Customer Reviews

Apple Aperture 2: A workflow guide for digital photographers (Digital Workflow)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for a solid reference book for the Apple Aperture 2 product, look no further. The Apple Aperture 2 book by Ken McMahon and Nik Rawlinson, published by Focal Press, is an excellent choice. This is the second book on Aperture 2 that I've seen hit the shelves so far, and this one is a keeper. The book's writing style is straightforward, well organized, and the authors do a fine job in giving the reader comprehensive coverage of Aperture 2 and related areas.

The first chapter is all about RAW images - over 20 pages of details that describe all you wanted to know about RAW, including advantages and disadvantages of a RAW workflow as well as technical detail about what RAW means. I think this was an excellent introduction into the world of Aperture, and it really assists the reader in understanding what's going on in Aperture. The book then introduces Aperture and its workspace in Chapter 2. The 3rd Chapter discusses the important topic of image management, including importing images, vault usage, referenced files vs. managed files, etc. Chapter 4 discusses the fine points of metadata usage in Aperture. Chapter 5 goes into the nitty gritty image adjustment features. Chapter 6 talks about Aperture workflow. Chapter 7 then discusses how to use Aperture with other applications, such as Photoshop and plug-in tools, as well as how to migrate from using Bridge or iPhoto. The final 8th Chapter discusses output, from exporting and printing, to the slideshow feature.

The book offers a very practical perspective in how best to use the Aperture 2 software, in addition to describing the features of the software. For example, the book talks about practical backup strategies for your photo library, migration strategies from other photo management tools, workflow considerations when using external photo editing tools, creating books using Aperture but then using a different tool to output your book, and reasons why one might create separate Aperture libraries.

I'm self-taught in Aperture 2 and have been using the tool for about 8 months. I now consider myself an intermediate user, and I still picked up many good tips from the book, some of which are listed below (I should mention that the book offers very good coverage of all the features of Aperture for a beginner user. Since I know how to use many of these features already, I'm not making mention of them here):

1. I didn't have a strong understanding about RAW even though I follow a RAW workflow, and Chapter 1 of this book gave an excellent overview. I have to admit, I didn't read this chapter until after I went through the rest of the book because 20+ pages of RAW material didn't sound too interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised! I had seen the RAW adjustment sliders in Aperture, but really never understood how they were preset for me and I never was quite sure if I should muck with them. Now, I have a basic understanding of them. And, this chapter finally explained the reasoning behind why people say it's better to overexpose, rather than underexpose.

2. The book showed me how to launch Aperture so that it would prompt me to always select an Aperture library. This is very helpful for me, since I have multiple Aperture libraries. To date, no one else I knew ran 2 or more libraries, and even an Apple rep indicated there was no need to do so. Finally, I see some acknowledgment of why it might be a good idea to do so in this book.

3. I forgot completely about the HUD (Heads Up Display) that provides a floating control box. I had been tabbing back and forth between the projects, metadata and adjustments tabs in my workspace, as needed. Using the HUD, I can view, for example, metadata and adjustments at the same time for an image, a real timesaver from what I had been doing.

4. Until I read this tip in the book, I didn't realize that there was a preset feature in the adjustments panel that allows the user to create various presets for each adjustment category. Ah, it's the little things that are nice to know!

5. I learned about the various sharpening techniques available in Aperture, which is something I had not played with. To date, I had done my post processing sharpening exclusively in Photoshop as that is what I was familiar with. Now, I feel like I have a better understanding of pre-sharpening and post-sharpening techniques available in Aperture and how to use them.

6. The book mentioned some anomalies regarding how Aperture and Photoshop work together, which are good to know about, should I encounter these scenarios.

Summary:

This will definitely be my primary Aperture 2 reference book. I find that I can glean information quickly from this book, and when I want more detail about a particular subject, I can delve further. This is definitely a quality I look for in a good reference book. Perhaps the only negative is that the text within the screenshots is smaller and lighter than usual - and it really makes me feel the need for reading glasses. Maybe I really do need them and it's not the book's fault! But, apart from that, this is a solid reference book that I recommend to Aperture users.

I had previously reviewed Aperture 2 by Peachpit Press, and I find this Focal Press Aperture 2 book to be a much better choice for Aperture users.

My thoughts:

Ease of use: Easy and straightforward. I only wish I had this book when I was first learning Aperture 2!

