NEWS: Aperture 2 or now Aperture 2.1.1 at the Beijing Olympics, an interesting article by David Schloss from the AUN...Photoshop, Bridge, Aperture...the race is on…or is it won already?

I picked up this post from the Aperture Users Network (AUN) an interesting observation by David Schloss...
In his article David is absolutely right, many Photographers dont have the time, (try to make time) or could not be bothered to change. I know many such cases...but I know also many others who are willing to listening and try very hard to make the switch from Photoshop to Aperture, in the end it is for their own benefit. I had similar reports from India where Photographers like to make the change but find it difficult to switch from their existing workflow, the lack of “HANDS ON” a common problem...but how can we solve this?
Websites like
AUN (http://www.apertureprofessional.com/) and O’Reily (http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/aperture/certainly) can help you a lot, or the Tutorials from the Apple Aperture site, (http://www.apple.com/aperture/tutorials/) events like the Olympic Games in Beijing are certainly a great help for all our News/Sports Photographers, and gauging from the sheer scale Apple has put up at the Beijing Olympics there is no doubt in my mind on the SOLID COMMITMENT for the Pro and Amateur Photographer by Apple.


KITESURFING
© Gunther Deichmann - Kite surfing action Philippines &
as David Schloss put it so nice...
"How to shoot at 10-frames-per-second and edit at 12-frames-per-hour."

Local and regional Retail Apple/Mac shops can contribute in hosting some Aperture events, introducing Aperture 2 at least to a basic level, I know some of these event have been organized in the US and we have done quiet a few in the Philippines with the support of the Power Mac Center in Manila, for Training schedules go to: http://www.powermaccenter.com/
My personal opinion and closing words...get familiar with one software instead messing around with many different ones. You find Aperture is not that difficult to learn or to digest, it might be a bit strange in the beginning (no need to SAVE anything) but as time goes by you going to love it...like I do. Plus you have all the integration on the Mac, perfect for events like the Olympic Games.

But now to Beijing...
Beijing Olympics and the Photoshop Paradox
( posted by David Schloss on Yesterday, 08:37 AM )

The AUN's been on the scene at the Olympics for nearly two weeks, working with Apple in the Main Press Center helping to provide support for the one-thousand-plus journalists who have descended on Beijing to cover the world's largest sporting event. While I've just arrived in country to replace someone who has been here for weeks, I've already noticed examples of what I like to call the Photoshop Paradox or "How to shoot at 10-frames-per-second and edit at 12-frames-per-hour."
Apple's got a rather large amount of support available in the MPC, (we're in the lower level, relatively near the McDonalds) with fifty MacPro desktop systems set up connected to 30-inch Cinema Displays. Members of the media are welcome to come and hook up to them and work on Aperture or any of a number of other programs on the machines, and the "broadband" connections mean that photographers can go from shooting to submission in no time.
That is, unless they are still using Photoshop as their main image management tool. I'm not talking about Bridge, I've seen a few photographers who are using various iterations of that image preview and editing tool, but for some reason many of the shooters—at least many of those who bring their own laptops in to work on their images—still have a workflow whereby they open up dozens of images at a time in Photoshop, and use that interface as the way to make their image selection...
read the complete story & more @
http://www.apertureprofessional.com/showthread.php?t=18615

Tip: iLife including Aperture 2 using the Themes from iDVD plus a little help from Snapz Pro X…of course the ever so cool GarageBand with iMovie, creating simple 15 and 30 second Video clips on the fly…or just having fun on the Mac

Feel like experimenting? Taken advantage of the iDVD Themes in a different way, this is a simple work-around very basic but fun and if you use Snapz Pro X for your screenshots then why don’t you try the Movie capture option, this option can give you some very cool results, it is fast and easy to use.
I only used a couple of Themes but in iDVD you have so many to choose from…try experimenting and you find there are a lot of cool things you can do. The Titles are: The Commercial - Our Marine Life - Tropical destination
Please note: You might have to refresh your Browser to see the new Video Clips. Click the link or the image below and View the three (3) 15 and 30 sec. Clips., or go to Music/Video Podcast

Photoshop, Photography, Gunther Deichmann
© Gunther Deichmann - Composite, Mumbai India April 2008

How to do it…open iDVD choose a Theme go to your Media Browser and here you have your Aperture 2 library.
Pick a couple of images drop them into your iDVD Theme and you almost there, if you using Snapz Pro X choose the Movie option and record your iDVD theme.
Make sure you have the Drop Boxes enabled otherwise they become part of your recording.
The rest is pretty much automatic, once Snapz Pro X has finished the recording (depends on the lengths of the clip) it prepared also a QT file for you, I usually save them on my desktop easy to find later. (This file can be from 50MB plus in size)
The only thing left to do is drag the Movie clip into iMovie open your Media Browser for the Music and pick anything you have created on to the timeline.
Fine-tune and make your soundtrack fit, add a fade in and fade out, or what ever you like (lots to choose from) now you can export everything to many different file formats.
You have different options for exporting your Movie file, there is also Share available. If you have Quick Time Pro even better there you have all the conversions you ever going to need, plus you can do some editing too, but you have to have QT Pro.
How long does this take…not very long at all, I guess the hardest part is the Music, which I created from scratch in GarageBand, but since I had already a good selection of soundtracks the whole operation took only one hour for all three clips.
Of course you can create more than one recording/clip with Snaps Pro X and join them together later in iMovie creating a short presentation or demo, great for the web.
PS. I kept these files very small for easy viewing on the web, however you can leave them in their original size that is good enough for your desktop and TV.
GD