Apple released yesterday a major update to its photo processing software.

iPhoto’s now-$199 big brother gets over 100 new features:

• recover highlights
• bring out color vibrancy
• manage local contrast definition
• soft-edged retouching
• vignetting
• de-vignetting
• much faster searching

…and a completely reworked interface and core. Nice, especially when you consider Aperture 1.5 was $299. I’m downloading the 30-day trial now and I’ll let you know how much faster it is. Speed is a concern for me because I’m on a lowly MacBook.

I’m a web developer and photographer, and I’m moving to Leopard full-time after a week of testing on my PowerMac G5. My critical apps that work with 10.5:

• Aperture (update to 1.5.6)
• Coda 1.0.5
• BBEdit 6.5.3 (I know, 6.x is a dinosaur… but it’s a solid, capable dinosaur)
• Transmit 2.6.2
• Photoshop CS3
• Firefox 2 and various developer extensions

Have you moved to 10.5? Waiting for an app to be Leopardized?

Apple updated Aperture to version 1.5.6 on October 26th.

Besides stability tweaks and modifications to make Aperture work smoothly with OS X 10.5 “Leopard”, changes include compatibility improvements with iPhoto, iLife Media Browser and with reliability when recovering an Aperture Library from a Vault.

Run Software Update to get the update.

My white-hot, burning, filthy love for Apple’s Aperture became even more so (!) today with the release of ApertureToGallery.

ApertureToGallery is an Aperture plug-in that automates the process of getting photos from Aperture into Gallery.

Be still, my beating heart.

I use Gallery2 on several of my sites including my fine art photography site, and this is just what the doctor ordered for my workflow. But it’s not going to help with my filthy thoughts. Thanks Ubermind!

If you’re like me, you found the organization, editing and interface of Aperture to beg the question what did I do before Aperture? Here’s some Aperture news and goodies that will help you get even more out of Apple’s outstanding pro photo application.

• How about an Aperture-specific keyboard, keys marked with the shortcuts they activate?

• Flickr member? Thinking about it? The new Flickr Aperture plugin will make that decision easy, because it allows you to export from Aperture straight into Flickr. Nice.
• Aperture Users Professional Network is a very helpful site for us Aperture users. Check it out.
• Do you use Gallery 1 or 2? This Aperture plugin will blow your mind [if you can get it — site is down as this goes to press].