Apple improves editing, GPS with Aperture 3.0.3

Apple has released a third update to its Aperture software for editing and cataloging photos, with improvements to stability and the chromatic aberration correction tool among dozens of changes.

Aperture 3 added the ability to correct chromatic aberration--a color problem caused by camera lenses--and Apple believes version 3.0.3 should give better results with less effort.

Another change concerns geotagging. Aperture lets you assign photo locations to photos by positioning them along a GPS track log it displays on a map; a hovering text box shows the time difference between when the photo was taken and the position of the GPS track on which you're holding it. With Aperture 3.0.3, the text box shows that difference in hours, minutes, and seconds, rather than just hours and minutes.

That's useful, too. I found, and I sometimes had to drag back and forth along the GPS track to position photos correctly. And although stability problems dramatically declined with 3.0.1 and 3.0.2, I did still suffer some other crashes.

Apple also fixed a variety of issues with the Faces module for face recognition, editing, printing, library management, slideshows, and metadata handling. The full list of changes from the Aperture 3.0.3 release notes are as follows:

Adjustments
• Addresses stability when using the Retouch brush on large images.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Retouch adjustments to render incorrectly when applied using Lift & Stamp on large images.
• User-defined Raw Fine Tuning presets are now correctly applied to images when you choose "Save as Camera Default."
• Deleting a user-defined Raw Fine Tuning preset set as Camera Default now reverts the setting to Apple.
• Pressing the M key now correctly toggles Show Master in dual displays configurations when Viewer is on the second display.
• Fixes an issue that could cause adjustments applied to images already placed within books and light tables to be displayed incorrectly.
• Addresses issues related to Chromatic Aberration adjustment quality.
• Addresses an issue that could cause custom keyboard shortcuts for user-defined adjustment presets to not work.

Faces
• Faces snapshots now reflect updated rotation of images.
• Addresses an issue with the correct display and spacing of names on Faces snapshots.
• Addresses performance when loading the Faces view.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Face rectangles to draw incorrectly when master images are offline.
• Fixes an issue preventing Face tiles with adjustments from being updated after merging libraries.
• In Show Unnamed Faces, the next name in the filmstrip is now correctly selected after entering or confirming the previous face.
• The Search field in the Faces corkboard now retains its settings.
• Addresses an issue causing Faces to be incorrectly positioned on photos exported to Facebook.
• Faces snapshots now update correctly when you manually remove detected faces from Aperture that have been named.
• Fixes an issue with correctly positioning detected faces in RAW+JPEG pairs.

Printing
• Paper size setting is now retained after canceling the print dialog.
• Switching printers in the Print window now correctly updates to the default paper size for the target printer.
• Fixes an issue that prevented print presets from retaining the target printer.
• Addresses an issue that could cause Aperture to quit unexpectedly when using Undo after changing paper size in the Print dialog.

Library
• Duplicated Smart Albums now retain the correct scope for searches.
• Addresses an issue that prevented iPhoto Libraries with a tilde [~] in the name to be imported correctly.
• Improved reliability of repairing and rebuilding of the library database.
• Fixes an issue that prevented Aperture from reporting minor database inconsistencies when detected.
• Addresses an issue with thumbnail generation on referenced images after they are reconnected.
• Fixes an issue that could cause slow performance and a spinning wait cursor when updating Vaults.
• Addresses an issue that could slow down reconnecting referenced files.
• