Alphatracks

“UGH!” (Smacks hand against forehead) “I should have used a lens hood!.”

Nov. 12, 2008 Spend time at any event where photography enthusiasts congregate and you will notice plenty of naked lenses…lenses without lens hoods. That’s rather strange, when you consider that nearly every quality lens ships with a custom designed lens shade made expressly for that lens. It isn’t a matter of being able to afford a hood; it is nearly impossible to buy a Sony Alpha lens without a matched shade. Most quality glass from other makers also include a hood with their lenses. So all those photographers already own lens shades; they simply don’t bother to use them. Too many photographers treat lens hoods as part of the lens packaging — something to be dropped back into the box and packed away into the closet.

There are certain situations where a lens shade is unnecessary, or even detrimental to making good images. I’ll discuss the specific conditions when you shouldn’t use a lens shade in a moment. First, however, I want to look at why you should attach a hood almost every time you take a lens out of your bag.

Kill the glare, stick a shade on it

Most photographers know that lens shades are intended to exclude glare and reduce hot spots. In addition, lens shades increase contrast, improve sharpness and retain color fidelity. Consider the fact that many photographers spend large sums on top-quality lenses because they know that excellent glass will produce better images. Yet many of these same photographers can’t be bothered to attach a hood, even though that hood is essential to getting the most from that expensive lens.

Lens shades come in a wide variety of shades and designs. The best hoods are designed expressly for the lens they are being used on.

Flare comes in two varieties

There are two kinds of lens flare. The first is obvious flare. It is often referred as ghosting because the appearance is akin to the images the paranormal investigators get excited about. It is characterized by distinct ghostly areas caused by light reflected off the interior of the lens. These reflections are usually visible in the viewfinder, although sometimes you won’t notice the flare until you process images on your computer. Most of the time this type of flare is deadly to your images, because it is nearly impossible to repair the effects of obvious flare.

The other type of flare is more subtle. Instead of a prominent ghostly area, the reflection occurs across all or most of the surface of the lens’ front element. The result is a subtle loss of contrast and color fidelity. You might not even realize that flare has affected your image, because the difference is so delicate. Yet, the difference exists. If you could eliminate the flare, the image would look sharper and richer.

Suppose a respected lab announced that a specific lens had five percent better contrast and sharpness than any other lens in it’s class. That lens would immediately become a highly lusted-after optic. Photographers would speak of it in hushed tones and be willing to spend huge sums of cash for the privilege of saying they shoot with that lens.

Yet, although we know that use of a lens shade can dramatically improve our photos, many photographers can’t be bothered to use one. Spend hundreds of dollars on a lens that provides sharper images with better color? Of course. Spend ten seconds to attach a lens hood to improve sharpness and color? Sorry, just can’t spare the time.

Hopefully, you already use a hood whenever applicable. What if your original hood is lost or broken? You have several options. If the lens is still in production, you can always order a new one from the manufacturer. This is often the best route, because you know the hood will be matched to the lens. Unfortunately, original replacement hoods don’t come cheap. In some cases, the list price of an original equipment hood might be twenty percent as much as a complete new lens — a fairly high sticker for a plastic cylinder or stamped piece of aluminum.

I lost my hood, now what?

You could look for a used hood on one of the online auction websites, but if the hood is for a popular lens, you may find it difficult to secure a second hand lens shade. That narrows your choice to one of the many aftermarket hoods available. Unfortunately, one size of hood definitely doesn’t fit all focal lengths. A longer shade will be more effective, but long hoods cannot be used with wide angle lenses because the hood will cause vignetting. Zoom lenses can be even more problematic, since it may be difficult to find a generic hood that offers sufficient sun protection without vignetting at all focal lengths.

Aftermarket hoods are available in metal, plastic and flexible rubber. A generic hood may not be as fully effective as one specially tailored to a specific lens, but the aftermarket shades are much more affordable.

One final source of replacement hoods are printable hoods that can be downloaded from the internet. Type “printable lens hoods” into your favorite search engine and you will find dozens of paper hoods designed expressly for a wide variety of lenses. Print them on stiff card stock, cut them out and attach them to your lens.

So when should you forgo a lens hood? There are times you might want to introduce lens flare as a creative element. Hollywood movies often go out of the way to show flare effects in establishing shots. You may want to include this technique in your own portfolio.

When shooting flash, use a hood with care

Finally, use care when using a lens shade with electronic flash. Lens hoods can block the light from a hot-shoe mounted flash unit or a built in popup flash. Generally this isn’t a problem with longer focal length lenses, but with a wide angle lenses, there is a real possibility that the shade will cause a dark shadow at the bottom of the frame. It is a good idea to check how your wide angle lens hoods perform with hot-shoe mounted flash units.

So do use your lens shade? Why or why not?

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We spent a couple of days in Winston-Salem (North Carolina) recently. One of the highlights was a visit to Old-Salem Village. Established by the Moravians in the 1700s, the village is an interesting mix of modern shops in a historical setting. Unlike most attractions of this type, the town is freely open to everyone, with no admission. A Ticket are required to enter some of the buildings, but you are free to wander about and enjoy the setting without paying an admission.

Old Salem Village Image Gallery.

We only had a couple of hours to spend in the village, but the light was grand for photography. I had the Sony Alpha A350 with me, and since there wasn’t much time I decided I didn’t want to lug around a camera bag. So I selected my Minolta 28-85mm lens, figuring it would provide the best combination of focal lengths for a quick tour.

There was no shortage of subjects to shoot, and even though it was late in the afternoon, I found the long autumn shadows were quite interesting.

I used between a half and one and half stops exposure compensation to open up the shadows many of the buildings. I shifted between aperture and shutter priority for most of the shots. Everything was shot in RAW.

The lens revealed the famous “Minolta Colors” in many of the images. All in all, I was pleased with what I shot. I was somewhat surprised, however that my favorite shot was the front of a couple of buildings lining a side street. There was nothing especially noteworthy about the buildings and I the resulting photo was pretty much a simple grab shot. When I first looked at the image on my Mac, I thought it was okay, with pleasing colors.

There is more to this building in Old Salem Village than meets the eye…

Then I looked closer and started to notice dozens of small, but interesting details. The architecture and construction drew me deeper and deeper into the photo. This has nothing to do with me as a photographer. Well, maybe a little..:). I did see the potential in the shot, but I never noticed the details while we were in Old Salem. My true appreciation of the building’s construction details didn’t come until several days later, sitting at my computer. An even then, it didn’t jump out at me as something special. It wasn’t until I went through the images in Lightroom a few times that I started to see the things that make the image special.

I’ve put together a small gallery images from my visit. You can view it here: Old Salem Village Image Gallery. As I said, all images were shot with the A350 and the Minolta 28-85mm lens.

As I said, we spent less than two hours at the village. My appetite has certainly been whetted to go back when I can spend more time. I am sure Christmas time would be an excellent time to return. I imagine tons of Moraivain stars everywhere, steaming cups of hot chocolate…and of course; Moravian cookies! Yes, Christmas time should be an excellent time to go back.

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I’m back….

I haven’t abandoned Alphatracks…although it probably seemed like I had.

In actuality, I have been wrapped up finishing the Sony Alpha DSLR-A300/A350 Digital Field Guide
 for Wiley Press. It was a lot of work, with many late nights and more than a few weekends spent rewriting text and editing images. I really enjoyed the process, however, and I am happy to say the completed manuscript is the printer and the book should be shipping by early December. My only regret is that I had to neglect this blog for so long. I hope to make up for lost time in the coming months.

The new book is part of the Wiley Digital Field Guide series, each of which focuses on a specific dSLR camera. As you may have inferred from the title, this particular book is for users of the Alpha A300 and Alpha A350 dSLRs. I found the A350 a truly fun camera to work with, and I attempted to convey that in the book.

Following the patten of all Wiley Field Guides, this book includes a full description of the A300 series, exploring the menus, controls and features of both cameras. The A300 and the A350 are nearly identical, the only difference being the A300 has a 10.2mp sensor, while the A350 utilizes a 14.2mp chip. Because files from the A300 are smaller, the Alpha 300 offers a slightly faster continuous frame rate, while the A350 cranks out massive 4592 x 3056 pixel images. Otherwise, the controls and operation of both cameras are the same, so this book covers both cameras in depth.

There are chapters on compatible lenses and flash units, including a look at compatible Minolta AF lenses. There are also chapters on basic photography, lighting, camera troubleshooting and image editing workflows. All the Digital Field Guides include a large section comprised of photo exercises designed to elevate your skills in a wide variety of photographic pursuits; including sports, travel, event photography, animal photography, portraiture and many other specialty disciplines.

