From the 2008 programme
Even the best images need a little help, which is why Aperture includes a high-end set of editing tools. Aperture 2 adds a number of great new tools to the mix, including a full-fledged retouch and clone tool, as well as new color and vignetting tools. We'll cover each and every one of Aperture's editing and adjustment functions and talk about the program's integration with Photoshop and other high-end image editing programs.
With the new tools in Aperture 2 it's possible to perform all your image editing in the same program as your image storage, and Aperture's new editing plug-in interface will take that even further. We'll show you how to make the most of that.
What it still teaches
The new retouch and clone tool, with the color and vignette controls, was the course's evidence that a photographer could stay in one application from import to delivery. Underneath sat the bet that made Aperture different: edits stored as instructions, with the original raw never touched.
Non-destructive editing is now the default everywhere, so it's easy to forget it was once a selling point. What has changed is the reach of the edits. Masks that took careful brushing can be generated from a subject or sky selection in one click, and modern noise reduction rescues files that would have been thrown away in 2008.
The programme's other point still stands: know when to hand off. Aperture sent files to Photoshop for heavy work and took the edited version back into the library. Every catalog-based editor has that round trip today, and the discipline hasn't changed. Do global corrections in the raw editor, send out only the frames that need pixel-level work, and keep the edited file next to its original so the library still tells the whole story.