Aperture worries...

[mrichmon]

I doubt this. And I also doubt a Digital SLR camera costs 8k. And if it does, how in the hell is it any better than the 8 mega-pixel Canon and Nikons? The rest of the features would be fluff at that point.

Try around 16.7 mega-pixel as the top pro canon model provides. List price $7395. Pro cameras are more robust than the pro-sumer 8 mega pixel bodies you are talking about. Additionally for serious work the higher pixel counts allow for greater enlargement, more extreme cropping, and finer printing that are required in the professional space.

Profesional photographers make a sick amount of money. 40k? Maybe for those that aren't highly requested (not to be rude to you), but it seems the photographers in most fashion mags, design mags, etc. are making at least twice what you're stating.

Yes, for the big names. But this is a very specialized market. There are all the photo-journalists out there many of whom don't get near the 80-100k you are claiming fashion photographers make. Then there are all the wedding and portrait photographers in the world who are much greater in number and are likely to be making around $40k. Then there are the shooters who do product catalogues and general odd job work... corportate photography, real-estate, etc. These folks are probably scattered between $30k and $70k for the most part.

 

[solvs]

Yeah...photographers DON'T make much money.

Then who's buying PhotoShop?

 

[Josh]

Then who's buying PhotoShop?

Photoshop's market is not soley photographers (which is only a portion of PS users).

Web Designers, Graphic Designers, Printers, etc use Photoshop.

The majority of Photoshop's tools and uses extend beyond photo correction and optimization. Only a small number of Photoshops tools apply to professional photo correction and adjustment.

 

[thomastsui]

Aperture is a software for professional studios, or photographer.
The price is just right for those who take photos for living.

Aperture cannot compare to photoshop actually,
Aperture is a pure photos, RAW files enhancement tools.
It's a bit more like CaptureOne, the concept is, you took photos (e.g. 100 in RAW format), you put them into Aperture, select those photo you are going to sell to your cilent(e.g. 5 photos) and inside Aperture, you can do some basic enhancement like level, saturation, contrast.

It's all about the photo itself, and color.

On the other hand, Photoshop, is a tool for retouch, it's more about digital graphy, you have layers, path, mask...etc in photoshop.

So, you output a great photo to your cilent by Aperture, and your cilent take that photo, and use photoshop to remove background...add text....so on and on.

 

[Bern]

... So, you output a great photo to your cilent by Aperture, and your cilent take that photo, and use photoshop to remove background...add text....so on and on.

Man I love that concept. Now if only Sydney photographers could do that instead of relying heavily on Photoshop to take their pictures for them we might get somewhere.

 

[decksnap]

There are a lot of good photographers making good money, believe me. We pay sometimes $2-3,000 for a single image at my agency, direct to the photographer. So, they sell one photo, they can buy this app multiple times over.

As for Photoshop, this is not a Photoshop competitor in the general sense, nor is it intened to be. Yes, there's overlap, but this is a very pinpointed app wheras Photoshop is a lot of things to a lot of people.

 

[Le Big Mac]

You don't price a product based on how much your expected customers make from their job. You price it based on how much it costs to create!!

Wow--are you american, because, if so, that's why they're failing in so many ways.

You price based on what the market is willing to pay (which means competition, like photoshop, is relevant). And the cost to create an extra copy of hte program is about 10c, maybe a bit more for the package. There's a bunch of sunk costs but those are, well, sunk.

BTW, how does this compare to photoshop? More features? Why switch?

 

[decksnap]

Wow--are you american, because, if so, that's why they're failing in so many ways.

You price based on what the market is willing to pay (which means competition, like photoshop, is relevant). And the cost to create an extra copy of hte program is about 10c, maybe a bit more for the package. There's a bunch of sunk costs but those are, well, sunk.

BTW, how does this compare to photoshop? More features? Why switch?

Go read up on it. It's not a direct competitor to photoshop.

 

[cheekyspanky]

You don't price a product based on how much your expected customers make from their job. You price it based on how much it costs to create!!

Companies generally sell products for as much as people will pay for them, with as a high a level of profit as possible. Often the retail price has no relation on the actual production costs of the product - look at things like perfume, the most expensive part of a bottle of it is usually the lid not the liquid itself, but people will pay £40+ for it.

 

[Bern]

... BTW, how does this compare to photoshop? More features? Why switch?

Have a read of the interview with Rob Schoeben at
Macworld maybe that will clear things up?

 

[kugino]

Go read up on it. It's not a direct competitor to photoshop.

decksnap's right. it's not meant to be a PS killer. it's a better way to mange RAW files as well as a little editing. i think PS will still be in most photographer's workflow.

i disagree with josh...$499 for professional photographers is not a huge deal, especially if it can be determined that this app will save time. time=money, right? and $499 is quite small compared to $3000-6000 lenses. $499 for another piece of equipment isn't that significant to a professional photographer, especially if it's useful. it's certainly not chump change, but it's not that pricey, either.

and onizuka's assertion that an $8K DSLR is just "fluff" over the 8MP nikons and canons...well, that's just false. the "fluff" is stuff you might never use as an amateur or prosumer, but pros need stuff like faster flash sync, increased burst capture, sturdier casing, better spot metering, etc. let's not think that the canon rebel is even on the same level as canon's top of the line DSLR.

 

[XNine]

and onizuka's assertion that an $8K DSLR is just "fluff" over the 8MP nikons and canons...well, that's just false. the "fluff" is stuff you might never use as an amateur or prosumer, but pros need stuff like faster flash sync, increased burst capture, sturdier casing, better spot metering, etc. let's not think that the canon rebel is even on the same level as canon's top of the line DSLR.

Spot metering? Hmmm. Interesting. I'll go investigate this more. Thank you for the information.

 

[slimflem]

Don't worry mate:

http://www.apple.com/aperture/quicktours/?management

Seems it will let you organize any way you wish.

Edit...but I do have some worries of my own.

First, the $499 price tag. C'mon...photographers aren't loaded. That's a little high, I think.

Second...the system specs of a recommended system

You have to push people and technology ahead at some point. Bravo for Apple doing this. Apeture looks smooth as hell. That is one professional, slick-as-sh** application. God you imagine working with that on 2 30"'ers. Freaking nice. If anyone is trying to complain, give it up, you haven't even used it. Can you imagine how much effort and time and r&d has gone into this application. I bet Apple has met with many many photographers across the line from home users to highend pro's to make this one awesome application. If I can ever get a PowerMac, this application will be close behind it.

Smooth as hell. (And yes, I watched all the videos and read most of the site.) Even the website for it is better than 99% of the websites out there.)