Audience: Beginning to Intermediate Aperture 2 users alike will appreciate this book.

Cost: Reasonable

I concur with the other reviewers that this is an excellent book and I have learned many ways to improve both the quality of my photos as well as creating a better organizational scheme. But a significant downside you should be aware of is the printing quality and layout leaves much to be desired. In particular, the size and legibility of the adjustment "bricks" is dismal. You almost need a magnifying glass to see what the settings are. Further, the comparison photographs, one with default and the other with recommended adjustments, often look the same - as example, the one on sharpening, they all look the same even the one that says this is very oversharpened. I think if the book had been printed on glossy paper the resolution would have been much improved. As is, it's not acceptable - which is a shame since the book is well written and very informative.

This is the book that Aperture 2 users need. It goes far beyond the Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2 book (which isn't exactly bad, but is very short on detail). McMahon and Rawlinson's book matches the best of the Lightroom books, taking a photography rather than computing perspective. For example, the Pro Series book has about 1 paragraph on sharpening, and this basically tells you where the sliders are. Here, the authors dedicate at least 8 pages to explaining the various options, and how they interact.

They provide a very nice tutorial on how to extract maximum dynamic range from a RAW file, balancing the boost, exposure and recovery sliders (and more), really putting Aperture through its paces and revealing considerable hidden depths.

On the DAM side they are equally thorough, although in this case the Pro Training Series book does a pretty good job too. However, across the board, "Aperture 2: A workflow guide for digital photographers" either equals or considerably surpasses "Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2". I haven't read any other Aperture 2 books, but certainly as a general, in-depth guide, it is difficult to see how it could be beaten.

I enjoyed ' Aperture 2' because it's well-written and joy to read. Emphasis is placed on backing up your library and assets. Numerous time saving advice is given here. The section on Adjusting Images is excellent. The authors speak with authority as if they sat down with Apple Aperture programmer to get 'inside' info. This is of tremendous help even if you don't understand the jargon at first pass because you are being exposed to genuine information. The authors don't talk down to you or insult your intelligence. For example, I found the information on 'Edge Sharpen' tools to be a revelation. I didn't understand beforehand why Aperture offered both Sharpen and Edge Sharpen tools. Of course, now I know that Sharpen was introduce in Aperture 1.0 and is only in 2.0 for backwards compatibility. Edge Sharpen is much more sophisticated and therefore should be use. The authors gave a brief, but informative step on how to perform correct Sharpening to my photos. Again, information I could not find elsewhere. This book is a must for the professional and ama 'tour' alike who wish to improve and organise their photo assets within Aperture.

The interesting thing that is "off" in this book is the photos/images are actually too small and faint to clearly see them. The test around the images is a pale gray that is very difficult to read. The content is good though, and it has been helpful for me to review this book as I take Apple tutorials.

I recently purchased through amazon and was not entirely unwarned by the problem I reference with this book. For starters, it is clear that this is not a "starter" book but is addressed to those who are quite familair with Apple and with earlier versions of Aperture. So, admittedly, I might be slightly behind the average learner's curve. What is unacceptable, particularly on a book on this topic, is the horrendous graphics quality and layout. The fonts and screen reproductions are way too small--particularly since the editor cares little about getting the graphics on the smae page as the text that references them. Additionally, there are large areas of open white space on most of the pages--further exarcerbating the issue of small type and poorly placed and sized graphics. Just a dreadful layout and editing job.

I just purchased and started reading this book. It seems like the content is pretty good. But, I can't understand how the book was formatted with small fonts, small screen shots with descriptions using smaller fonts and so much wasted space where only half of each page is filled. I understand the half-page format was probably for balance - but, really? Plus, I've never encountered this with other books, but this book has a reflective finish that I sometimes have to tilt the book just to read it. I'll probably continue to read this (until my eyes can't take it anymore) based on other reviewers comments on the content.

Being fairly new to Mac, digital photography and Aperture, this book was like one giant "light bulb" -- tremendous help in getting me up to speed. Great book for using as a lesson plan or for reference.

This is by far the best book I have found on Aperture 2! This book covers everything you need to know about the program AND has great info on digital photography (i.e. raw files). Highly recommend!

I am still going through this book. As an amateur, I would really be struggling with the Aperature software without being able to refer to this book. It is very good.