What You ll Need
What You'll NeedThis book assumes that you already own Aperture. While it doesn't require a tremendous knowledge of the program, this book is not a detailed tutorial on starting out. For that, you should read Aperture's Getting Started manual. The techniques and examples presented here will work fine with Aperture's minimum system requirements, though you'll be a lot more comfortable using a machine that meets Apple's recommended requirements, listed here:
For an up-to-date list of system and video requirements, see www.apple.com/aperture/specs.html. At that same address, you'll also find a small program called the Compatibility Checker, which can test your current hardware to determine whether it's capable of running Aperture. If you're considering purchasing the program, or if you're having trouble getting it to run, use the Compatibility Checker for quick feedback on whether your hardware is up to snuff. Performing real-time edits on a large digital image is no small feat. To achieve its real-time capabilities, Aperture relies heavily on the graphics processing unit (GPU) on your computer's video card. Aperture's performance is often affected more by the speed of your GPU than by the speed of your computer's main processor. If you're using an iMac or a Mac laptop, then there's nothing you can do about your GPUyou're stuck with the one that came installed. But if you're using a G5 tower (or any other Aperture-capable Mac that includes expansion slots), then you can very easily swap out your current video card for something faster. You may see a substantial improvement in Aperture's performance. But the GPU is not the only factor that weighs on Aperture's speed. A faster CPU and more RAM can go a long way toward accelerating your Aperture operations. If you're feeling frustrated with Aperture's speed and you currently have CPU and RAM specs that match Apple's recommended hardware, then a video card upgrade may be the best (and cheapest) way to speed up Aperture. The ideal way to find out is to borrow a card from someone and try it out. If you don't know anyone who happens to have a fast video card that you can use for an afternoon, then it might be worth buying one from a vendor with a good return policy. While no specific media is provided with this book, you should be able to follow along just fine with your own images. In most cases, any JPEG file will work fine. However, for the raw discussions in Chapters 5 and 6, you'll want to have a raw-capable camera. Also, one of Aperture's biggest strengths is its ability to help you identify the best images from an entire shoot's worth of photos. So you'll get the most out of this book if you have some larger photographic projects to work on. If you haven't done so already, install Aperture before moving on to Chapter 2. |