My goal for the book to create a resource that can be tossed into your camera bag to provide help, instruction and inspiration when you are shooting in the field. That is the field guide portion of the book. At the same time, I hope readers might find it useful to curl up with these pages on a rainy day and immerse themselves in the operation of the Sony A300 and A350.

Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but I have been living with this book for the last several months, so I have to talk about it here.

One final thing. The book won’t be available until December. It is however, available for pre-order on Amazon now. If you buy it in advance, Amazon will knock $6.40 off the list price, so you can get it for $13.59. That represents a 32% savings. After the book is published, Amazon will raise the price back to $19.99.  So, if you’re interested, you can save almost a third by buying in advance. The book qualifies for free shipping from Amazon, however there is a $25 minimum, so you will have to combine the order with something else to qualify.

If you’re interested, there is an Amazon link on the sidebar that will take you directly to the book’s Amazon page. It is also available through must online sellers; Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. Once it is in print, you should be able to find it at most brick and mortar bookstores as well.

Although this book is aimed at the A300 series, Alphatracks will continue to look at all the full range of Sony Alpha and Minolta SLRs. If your camera uses A-mount lenses, you’re always welcome here!

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Sony has just announced their “flagship flash unit” the HLV-F58AM. You can’t buy yet, but it will be on dealer shelves in September.

We knew it was coming, but details were rather sparse. Now we know the new flash unit will have a guide number of 58 (when the head is zoomed out to 105mm).

Sony says the new HLV-F58AM will arrive in September.

Speaking of the zoom flash head, the new flash knows whether it is illuminating a full frame sensor (think Alpha A900) or a APS-C size sensor and will zoom accordingly.

The big display on the back looks easy to read, and there is a mini joy stick controller to change settings. Naturally it offers TTL, HSS and ADI, as well as manual settings. Sony says the High Speed Sync on the HLV-F58AM can use shutter speed os /500 to 1/4000 second.

The HLV-F58AM features Sony’s new quick shift bounce feature, which allows the entire body of the flash to orbit like a fan to the left and right, in addition to the usual bounce and swivel capabilities.

The flash also includes a modeling light and a stroboscopic setting that will fire multiple times during an exposure, creating an in-camera multiple exposure of moving subjects.

Sony also claims the new unit will recharge 55% more quickly than the older HLV-F56AM. There is also a claim that the electronic whine has been done away with. Sony apparently thinks that is a good thing, but I always relied on that high-pitched whine to know my flash was charging properly. I guess I will get used to it, but to me, that whine was a feature, not a bug!

Like all Sony flashes the HLV-F58AM supports wireless flash — and apparently it can serve as a controller as well as a slave. (More on that next time.)

Like the dSLRs it will be matched with, the new flash will have a large, easy to read LCD and a joy stick controller

Finally, Sony has also announced the price. Earlier this week I brought you news that the price of the older HLV-F36AM flash unit dropped to $199. Sony gives and takes it seems. The new flagship flash will be priced at $500 — not outrageous for a flash with all these capabilities — but much higher than the HLV-F56AM.

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I just noticed that Sony has sliced $100 off the list price of the HVL-F36AM flash unit over at Sony Style. The F36AM has carried a list price of $299, ever since Sony acquired Minolta’s assets and re-badged the Minolta 3600HS(D) as the Alpha HLV F36AM.

Today, the Sony Style page has a line through the $299 price and a $199 price tag appears next to it. Sony has not said this is a permanent price reduction, but it look like it might be. Considering the recently introduced HLV-42AM is equal or better than the F36AM in almost every category, and that the F42AM also carries a $299 price tag, Sony couldn’t have been selling many F36AM units. Who would buy the F36AM when they could buy the F42AM for the same price?

Besides the difference in guide numbers, (36 of the old flash, 42 for the new) the F42AM has a greater zoom range, swivels 180 degrees and offers white balance assist. Even more importantly, the F42AM offers manual control, while the F36AM can only be controlled by the camera. With all the extras the F42AM offers, the F36AM was really starting to look over priced. Knocking A hundred bucks off makes it start to look much more attractive.

Naturally, I would prefer the extra swivel and the manual control of the F42AM, especially if it was my primary flash unit. But the lower price of the F36AM is good news for any Alpha dSLR shooter.

The F36AM is compatible with the F42AM and F56AM wireless flash units, so if you are trying to assemble a multiple wireless flash set up, the cost of entry just got less expensive. You could pair a couple of F36AM with a F42Am or F56AM main units and have a very nice wireless setup. Neither the F36AM or the F42AM can be used to control a wireless setup, so you would need to either use the camera’s built in flash or use a F56AM as a master.

