Apple Aperture, how I miss thee - is Apple still listening?

[vjl323]

So while grabbing a link to the Maps feedback for another thread, I found that Apple still has a feedback page setup for Apple Aperture, which has several options for contacting the Aperture team [or so the page says!]

Feedback - Aperture - Apple

As a huge fan of Aperture since before v1.0, I still miss the app tremendously and run it on my macOS 14 system using Retroactive. But I wish a modern update was available. Raw Power, developed by one of the ex-Aperture team members, is amazing, but isn't a full on replacement for Aperture.

Perhaps continued pressure to bring the app back might convince them to do so? Wishful thinking? At least there's a feedback link - I just wonder if anyone is monitoring what gets sent from it!

 

[oakrrl]

Strongly agree - with the caveat that pining for Aperture’s return is a forlorn hope. .

Aperture had the ideal mix of features for my use case - easy to paint on local adjustments, adequate image management, didn’t force you into Apple choices for “memories” of “best photos,” less over-sharpening by default.

RAWpower does a good job of giving access to override Apple’s not-so-great RAW processor, but certainly isn’t a full-fledged editor on its own. When, from Photos, I “edit with…” Affinity, when I go back to Photos about half the time Photos won’t take the edits. Meanwhile, if I tweak an image in Photos (with its pretty good global adjustments), opening the image in Affinity loses all the tweaks. Frustrating.

On the plus side, when Apple dropped Aperture it forced me to learn more about photo editing. I’ve experimented with DxO, On1, Photoshop but have settled on Capture One - an amazing program but expensive and WAY more than what I really need.

I think our best bet is to advocate for Apple to give Photos local adjustments and more robust rating/culling and image organization features. (In particular I’d like the ability to create an album with “sub-album” displays according to rating, date, etc. rather than having to create a separate album for each selection)

 

[Fishrrman]

Aperture was a good app.
But... sad to say... it won't be coming back.

 

[adambrums]

Yeah, I've been relying on Retroactive as well to keep Aperture going. But seriously, a modern update would be a game-changer. Raw Power is alright, but it doesn't quite capture that Aperture magic, you know?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Aperture is from an era that I personally consider "peak Apple"
At least the Apple that I loved

I miss the Apple that cared so much about creating simply awesome, best in class, first party software.

When they started ceding all that to third party developers, I had a feeling we'd end up where we have.
A lot of what was special about a fully integrated ecosystem gets lost when the software piece really doesn't have much first party to it.

 

[vjl323]

Aperture is from an era that I personally consider "peak Apple"
At least the Apple that I loved

Agree completely [though I am a huge Apple Watch fan which is "only" about 10 years old now]. The care that went into that app and frankly all their first party apps, was incredible. I often called Aperture the one app I would be fine with if only allowed one app on an island [or my "you can pry it from my cold, dead hands" app]. I am biased, but the app felt like it was made for me, handled 100s of thousands of photos with ease [in later versions, admittedly!] and felt like the first app to really be a "digital darkroom" app [and this comes from someone who started using Photoshop at version 1.0, and the amazing and more feature-full, at the time, ImageFX for the Amiga].

I'm glad Apple supported it running on macOS versions as long as they did. But as I use Photos more and continue to test Capture 1, ON1, Marketable, RawTherapee, Raw Power, DxO, etc, etc....they just don't have the same feel for me. I do love Affinity as an editor and really wish they would make a digital asset manager to go with it. I loved how I could nearly stay in Aperture for all my editing - it had enough tools to do 95% of the edits I needed without needing an external editor.

When Lightroom debuted, I gave it a try [this was before Adobe went subscription], and I was happy with the performance of the app, but it didn't have that same feel that Aperture did. Every time a new version came out, I downloaded a new trial, but it never flowed for me the way Aperture did.

