Learn Aperture Without One to One
When Apple changed its One to One policy, I had no idea it would eventually affect me personally. As a consumer who recently upgraded to a high-end digital camera, I am also looking to upgrade my digital photo editing and organizing software.
Naturally, as a contributor to this blog, my first thought was to upgrade from iPhoto to Aperture. The problem is, where do I turn to learn how to use all of Aperture’s features? The One to One program would be perfect for me, but that’s no longer an option unless I purchase a new computer from Apple.
For those of you who may have forgotten, the old One to One program cost $99 and included weekly one hour (read: one academic hour, which actually means 50 minutes) sessions for an entire year. Customers could learn about a wide variety of topics, from how to use a Mac, to uploading photos to MobileMe, to editing images in Aperture.
In order to provide an alternative for those like me who’ve been hung out to dry, I’ve done my best gathering resources for people who like a little guidance when learning new software. Fortunately, Aperture is designed so that newcomers can easily figure out how to import photos from a memory card and organize them into projects, but anything more advanced may require additional patience and resources.
- Apple tutorials podcast
- Quick Tips with Richard Harrington podcast
- Apple’s Aperture forum
- Apple’s Exploring Aperture book
- Amazon’s Aperture 4+ star books
- Retail workshops – Don’t expect much unless you live close to a major store. Those in Northern California have two options: San Francisco and Corte Madera.
Let us know about any other good resources you’ve come across for learning Aperture.
Tweet This (15)
Steve Martin on August 25th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I have found the videos at Lynda.com to be an invaluable resource when trying to ferret out the gems hidden inside Aperture. It’s worth a yearly subscription, however, it’s really cheap tutoring if you opt for only a month!
Tanja Helms on August 25th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I found the book ‘Aperture 2′ by Ben Long, Richard Harrington, & Orlando Luna helpful to learning Aperture. The lessons are easy to follow and will give you a good overall understanding of Aperture. I went through the book and then took the exam from Apple and now I am an Apple Certified Pro, Aperture 2, Level 1. I also printed (not cheap) the manual from the pdf file and went through that, page by page. I am not a professional, I just learned this for my own good. My photo library is over 350GB with over 100,000 photos.
Deon on August 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Damn I thought just having 10,000 pictures was a lot to me.
Tracy Young on August 25th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Lynda.com is fantastic.
O’Reilley Safari bookshelf is another option.
They have videos, too.
Guzardo on August 26th, 2009 at 3:10 am
I’ve been a user of Lynda.com for several years. I let my subscription lapse a few months back, but now that One to One is no longer available to me, I’ll be renewing it for another year.
Their videos are very helpful, and are organized in such a way that you can just watch the chapters that you need to get started, or can watch the entire series. Plus if you ever need a refresher on something, you pick and choose which videos you want to see, regardless of the order they’re in.
Erik Holmberg on August 26th, 2009 at 9:33 am
The Aperture tutorials, straight from Apple’s website worked well for me. Download Aperture trial, open it and this web page (http://www.apple.com/aperture/tutorials/) side-by-side, and give it a try.
I found Aperture to be much more intuitive than Adobe Lightroom. In fact, these tutorials convinced me to purchase Aperture in one week, after having used Lightroom for a few months.
Allyn on August 26th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Sara France, a wedding photography out of San Diego, CA and does a lot of work for Apples Aperture, has recently come out with an Aperture Training DVD. You can find it here: http://www.photographymentor.com/viewPage.php?ID=Store at the bottom of the page.
The DVD is like a one-on-one training session with Sara herself. Quality work.
shutterstation on September 1st, 2009 at 8:26 am
I use Aperture extensively and have been writing articles and have done a few videos on how I use it, with a few tips at my site: http://shutterstation.com.