The lower price of the F36AM is also a bonus to Alpha shooters who want an external flash but just couldn’t justify laying out $300 for the privilege. All of a sudden, it is possible to buy a Sony brand flash for less than $200.

I would want the manual and swivel features that come with the F42AM. Still, for those just starting out, the F36AM does provide many good features. The head doesn’t swivel, but is does pivot so you can use bounce flash. It features ADI, so a Sony Alpha dSLR can control it from the hot shoe. It also has autofocus assist lamp, enhancing focusing in dim light. And if you purchase the FA-CS1AM flash shoe from Sony, you can add a cable socket to the F36AM, giving you off camera flash capability.

This fills a big hole in the Sony flash lineup, especially for those just starting out. You either had to spend a princely sum on a Sony branded flash, or try to cobble up something off ebay that you hoped would work with the Sony/Minolta hot shoe.

If Sony extend the price cuts to dealers, many of which discount equipment below the suggested list price, you may be able to pick up a Sony brand ADI flash for well under $200.

I like it.

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Sony has started shipping the Alpha A350. I took delivery of one of the big orange boxes last week and have started putting the A350 through it’s paces. So far, I am fairly pleased with the 14m dSLR — I will post a review with samples shortly.

I had hoped to update my copy of Adobe Lightroom to version 1.4, which is required to read the RAW files from the Sony Alpha A350, A300 and the A200 as well as several other new cameras. Unfortunately, Adobe posted the update for only a few hours. If you click on the link to update to 1.4, you get the message:

Adobe hasn’t said when the revised 1.4 updater will be available, but until they get their act together, I won’t be able to process my A350 RAW files in Lightroom. This limitation also applies to Adobe Camera Raw, meaning at this point there is no way to edit A350 RAW files with an Adobe product.

Sony has started shipping the A350 model, with the similar A300 to come shortly. Don’t expect to edit RAW files in Lightroom/ACR until Adobe perfects the latest update to ACR.

My fall back has been Sony’s Image Data Converter and Lightbox SR which shipped with the A350. The two programs do a credible job, but I know exactly what to expect from LR. It will take some time to become comfortable with editing in with the Sony software. In addition, the Sony software does not recognize my older Minolta RAW files, so I require two different sets of software to work with my image collection. Grrr. I hope Adobe fixes the bugs in 1.4 soon.

Of course there is another solution: Apples’ Aperture. Frequent Alphatracks contributor Bert Pasquale has been playing with Aperture 2.0 and he seems more than happy with it. He writes:

Let me think about this. Aperture and iPhoto are more or less niche products in Apple’s product line. They help with the bottom line, of course, but they are far from Apple’s main bread and butter. On the other hand, Photoshop is Adobe’s crown jewel. They make a lot of cash from other sources, but Photoshop is their premier product.

So how is it that Apple appears to effortlessly produce an update that supports the latest cameras well in advance of their release date, while Adobe’s can’t ship it’s famed Camera Raw software until after the new models hit the street? For that matter, why did Adobe release an ACR/Lightroom update that was so filled with bugs that almost a week afterwards they still haven’t been able to fix it?

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Last week, reader Tony Bombardo contacted me regarding Sony’s high-end electronic flash unit, the HVL-F56AM. Or should I say former high-end flash unit…as of this writing the HVL-F56AM is missing in action at the Sony Style website. Under flashes and lights, you find the HVL-F36AM and the new HVL-F42AM units, but the F56AM is no where to be found.

So what’s happening with the HVL-F56AM? I know it was listed on Sony Style a couple of days before, because I was ordering some accessories and it was there as big as life. Now it’s gone.

Well, almost gone.. I found that if your order a dSLR, the HVL-F56AM still shows up as an available accessory. I’m not sure if you can actually order the unit, but as of yesterday, if you were buying a camera it was still listed. I also found that if you click on the specs for the F42AM, you can find a sidebar link to the F56AM. That link indicates it is in stock for shipment. The HVL-56AM does not appear in the list under the flashes and lights category.

Sony hasn’t said the HVL-F56AM has been discontinued. So what happened to it? The brand new HVL-F42AM offers most of the features of the HVL-F56AM, and is priced at $299. The HVL-F56AM’s most recent list price was $449.

