The release of Aperture 2.1 with support for editing plug-ins is exciting. They’re working with NIK which means that we’ll have some U-point technology for Aperture. If we end up with Nikon RAW conversion, that will be even better. However, I think it’s more likely that we’ll see support for roundtripping RAW masters out to alternate converters which is what I do anyway.
In the Apple press release was this quote from John Stanmeyer:
Apple Releases Aperture 2.1 with Powerful Image Editing Plug-In Architecture: “%u201CTo date, maybe two percent of my photographs needed to be touched up outside Aperture,%u201D said John Stanmeyer, founding member of the VII Photo Agency and contributing photographer for Time and National Geographic magazines. %u201CNow that I can dodge and burn right within Aperture%u2019s new plug-in, I can%u2019t imagine when I%u2019ll have to open any other application to tone my images.%u201D “
It’s interesting that he feels the vast majority of his images only require the kind of global changes that have been available in Aperture until now. In an Apple video he talked about using the retouch for some local changes, but here is a photographer who is interacting with the real scene and the real light (whether natural or strobe) so that the image is mostly done in camera. Something to aspire to or at least to be inspired by.