Others say...

"APERTURE 2"
I found this book to be very helpful . It`s a tough read if you are using aperture for the first time . I really don`t know if they could of made it any easer . but over all I really enjoyed and constantly use it as a reference when needed . Tom Lavery

"Good, solid, but very basic intro to Aperture 2"
The book is really a hands-on workbook - you get a disc with sample files (annoyingly compressed, and not simply available through the finder), and are guided through different activities in Aperture, from importing and sorting, rating, through various basic image adjustments, to getting your images out of Aperture as prints, books and web pages. The book covers all major features of the application, and includes a few basic examples of how to use it in conjunction with other Apple software apps (Keynote, Pages, iWeb, etc.), including basic Automator actions.

Step-by-step instructions are very good, and are clearly written. The book is functionally, and logically organized. There is a benefit to using the images provided on disc, since it is easy to confirm that the visual outcome of various actions is the same as in the book. The lessons are, however, very (and I mean VERY) basic, despite the book's back cover rating as "Level: Intermediate."

For people who have NO previous experience with ANY image editing or photo-workflow software, this will be a good first step-by-step intro. But for those who have used the previous version of Aperture, intermediate / advanced users of iPhoto, and even very inexperienced users of Photoshop CS3/ACR or Lightroom (which would likely include most advanced amateurs and pro-photographers), this book will be too basic, in all respects.

I do NOT mind at all the fact that this book has introductory information. This would be a good thing. What I DO mind (and hence my lowered, 3-star rating) is, that despite it being pitched as "intermediate" Apple-certification guide, for those who are above the absolute entry-level skill set, it offers very little practical, usable info.

Often, the "explanations" offered are simple tautologies (i.e., things like: to sort, click on sort button, and to darken, click on darken button, etc.). This is particularly visible in weak and too general "explanations" given for some of the image adjustments controls. If you were wondering, for example, when to adjust Exposure, and when to adjust the Brightness control slider instead, you will find no satisfactory info to clarify the issue here - you will learn that "in the exposure area of the adjustments inspector, drag the exposure slider to the right to increase the exposure of the image" (p 215; duh!) and "Exposure adjustment controls [...] allow you to set the exposure (duh! again), black point, and brightness values in your images"; later you'll learn that "Aperture offers the Brigntess parameter when you want to lighten or darken the image." (p 223; yet another duh!). So what is the difference between the Exposure slider and the Brightness slider, you might wonder? Apparently both do the same thing (actually, they don't - but you'll never know the difference based on this book's info. or find any practical advice on when to use which one). More, similar examples could be found, and they are numerous. The authors insist on explaining in detail what is simple, and often quite obvious, yet frequently leave what is unclear, more complex, or not-so-obvious, unexplained.

I will take issue with another reviewer who found this book's design "beautiful" - the quality of color print is OK here - functional, and perfectly serviceable as illustration of processes and software features, but nothing to write home about. At times, the images are too small, and print quality (rather dark)) not good enough to make more subtle image adjustments visually obvious. If you want a beautiful (although not necessarily useful) software book with attractive graphics, compare this with "Photoshop Lightroom Adventure: Mastering Adobe's next-generation tool for digital photographers" - and it will not be a favorable comparison. Alas, there is no "Aperture 2 Adventure" equivalent. Too bad.

I found the book's design to be rather annoyingly "loose": there are pages when small images (all placed inline, with no text wrap on the left or right side on any pages) with 2.5-3 inch margins, leave an awful amount of blank, awkwardly empty space on numerous pages. E.g., p. 66, has just two, small images and a total of about 60 words on the page (yes, I actually counted them on p. 66 which is quite typical of the book's design). I can think of many, by far more efficient, not to mention attractive, book designs (think: Pogue's Missing Manuals series); this one-column, inline-images-only design looks like it was done on MS Word (although I am sure it was NOT), and seems padded. My guess is, with more effective design, it should have easily been been a 250-page book; at almost double that, it's just wasteful.

This book has the "Apple Certified" status / label. Depending on how you look at it, it may be a good thing, or a bad thing. On the plus side, it is confirmed to be accurate, and it is the required reading for level-one Apple certification; on the other hand, the authors have to carefully toe the Apple party line. You will not find here mentions of bugs, the software's shortcomings, and their possible workarounds (if available), or mentions of competing products that may address some of the shortcomings better. The software is always lavishly praised (it's "revolutionary"), and its deficiencies are gently "de-emphasized," i.e., presented so as to be less noticeable. For example, when discussing Apple's (quite functionally limiting) plug-in architecture, authors say "Aperture also supports an open plug-in architecture, for using specialized third-party software." (306) What they omit here, is that the plug-ins are NOT non-destructive editing processes, and only work by virtue of creating a "baked" copy of the image; the changes made with plug-ins, once confirmed (OK'd and rendered) cannot be undone (other than by deleting the image copy). Technically, the authors mention that fact, but only several pages later (312-13), and without making it clear that this restriction applies to ALL plug-ins, not just the one used as an example.

IN SUMMARY: For complete beginners, this book is a good, clear entry-point to Aperture 2 - probably the best and most comprehensive one on the market at this point (June 2008); for anyone even slightly above the beginning level, other than a very basic (although admittedly comprehensive) review, there is little more to discover here; for those intermediate and advanced users, I would highly recommend trying the 1.25 hour video "Aperture 2: New Features" instead; it's available on lynda.com, where you can get a free trial and watch the whole series, also including several hours of still-useful tutorials on Aperture's previous version (also available as ridiculously overpriced book/disc sets: Aperture 1.1 Essential Training and Aperture 1.5 Beyond the Basics)

"A work book"
This book comes with a DVD with media files to load to a Mac and then follows step by step on hands learning for work flow within Aperture 2.
The book starts with the basics in a Getting Started chapter outlines system requirements, setting up the environment and system preferences, calibrating display while explaining methodology and course structure, as well as outlines chapters that are for importing and organizing, image editing and printing.
I believe it would be quite useful to anyone new or casually familiar and yet serious about using Aperture 2.

"I Like it BUT Missing References"
I just got into this book today and loved the layout and easy to understand directions and lessons. Until I got to the multiple monitor display/calibration part. I was excited about finally finding a clear explanation of the set up of Aperture and Max OS X for multiple displays and color calibration. Color calibration was referenced in the text as in Appendix B. Appendix B has nothing to do with color calibration and and I could not find this subject (one reason I purchased the book) anywhere.

I had to register with PeachPit Press in order to see if there were any updates or "bonus" materials. I spent half an hour surfing around their website, only to be presented with screen after screen of pimping more of their products. What a scam. One Star for PeachPit, 4 Stars for the authors.

"Best Aperture Book Available"
As an Apple Certified Aperture trainer, and well-traveled Aperture instructor, I had high hopes and expectations for this book. And Rich, Ben and Orlando didn't disappoint me.

This is the book that trainers train from and it is much better organized than the original Aperture 1 book. The logical flow from section to section more clearly mirrors the real-world approach one should take when using Aperture to organize a photo library.

The exercises are clearly written and they make sense. There's no mindless repetition and the authors cover all the areas of the program that most photographers would need to know.

You can't ask for anything more than good information, cogently presented, in an easy-to-read and understand manner. The Aperture 2 Pro Training Book delivers on all of this and more. Highly recommended.