It's sad - in video and audio, Apple has consumer and pro apps - and they used to for photographers too. They still have Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro [and GarageBand and iMovie] - they need a "Photos Pro" like Aperture used to be. I know Phil Schiller was a big proponent of Aperture as he enjoys photography quite a bit. It's sad that someone that high up Apple's command structure wasn't able to convince them to keep the app alive. I'd love to know the real reason Apple discontinued Aperture.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's sad - in video and audio, Apple has consumer and pro apps - and they used to for photographers too. They still have Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro [and GarageBand and iMovie] - they need a "Photos Pro" like Aperture used to be. I know Phil Schiller was a big proponent of Aperture as he enjoys photography quite a bit. It's sad that someone that high up Apple's command structure wasn't able to convince them to keep the app alive. I'd love to know the real reason Apple discontinued Aperture.

Agree completely
And more than just being sad, it's leaving them open to long time customers like myself leaving.

If the software isn't there from the first party, and the overall polish of the rest of the Apps feels just "ok" in this world of so many cross platform apps (and they feel like it), it becomes really easy to start to question the purchase of premium priced Apple hardware (especially when factoring in how locked down they are and expensive the upgrade charges are from Apple)

The software is a big chunk of the sauce, at least for me.

 

[cateye]

I found that Apple still has a feedback page setup for Apple Aperture, which has several options for contacting the Aperture team [or so the page says!]

It's worth reading this quite complete history of Aperture. It gives some insight into why Aperture is not coming back and why it failed in the first place.

I knew someone who worked tangentially on Aperture (he's still at Apple, but in a very different role so far as I know and we haven't been in touch for quite some time). It was not a particularly well supported product within Apple from the get-go because, regardless of its vocal fans, had a difficult development process and didn't sell well against the Adobe juggernaut. When Apple isn't absolutely focused on something as a key part of an overall marketing push, it can't garner the attention and resources it needs to thrive and as a result dies on the vine.

They have their weird little toe hold in video production with FCP, Motion, et al. but none of that software is particularly relevant anymore either. But as long as Apple likes to court videographers, they'll likely limp them along. Markets like that are very different than they used to be, however. There isn't the same room for a company like Apple to own the an entire workflow, including the software—the market overall won't reward it. Even the importance of the OS itself has significantly diminished as workflows have moved to the web, cloud, and other abstracted ecosystems. All that leaves is the hardware itself, which Apple continues to excel at, thanks to Apple Silicon. But as others in this thread have suggested, there is little reason to specifically own a Mac anymore, other than a few details of hardware and a preference for MacOS. Most "real work" is completely abstracted from the computer it runs on anymore anyway.

 

[chrono1081]

I too miss aperture, such a fantastic app.

 

[perpetuity]

So while grabbing a link to the Maps feedback for another thread, I found that Apple still has a feedback page setup for Apple Aperture, which has several options for contacting the Aperture team [or so the page says!]

Feedback - Aperture - Apple

As a huge fan of Aperture since before v1.0, I still miss the app tremendously and run it on my macOS 14 system using Retroactive. But I wish a modern update was available. Raw Power, developed by one of the ex-Aperture team members, is amazing, but isn't a full on replacement for Aperture.

Perhaps continued pressure to bring the app back might convince them to do so? Wishful thinking? At least there's a feedback link - I just wonder if anyone is monitoring what gets sent from it!

Aperture really was the best IMO. Loved the design of it, the flow, and the control. I stopped using Adobe products since they went subscription only (I bought and upgraded every few years since Illustrator 88 and Photoshop 1.0!!!) and never really took to Lightroom despite the wide acceptance.

I am still looking for an alternative and fire up my old cheesegrater 2009 Mac Pro and use VNC to work in that Aperture library. But now that I found this thread I will install Retroactive! Thanks OP!

 

[za9ra22]

Aperture is one of the primary reasons I still have, and use, a couple of older MacBooks on which it lives and works flawlessly. It's a beautifully crafted and largely intuitive app that as stated above, dates from the days when Apple knew what they were doing in software development.

Today, they're too muddled, which makes it easy to be outclassed by the purely mediocre. But then, their software slotted in together to create a uniformity of platform for creative work which really couldn't be beaten.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Hoping for the return of the glory days of Apple is time wasted. Tim Cook doesn't have the heart or passion for incredible products and software like Steve Jobs did. Yes Steve made his mistakes along the way but the passion was there. Tim is a money man. That's it. Keep in mind he was the Chief Financial Officer before becoming CEO. As long as Apple rakes in the dough he doesn't care. I grew up in the Steve Jobs era of Apple and it was such a great and different Apple than we have now. Pretty much night and day. I miss the old Apple a lot. It was a great time to be a user and fan.

