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Apple Says Aperture Won't Run in Future macOS Versions After Mojave
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Just do a double boot.
I still have Snow Leopard on one partition, as I still use my beloved Front Row (managed to put the Tiger version of it on my SL) and love it. Though it freezes from time to time ;(
Apple has long ago giving up on content creators.. and has solely been focused on content CONSUMERS. Note all the new iPads, yet no new MacPro for starters. I'm not sure what their long rang plan is, but someone must create the content Apple longs so hard to serve to consumers. Aperture is just another nail in the Creators Coffin.
Photos isn't even that useful for my non-serious stuff. Why? The iOS side of it offers no way to change the Title, Description, or Keywords. You can "use Siri to find photos" but that's ridiculous. Siri doesn't know that photo was my nephew's birthday party, or the name of the cat, or what concert that was. The Mac side of Photos can do it, either in the Cmd-I info window or you can do titles right in the main display, but after all these years you still can't do it on iOS. Thus on vacation I still need a laptop and can't just bring an iPad. Ridiculous. I've been debating moving all my personal stuff into the Lightroom ecosystem alongside my serious stuff because Adobe, despite the whole CC vs Classic debacle, has a much more full-featured iOS experience. I loved Aperture and used it from version 1 for many years, and its integration into the Apple ecosystem was incredibly useful. Photos has the integration but not the features. Heck, have you tried to use the Photo picker on MacOS in a file→open dialog box (such as for a website)? Half my recent photos don't even show up in it, the ones that do are tiny square images that are non-enlargeable with no preview option to ensure you're picking the photo you want
DxO’s claim to fame is their camera/lens database and how they use that for specialized image corrections. Their perspective correction module isn’t bad either. It’s capable, and I sometimes use it for editing individual images, particularly architecture. They also have a series of “film packs” that are essentially filters to make your image look like various analog film types if you’re into that. It’s been a generation or two since I’ve tried using it for library management, but at the time it was more awkward to use than Aperture for sure.
Capture One is a more expensive alternative, but I’ve found it easier to fit into my workflow after some practice and concessions on my end. If DxO excels at lens correction, Capture One seems focused on color correction. It has a one click import that will pull most of your Aperture library in (or it did when I imported at version 10, they’re at 12 now) and a trial version. The import isn’t perfect, but I doubt any of them are. The metadata doesn’t match 1:1 across packages but I’ve forgotten the specific item I had trouble with?
And no package you import into will carry your Aperture adjustments, so you need to export your adjusted images from Aperture to a good archive format like PSD or TIFF.
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I’ll admit, I’m still confounded by the sessions versus catalog split. I went catalogs. What made you choose sessions? Best I could figure from the vague documentation was that sessions were tuned for tethered capture in studio?
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Did you check the Apple support document re the Aperture announcement? it has instructions on how to move to Adobe's Lightroom Classic. It has an Aperture import plugin. Some metadata will have issues, and you might want to use keyword hierarchies instead of Aperture's album/folder setup as this will impart the same organizational info, but be much more portable into any other subsequent DAM program. Not sure what "notes" are in Aperture; don't remember those.
It helps to use Aperture Exporter on the Aperture library first; it can help with exporting adjusted images, and do some other stuff to make the transition easier.
DxO Photolab (the newer versions of Optics Pro, which ended quite a while ago) isn't so hot on organization, metadata, etc.
And consider Graphic Converter. It can browse right inside your existing Aperture library, showing folders, albums, etc. Even Places and Faces. But I don't think it can show anything but the original masters. Still, super useful and affordable, and it can do an awful lot besides conversion. And unlike Aperture, despite its long history on macOS it just keeps going and getting better and better.
I loved Aperture but Lightroom just got too far ahead and Apple needed to reboot it, perhaps with a professional app based on Photos but with more in depth tools.
My guess is that Apple has plans for Photos as a modular and scaleable DAM/photo editor to replace Aperture. Like Final Cut, it’s always been a long term plan, starting with the basics and iterating it up from there.
The Photos app already works exceptionally well for those ranging from non photographers to amateur photographers to maybe even prosumers. It’s when you get to professionals that it breaks down due to the lack of a workflow capable of handling thousands of photos per shoot and archiving.
But the foundation is there. With non destructive editing extensions, you can perform very sophisticated edits in the Photos app. It needs a way to separate your personal photos from your work.
I think that a second Photos app with a different UI could be built that has complex editing tools built in but that runs on the same underlying infrastructure. The fact that they’re ending support for Aperture after Mojave gives me a bit of hope that we might see the next step up for the Photos app in the next version of macOS.
