Real World Aperture

I realize Mr Long co-authored the Apple Pro Training book on Aperture, but here in "Real World Aperture" he has managed to get across what to me are the more important underlying conceptual aspects of the program. His writing style here is not a dry recounting of some technical facts or procedures, but rather more of the "the idea of this thing is to...", which I find much more helpful. I would have given the book 5 stars, but it is a little old and thus predates some functionality in Aperture 1.5 and above, like using referenced files. I hope that whenever Aperture 3 arrives on the scene Ben Long will write an updated version to this book.

Explains the product, and shooting in RAW, in depth, with many good and clear examples. Answered many questions I had, before reading it. Highly recommended!

I had read part of this book a month ago, and then had an opportunity to hear Ben teach on an Aperture Geek Cruise at the end of May. His writing style is excellent for just about any level of student of this new program. His first chapters try to get you out of the mode of thinking so linearly when working on RAW photos in your Mac. This is not about the hardware or software so much as it is about opening you mind to a new level of creativity where we do things the way WE want to and not by any step by step methodology ingrained in us over the years by using ACR and Photoshop to work up our images. The illustrations and structure of the book will appeal to anyone working in Aperture. THere are nuggets of good stuff to find even if you think you know everything. That is also what I discovered in our classes on the cruise ship - he is so comfortable working with this product that we stopped him numerous times to show us all the little shortcuts and tricks that he uses every day and are included in this volume. I wish I hadn't got sea sick in the middle of his lecture, but that can't be blamed on Ben! A smart guy with the best of the top books on Aperture (I have them all). I'm looking forward to enjoying photography more now and worrying less about the post production hassles by using Aperture in my new shortened workflow.

This book is a follow on to Apple's official Pro Training book co-authored by Ben Long and Orlando Luna. The Pro training book was written fairly early on and while it is the basis for becoming User or Trainer certified, it doesn't cover some of the more obscure capabilities of Aperture in depth. This newer book by Ben Long goes into more detail about the most useful portions of Aperture. In particular, I learned a lot more about the image adjustments available and how to use them. I would highly recommend this book. Of the many books currently available for Aperture users, this is currently the best. That said, Aperture has undergone about 3 updates since this book was published. It has had many new features added and no book, so far, covers all the newer things. This is constant problem with new applications in particular. It would seem to lobby for e-book updates to expensive software training books. Still, a good reference book.