 

[cateye]

The entire industry has changed. You're pining for a form of vertical ecosystem that isn't relevant anymore.

I mean, keep using Aperture on an old system or using Retroactive if you must or if you want to—we should all serve our micro-scale needs, of course—but don't pretend it represents some kind of lost macro opportunity. If there were an opportunity to make money with a program like Aperture, especially for a company like Apple that is so razor-focused-successful at aligning product + marketing + audience, Apple would be doing it. But there isn't, so Apple isn't.

Blame Cook all you want, but to do so is to ignore the reality of how technology and the markets it serves has changed. Even mighty Apple with its over-attached "fans" isn't immune to those realities. If anything, Apple is as successful as it is particularly because it is attuned to avoiding wasted effort.

I'll again reference my earlier post—Aperture wasn't well supported within Apple even during its heyday, and this was square during the Era Of Steve™. There was no chance it would survive. None.

 

[steve123]

The care that went into that app and frankly all their first party apps, was incredible.

Indeed, Apple Pro apps were and still are well designed. With all the new generative AI happening now, Aperture could have expanded even more of the incredible DAM and generative capabilities it had.

I do love Affinity as an editor and really wish they would make a digital asset manager to go with it.

It became clear along the way Affinity was being driven by graphic art, not photography. This is why we will never see the promised DAM from Serif. Serif is likely doomed now as well. With the advent of generative AI, graphic artists are not the only thing that are going to be displaced.

I'd love to know the real reason Apple discontinued Aperture.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, lack of product leadership within Apple doomed it. It was Steve's project and when he died, no one took it on and gave it purpose to keep it going.

 

[jcorso]

Hoping for the return of the glory days of Apple is time wasted. Tim Cook doesn't have the heart or passion for incredible products and software like Steve Jobs did. Yes Steve made his mistakes along the way but the passion was there. Tim is a money man. That's it. Keep in mind he was the Chief Financial Officer before becoming CEO. As long as Apple rakes in the dough he doesn't care. I grew up in the Steve Jobs era of Apple and it was such a great and different Apple than we have now. Pretty much night and day. I miss the old Apple a lot. It was a great time to be a user and fan.

I believe Tim Cook was the COO, not the CFO.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

I believe Tim Cook was the COO, not the CFO.

Yes that is true. I stand corrected. Either way I do feel like Apple has lost its magic in many ways. I remember being wowed many times watching the keynotes back in the day. Not anymore. Perhaps technology in general has hit a plateau in certain ways.

 

[za9ra22]

Yes that is true. I stand corrected. Either way I do feel like Apple has lost its magic in many ways. I remember being wowed many times watching the keynotes back in the day. Not anymore. Perhaps technology in general has hit a plateau in certain ways.

As was said above, the entire market and industry has changed. It isn't the dynamic place where innovation works any longer. Innovation is risk, and businesses are risk averse. Cook's great strength is structure and organization, and it isn't Jobs that is misses. Yes, he was a product guy of the very highest order, but they were often not his ideas. He took the ideas of others, and worked them into his vision of perfection. But what the company lacks is the fusion of that talent, a 'concept guy', and the brilliance of Ive's design perfectionism.

Even with that, Apple still need the coherence of an adult at the helm. It's not the Steve Jobs era in the home/business electronics market any more - which makes us all a little poorer.

But, seriously, I have a 15-inch MBA in Midnight on my lap right now, and this is a thing of pure beauty. By far the most Jobsian Apple product since the TiBook. Turning this over in your hands, you can't still believe Apple have lost the ability to do stunning any more.

Where they are lost in the long grass is software.

 

[jaw04005]

Hoping for the return of the glory days of Apple is time wasted. Tim Cook doesn't have the heart or passion for incredible products and software like Steve Jobs did.

It wouldn't be Macrumors if everything wasn't Tim Cook's fault. 🤣

Aperture was really killed under Steve Jobs. There were rumors before Aperture 3 was released it was on its deathbed. After Aperture 3 was finally released in early 2010, it was put into maintenance mode and only updated to support changes to the operating system.