I don’t have any hard information from Sony, but if I had to guess there are two things going on here. First, the HVL-F42AM offers almost the same features at $150 less. Admittedly, the HVL-F56AM has a guide number of 56, while the HVL-F42AM has a lower guide number of 46. The HVL-F42AM is more or less equal to the HVL-F56AM in most other respects. I suppose that 14 guide units might be worth $150 is some cases, but for most people the HVL-F42AM will appear to a be a better value.

Is the just released HVL-42AM Sony’s current high-end electronic flash?.

The second aspect is that Sony has indicated that there will be a flagship flash unit to accompany the new flagship dSLR. I don’t have specs on the yet to be announced Alpha flagship flash, but I have to believe a electronic flash unit billed s the flagship will have to be superior to all current Sony and Minolta electronic flash units.

At the same time, how much higher could Sony price the flagship flash? It would have to be considerably higher than the HVL-F56AM at $449, otherwise who would buy the HVL-F56AM at the expense of the flagship? On the other hand, if they reduced the ticket on the HVL-F56AM, it would cut into sales of the HVL-F42AM and the HVL-F36AM.

So Sony (apparently) chose to axe the HVL-F56AM. Maybe sales of the more expensive unit were flat. Or maybe Sony needed the production facilities to start building the flagship flash.

Does this mean the flagship will be coming sooner than this fall? Or will the new flash unit be released before flagship dSLR? Since the the upcoming dSLR will be full frame, its possible the new flash will cover a wider angle, since one of the reasons for shooting with a full frame dSLR is the opportunity to shoot with a full complement of wide angle lenses,

Of course, this could be a simple mix-up. Someone at Sony redesigned the web page and happened to leave the F56AM off the main flashes and lights order page. Maybe Sony just had a temporary shortage of HVL-F56AM units and the F56AM will appear on Sony Style in the future.

On the other hand, if I really wanted a HVL-F56AM, I mean I really wanted one, I would start looking around to find a merchant that still has a new HVL-F56AM in stock.

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Mark Weir, the Senior Technology and Marketing Manager for Sony’s Alpha dSLR division appears in an interview on the latest podcast from The Digital Photography Show.

I am a frequent listener to the DPS podcast. It is an easy-going. no-stress show. Hosts Scott Sherman and Michael Stein freely admit they aren’t professional photographers — they are just a couple of regular guys who are nuts over digital photography. The testimony to their interest in digital photography lies in the latest show, which happens to be episode #84. It takes a lot of work and effort to produce a podcast on a regular basis — most of casts in my iTunes library are abandoned during the first year. Sherman and Stein, however, have just released their eighty-fourth show and don’t appear ready to quit anytime soon.

Although I enjoy listening to show, the pair spend way too much time yammering about cameras that start with the letters “C” and “N,” WAY too much time. Until recently, they attempted to defend their posture with usual “most people” use certain brand cameras. Now, however, it appears they have had enough complaints from listeners that they have rethought their show. They have started discussing lots of other cameras on the podcast. The Mark Weir interview is one of their efforts to welcome other dSLR makers to their party.

They caught up with Weir at the Sony booth at the recent PMA show. The interview runs about 30 minutes — the first half discusses the Sony Alpha dLSRs, while the second explores some of the new technologies Sony is bringing to their point and shoot models.

There isn’t anything really new in the interview, but it is still worth listening to, especially if you are an A-mount shooter. Weir explains in detail the advantages to the new Sony Live View system offered in the Alpha A300 and A350. He also hammers home the advantages of in-body image stabilization. In addition to not having to buy IS with every lens you acquire, Weir points out that it is impractical to add lens-based IS to many macro and wide aperture lenses. Thus the Sony in-body system allows users to enjoy IS in many types of lenses that are simply unavailable from competing lens-based IS systems.

Weir also proudly announced that the upcoming Alpha flagship dSLR will be the first full-frame SLR with in-body IS. I guess that answers some of our questions on that point. I was really impressed that he was able to say the phrase “Super Steady Shot” and not sound the least bit silly.

Sherman did try to pry information about the price of the flagship out of Weir, but got nowhere. All Weir would say on the subject of price is that he thought everyone would be pleasantly surprised about the price — or words to that effect. I liked hearing that, but only time will tell.

You can download the Sony Mark Weir interview at The Digital Photography Show. As you might expect, the show is also available on iTunes. Just search for The Digital Photography Show in the podcast directory and download episode #84. It’s a fairly long podcast, and a lot of the stuff in the beginning wasn’t all that interesting to me. The Weir interview starts exactly at the 30 minute point.

