resources/a-quick-guide...
xattt 5y ago
Can we talk about how cool Aperture was that it even implemented the use of a private API that Aperture used to dim and desat the system UI elements? I can’t remember if it was specific to Aperture only or if it went along with other Apple “pro” apps.
- kenferry 5y ago
  You’re thinking of the framework ProKit, which was used by a bunch of apple’s pro apps. It didn’t dim and desaturate standard elements though - it was a framework offering a set of custom controls that had their own art. That art was drawn to look similar to desaturated versions of standard controls.
giobox 5y ago
You know Aperture has been dead a long time when there is no one left to complain about how relatively poor its performance was, especially in its early years. There were of course some great ideas in there, especially in the UX and photo management stuff, but even on my (at the time!) awesome Dual G5 tower it was a mad resource hog. It never got anything like the love or investment Apple's other Pro apps did, with long gaps between relatively slim feature updates. I also forgot the price trajectory; v1 launched at 500 bucks, falling to just 80 by the final v3.
- geerlingguy 5y ago
  It was slow but it was great. Leagues beyond Lightroom at the time.

scoot 5y ago

You're salty? I bought Aperture a couple of months before they killed it! In hindsight I probably should have contacted my credit card provider, but I guess I naively thought Apple would do the right thing. No such luck.

CharlesW 5y ago

It's hard to lose a favorite app. You might check out RAW Power¹, which has some Aperture DNA in the form of Nik Bhatt². Last year I left Lightroom for Photos, which is surprisingly powerful when used with 3rd-party apps and extensions³. ¹https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos ²https://www.gentlemencoders.com/about/ https://www.gentlemencoders.com/about/ ³https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205245 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205245

noyesno 5y ago
Which extensions would you recommend for Photos?
- CharlesW 5y ago
  I'm using it with the Photos integration provided by RAW Power¹, Affinity Photos², and Pixelmator Pro³. ¹https://www.dpreview.com/news/0399283051/raw-power-3-available-for-mac-and-ios-includes-workflow-improvements-and-new-editing-tools https://www.dpreview.com/news/0399283051/raw-power-3-availab... ²https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Extras/applePhotosExtensions.html?title=Using%20Apple%20Photos https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=page... ³https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/resources/a-quick-guide-to-the-new-pixelmator-pro-extension/ https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/resources/a-quick-guide...

xattt 5y ago

Can we talk about how cool Aperture was that it even implemented the use of a private API that Aperture used to dim and desat the system UI elements? I can’t remember if it was specific to Aperture only or if it went along with other Apple “pro” apps.

kenferry 5y ago
You’re thinking of the framework ProKit, which was used by a bunch of apple’s pro apps. It didn’t dim and desaturate standard elements though - it was a framework offering a set of custom controls that had their own art. That art was drawn to look similar to desaturated versions of standard controls.

giobox 5y ago

You know Aperture has been dead a long time when there is no one left to complain about how relatively poor its performance was, especially in its early years. There were of course some great ideas in there, especially in the UX and photo management stuff, but even on my (at the time!) awesome Dual G5 tower it was a mad resource hog. It never got anything like the love or investment Apple's other Pro apps did, with long gaps between relatively slim feature updates. I also forgot the price trajectory; v1 launched at 500 bucks, falling to just 80 by the final v3.

geerlingguy 5y ago
It was slow but it was great. Leagues beyond Lightroom at the time.