Apple have upgraded Aperture to version 2.1

This is a quick update after the recent launch of version 2.0 and not only includes a number of bug fixes and performance updates but also adds a new plugin architecture. To demonstrate this, a dodge and burn tool has been included.

If you already have Aperture 2 installed, it is well worth hitting the ‘Software update’ button for this!

Adobe announce Lightroom 2

Hot on the heels of Aperture 2, Adobe have made the Beta version of Lightroom 2 available. This worked well for Lightroom 1 as the feedback from users prior to launch really helped focus the development based on feedback from ‘real’ users. Initially, the Library module has been redesigned and includes most of the features you can find in Aperture such as multiple monitor support.

I downloaded the demo about 2 minutes after it was released and not being one for impulse decisions, about 2 minutes later I decided that I will move my workflow from Lightroom to Aperture! Within those 2 minutes I discovered that the performance, tools, integration and overall feature set will suit me more. Lightroom is a great application and I have nothing but respect for it but when I used Aperture to very quickly add images to my gallery then access the photos from Pages, I realised I had already saved a lot of time compared to the equivalent Adobe workflow. A few more tests along these lines and I was confident that Aperture is the way forward!

When I have finished ruining the sample photos, I am going to look at importing my 8,000 images as referenced files. I plan to keep all the original images on my external drive and the library file on my Macbook Pro. This gives the benefit of being able to access the library when travelling but also saves HDD space which is starting to get quite low! When I originally moved to Lightroom, I lost all the keywording I had done on the PC but luckily I manage the files in a logical way which helps me find the images I need. I know there are a lot of rubbish images in my library so I may take this opportunity to tidy things up a bit. From there I will decide if I am going to keyword everything again. At some stage in the near future, Aidy and I are going to design a keyword tree for the images on Encaptured. I will recreate this tree in Aperture and ensure that I use it as I go so that when I get round to uploading images, everything is cohesive.

I’ll report on my progress as I get round to each part of the transition as I am sure there will be other users out there that may make the same move. With any luck, my experiences will provide some guidance!

You can use Monolingual to remove non-Intel architectures for your installed applications (even if some of the applications are PowerPC-only; Monolingual is smart enough not to remove PPC forks if those are the only ones in the universal binary). However, you should not strip the System frameworks if you want to use Rosetta.

I have no idea how much space this could save though. For some reason the main OS X Library directory is huge so I need to find out more ways to regain some space. Got any ideas?

My task for today was moving all of my 250GB of files from my old Windows backup onto a new HDD so that I could reformat the old drive for the MAC. Sounds easy but each time I tried to do the 16 hour Firewire->USB2 transfer, it would stop with an error. I have now manually copied across the files and folders but to ensure nothing was lost I needed to find a way of comparing the two directories.

Filemerge – Small app… big help

I was very lucky to be hunting around the computer and come across this great application that I think was installed with the Apple Xcode tools. It very easily allows you to compare two text documents and luckily…even two directories. What a gem! You get two lists that are colour coded showing the differences.

Icing on the cake

I found another great addition use for this tool, it can actually merge the two directories or files together. This very simple tool has a lot of power which is why I have made a note here for myself in he future!

On this project page you can learn about the script, download it and find instructions for setup and use.

Check out the latest release and details of the software on the Adobe Labs Website.

The real benefit for me came in the added bonus side effect of the tool overcoming an issue with the ATI X800 graphics card installed in my system. By reading the ‘Readme’ file after installation (something I never do but may start now) I discovered that it is possible to use flags on the application. By altering the application to start with a /L flag, the tool will load up the default profile in stealth. This shortcut could then be placed into the startup folder to be run when logging in to Windows.

I was keen to try this because I have been having a long term problem with the ATI drivers. My calibration tool has a profile loader that will load the profile when the computer starts but the ATI drivers would then override the proper profile with something akin to nothing! I discovered a year ago that I had to remove the profile loader from startup, wait for Windows to load then use the loader. All would be well with the LUT (Lookup table) and I could continue as normal… this was a complete pain though and now that this has been solved on my PC, I am quite pleased!!

• From the M$ site, the tool has the following features;
• • Install and uninstall ICC color profiles
  • Inspect, rename, and compare two different color profiles
  • View a 3D graphics plot of color profile color gamuts
  • Associate color profiles with devices such as printers, monitors, and scanners
  • Apply custom color gamut adjustments to one or more displays on the fly
  • Set up display calibration reminders at intervals you specify

Goto the plugin download page here.