I have recently been looking at applications specifically suited as resources for digital photography. I am currently looking at Apple’s Aperture.

Overall this looks like a good application with a lot of capabilities. At a glance the management of photos is a little confusing. Library, Albums, Projects, Light Tables, etc. it was a bit unclear at the beginning where files should be, where masters versus versions are, duplication of resources, etc. In the end, once you read through the guides, it will all make much more sense.

Photo editing is a little weak. I like how versions are managed and originals are never altered and reflect from the user interface. The controls are functional and probably sufficient for most editing and it is always possible to bring your image into an application like Photoshop for additional capabilities. The straiten and cropping tools are crude but functional.

The output options are a bit limited, there are a few templates for both html and flash output; however, it is a limited selection. The access to metadata is very powerful and well organized. Controls for image adjustments are good and easy to reuse. Output profiles / file conversions (i.e. black & white, low resolution jpgs, etc.) are easy to do quickly making sharing photos or generating them for other processes easier.

Though it might be available, I did not see any support for integration with iLife applications such as Keynote. It is worth mentioning that it is not hard to output resources to a folder and to then use them in iLife applications.

One incredibly cool feature is Apple’s implementation of “vaults.” They are a means to store a duplicate of all your original images across one or more external locations. These locations could consist of external hard disks, network shares, etc.

All in all this is a very good and powerful application available to both professional and amateur photographers for only $299.00.