The entire app was made to get Adobe in line. They refused to support Core Image and were slow to implement GPU acceleration on the Mac.

Adobe Lightroom finally gained GPU acceleration with 10.14 conveniently the same year Aperture was officially discontinued complete with an Apple-supported tool to move over your Aperture library to Lightroom.

 

[Dc2006ster]

I also used Aperture to the bitter end. I tried a bunch of alternatives but settled on Capture One which I set up to mimic the Aperture menu and am happy with it. However I still miss the book printing option in Aperture. what do others use for photobooks?

 

[mattspace]

The application Peakto from CYME can read Aperture libraries, and keep them in use within Peakto's photo management system. Capture One is more or less the closest thing to Aperture, insofar as you can have your library and thumbnails on one monitor. your image viewer on another monitor, and all of your adjustment palettes either as tabs where your library / folder structure is, or you can lay them all out on a third display, the way I have it set up.

Unfortunately nothing comes close to Aperture's sheer speed of workflow - the flag, star, edit throughput. Also the neat setting to automatically create a new version whenever a file is edited, so you can always see at a glance which images you've worked on, because they're the ones with version stacks.

That said, Capture One has a vastly improved image engine. I can recover images with it, that I couldn't save in Aperture. Still haven't tried On1 or DXO, but my use of them would depend on being able to do the triple display thing.

 

[caskibum]

I also used Aperture to the bitter end. I tried a bunch of alternatives but settled on Capture One which I set up to mimic the Aperture menu and am happy with it. However I still miss the book printing option in Aperture. what do others use for photobooks?

Blurb is very good, the book quality is high, better than the Kodak printed books from the Aperture book module. I loved Aperture as well and the books were a big part of that. I'm grudgingly using Lightroom and the book module is improving to the point of being usable, and integrates nicely with Blurb although you can just "do your own thing" to make the books as well.

I've also become somewhat proficient in Affinity Publisher, which has been great for laying out non-book print material (calendars, etc).

 

[maflynn]

Wishful thinking?

Yes, completely, and absolutely. There's a snowball's chance in hell that apple will suddenly change their minds and release an update, never mind a new version. Apple last worked on Aperture over 10 years ago, its not happening.

Aperture was awesome back in the day, and then they let it whither on the vine, While LightRoom was getting new features, Apple ignored Aperture. As LR grabbed market share Aperture sat their stunted and unloved

 

[leifp]

I’m still drifting the cosmos without a proper photo architecture. Oh, I use Photos, and I use Pixelmator/Photomator for edits, and I’ve played with GIMP, On1, Lightroom, and DxO but nothing sticks. I loved Aperture and its total package, for my needs, as far as photography goes.

Since we’re on a nostalgia trip, I’ll add Apple’s networking hardware… missed greatly!

 

[jaw04005]

Aperture was resource intensive too as it relied mostly on the GPU. It was dog slow on Power Mac G5. Plus, it was expensive. I want to say it was like $499 when it debuted.

It didn't really even get a shot until the Intel era when they put it on the Mac App Store for like $79. By then, it was too late.

 

[vjl323]

One of the developers of Aperture made a Mac/ipadOS/iOS app called Raw Power. Just a week or so ago, another app from the developer came out which does give me Aperture vibes - Nitro Photo. Looks/feels interesting. 7-day trial. Can subscribe or pay a one time fee. It is a universal app, though iOS/iPadOS version is still coming [but will be free if one buys the Mac "version"].

Capture 1 has some good Aperture feels - but honestly I still prefer Aperture to C1.

And as was recently posted here, yes, Aperture v1 was a very, very demanding app. Thankfully they improved performance a lot in later versions, and lowered the price quite a bit too.

What upsets me is that Apple had consumer and pro apps for the 3 main multimedia fields: music, video, photo. They still have music and video - pro apps - but for photo - it is just the consumer app. And when Photos replaced iPhoto, it was *not* good. It has gotten better, but nowhere near pro level, IMO.

It's as if Apple, in their iWork suite, decided just to stop making Numbers and let people buy Excel instead, but still keep Keynote and Pages around. Sigh.