newbie Aperture 1.5/Elements question

[mctrees02]

So I have the good fortune of having bought Aperture 1.5 (through a reseller at discount...not Apple) last week along with my first Apple computer (iMac). I haven't had a chance to really dig into it yet...but was wondering what are the strong points of Aperture. I know elements has some editing options (background adjustments are my main concern) and from what I can determine...those options aren't in Aperture 1.5??? Unfortunately, it looks like Apple has replaced all fo the 1.5 features with the 2.0 features on their site so I can't go through the old videos.

Long and short...I know Aperture can do an adequate job for an amateur photographer wanting to do extensive touchup work. However, from what I'm reading on 2.0...one of the new features it has is the "retouch" brush that allows me to remove minor things that pop in photos. Since I have 1.5...should I go ahead and buy Elements 4.0??? Also could wait for Elements 6 next month.

Sorry for the ramble...thanks for the help!

 

[ChrisA]

So I have the good fortune of having bought Aperture 1.5 (through a reseller at discount...not Apple) last week along with my first Apple computer (iMac). I haven't had a chance to really dig into it yet...but was wondering what are the strong points of Aperture. I know elements has some editing options (background adjustments are my main concern) and from what I can determine...those options aren't in Aperture 1.5??? Unfortunately, it looks like Apple has replaced all fo the 1.5 features with the 2.0 features on their site so I can't go through the old videos.

Long and short...I know Aperture can do an adequate job for an amateur photographer wanting to do extensive touchup work. However, from what I'm reading on 2.0...one of the new features it has is the "retouch" brush that allows me to remove minor things that pop in photos. Since I have 1.5...should I go ahead and buy Elements 4.0??? Also could wait for Elements 6 next month.

Sorry for the ramble...thanks for the help!

Aperture (both versions 1.5 and 2.0) is NOT intended for editing photos. It is for sorting and cataloging them and for making gross level adjustments to the color nd exposure and crops. But it is NOT for going inside and making changes. OK it has some limited ability to do this now. But it is very limited. Aperture does not even have the concept of layers, maskes or selection. Those are basic to any image editor. I'm not knocking Aperture. It just is not even intended to compete with Photoshop CS3 or even with Elements 4.0 You need both.

I think the part where you said "Aperture can do an adequate job for an amateur photographer wanting to do extensive touchup work" is just plain wrong. Maybe if you replace "extensive" with "very minor".

 

[OreoCookie]

ChrisA nails it: Aperture (and Lightroom) are not image editors, you can make basic editing with them so you can decide whether you want to use a picture or not. If you decide to use it, you can use an external photo editor (such as PhotoShop) to do more serious retouching.

 

[mctrees02]

Yeah I think the wording "extensive touch up work" was a bit farfetched. After finally getting to use Aperture for about an hour last night...I noticed I could do color adjustments but beyond that it was very limited.

Now I have to decide between getting Elements 4 now or waiting for Elements 6. I need to do some editing on a few photos pretty soon so I might be forced to buy Elements 4 so that I have something now. Thanks again!