A while back, I pointed out that the A700 was forcing many of the media to look at Sony with fresh eyes. With the addition of the A200, A300 and the A350, Sony is developing a line of dSLRs that demand respect and attention. It appears that Scott Sherman, Michael Stein and the Digital Photography Show have started to get the message. After all, “A” comes before “C” and “N” in the alphabet!

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Our friend Bert Pasquale is back, and he is excited about the Mac OSX 10.5.2 native support of A700 RAW files. What follows is Bert’s enthusiastic report of 10.5.2’s handling of A700 ARW files, as well as a look at Aperture 2.0 If the terms Sweet, Nice and Very Nice are any indication. Bert is pretty happy about the update.

Sony Alpha A700 files (RAW and cRAW) now natively supported in Mac OSX 10.5.2; Aperture 2.0 Free 30-day trial available.

Latest 10.5.2 OSX upgrade will offer native support for A700 RAW files.

Photo: Courtesy of Apple Inc.

If you’ve been having to use the included SONY software or Adobe Camera Raw the past couple months to open and process your A700 ARW files, you now have options of using any Mac-native image software. Thanks to the 10.5.2 update, many new RAW formats are recognized. (Use Software Update to install the latest components.) You can view them in Preview, sort them in iPhoto, or fully process them in Aperture. Speaking of which…

Not by coincidence, Apple released Aperture 2.0 the day after the 10.5.2 update, boasting “100+ new features.” I’ve just taken a look and it seems very promising — yet to determine if it will win me back from the Adobe Bridge/Lightroom workflow. I’m using it to process a batch of portraits I recently shot; here are initial impressions of features not to overlook:

• All image info and adjustments are consolidated in a single pane, which can float over full-screen images as a breakaway HUD. Nice.
• SPEED. Option for thumbnail-only previews so far eliminates spinning beach balls. Very nice.
• Much improved RAW processing algorithm with many new parameter controls. (Similar to current ACR offerings.)
• Eyedropper selection of 6 specific hues to adjust. Sweet.
• Allows for retouching (healing & stamp functions) without going to Photoshop.
• Access to iPhoto library w/o having to re-import, iPhoto 08 features such as rollover library views and integration to .mac web galleries.
• Integration with the rest of iLife/iWork apps, iPod sync, etc…

For a full-immersion of what AP2 is capable of, visit http://apertureprofessional.com The real test will be how developers do providing additional plug-ins.

– Bert Pasquale
Optical Engineer,
Photographer, LifeStoryImages.com

I’ll save you the trouble of searching for Apple’s Press Release to see everything included in Aperture 2. You can read it here:

Apple Releases Aperture 2

Major Upgrade Features Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing

CUPERTINO, California—February 12, 2008—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone™, iPod® touch and Apple TV®. At a new low price of $199, anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro.

Apple is fighting back in the RAW workflow wars with the greatly enhanced Aperture 2.0

Photo: Courtesy of Apple Inc.

“Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Aperture’s power.”

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the quality of the image,” said Sports Illustrated contributing photographer David Bergman. “Even before I begin making adjustments, Aperture’s new RAW processing gives me better images with more visible detail and better color rendering than any other program I’ve tested.”

“I used to have so much stress about post-production on a shoot, having to juggle multiple applications to make sure they all worked,” said Bob Davis, PDN Top Knots Wedding Photographer 2007. “With Aperture that’s no longer a factor. I can do everything all in one application.”

Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto’s Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto® Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.

Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it’s faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats. Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.

Aperture 2 delivers powerful new imaging tools for getting the most out of each photograph. Apple’s next-generation RAW image processing is at the core of Aperture 2 offering uncompromising image quality and precision controls that let users fine-tune the image profile for each of their cameras. New tools for improving and enhancing images include Recovery for pulling back “blown” highlights, Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones, Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images, Vignette & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas.

Aperture 2 works seamlessly with Mac OS® X, iLife®, iWork™, .Mac and Apple print products, so any image in the Aperture library can be accessed directly from within other applications, such as iMovie®, Keynote® and Pages®, and even from within Leopard™ Mail. Now with .Mac Web Gallery support, Aperture users can publish their photos once to view them on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Books in Aperture 2 feature new theme designs, layout tools, customized dust jackets (including full-bleed) and foil stamped covers.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 2 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2 for just $99 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Aperture 2 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

* The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.