My guess is that Apple has plans for Photos as a modular and scaleable DAM/photo editor to replace Aperture. Like Final Cut, it’s always been a long term plan, starting with the basics and iterating it up from there.
The Photos app already works exceptionally well for those ranging from non photographers to amateur photographers to maybe even prosumers. It’s when you get to professionals that it breaks down due to the lack of a workflow capable of handling thousands of photos per shoot and archiving.
But the foundation is there. With non destructive editing extensions, you can perform very sophisticated edits in the Photos app. It needs a way to separate your personal photos from your work.
I think that a second Photos app with a different UI could be built that has complex editing tools built in but that runs on the same underlying infrastructure. The fact that they’re ending support for Aperture after Mojave gives me a bit of hope that we might see the next step up for the Photos app in the next version of macOS.
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I’m pretty sure Apple has burned that bridge. I’d be surprised if Apple could convince professional photographers to trust them with their work again.
The problem with Photos.app is imo that it forces you to constantly do additional clicks. I hate that UI with a passion. It may be functionally useable but the UI has been designed by a Linux developer - Thats at least how it feels to me.
Probably the same guy who destroyed the Music.app...
I've still not forgiven Apple for pulling the plug on one of the best apps they've created, especially since there's just no good alternatives…
(Hoping that Affinity eventually will create a descent DAM but that does not let Apple off the hook.)
Affinity have disappointed a bit. The task is big, but they've lost too much focus. For example ... there are several bad masking bugs in Affinity Photo, that were pointed out to them in their forums 2 years ago, but they remain unfixed. In the early days, they were fixing things like this in less than a month. Sure, these are things that are of most interest to professionals (how many amateurs spend their days compositing) but that's who they're pitching to.
Anyway ... aside from that and about the fantastic DAM that disappears with Aperture's demise:
It seems that the ex-engineering lead on Aperture, Nik Bhatt, who has built the excellent Aperture look-alike and really all-round superb raw convertor app, RAW Power (gentlemencoders.com) is considering building a DAM along similar lines. He was a big part of the Aperture team, so he knows how to do it.
I encourage anyone who misses the superb quality and functionality of Aperture, to go to their site and encourage Nik, to go ahead and take the plunge. The more he sees the pent-up demand, the more likely he is to commit.
Personally ... I'm on the fence whether or not to just keep a Mac at Mojave. Apple has been on a long slow slide, since the reigns slipped from Jobs hands.
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There were a few factors: - catalogs were less stable (i think size of library was an issue); scaleability (i have 150k+ photos, one catalog gets quite large and creates issues for backups, Time Machine backs up entire Catalog, even with one small edit; I used sessions to record events, holidays etc and it provided a natural division into smaller file groupings); my photos are stored in a Finder folder hierarchy so no software lock-in, future proofing access to the underlying photos. I use a folder naming convention Job# YYYY-MM-DD EventName/description so very easy to recall/sort. Inside main folder were Capture, Selects, Output, Trash folders set up by C1P - which seemed logical, whether to not it was a tethered/studio shoot or out in the field with subsequent import
An article on topic worth reading...
https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/catalogs-vs-sessions-epic-battle-times/
Heh. I might be inclined to take that bet; reminds me of all the hopeful guesses about Photos before it launched, years ago. But no; it's basically a front end to iCloud Photo Library and iOS. And iOS has it's own difficulties when it comes to photo management, especially with raw images, unfortunately. And Mylio and Lr seem to be doing a better job across macOS/Windows/iOS/Android than Photos anyway.
Photos has improved at least if one counts extensions, like the excellent Raw Power (by the former Aperture developer). But organizationally? ugh. Consider the pickle one would be in if one had say 10k images in Photos and one was using iCloud, and if Apple dropped Photos (as it did iPhoto). Be FAR worse than dropping Aperture. No one's going to put themselves in that position.
No, Photos isn't going morph into Aperture 4. Question is whether it will be iPhotos or MacPaint or Appleworks.
But the bright spot is that there are tons of very good alternatives that can do what Aperture did and much much more. Apple should stick to what they do best, the hardware and system, and leave the door open for the independent developers to produce the key programs for doing work. Apple's stuff with rare exceptions just won't last, and the more complex it is the worse it leaves the consumer when Apple finally drops it.
I hope Adobe is not really going to double prices for the CC photography plan:
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/adobe-doubles-photography-plan-pricing/
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/adobe-doubles-photography-plan-pricing/
Thanks for the pointer. I think I’m still the catalog type, Aperture sold me on that workflow. I do find the Capture One catalogs are limited in their size though, and I have to break them up into a collection of smaller catalogs— which Defeats the purpose to some extent. Sessions would require me to remember which session a give image was in— it think that works well for events, but not when you visit a favorite site multiple times...
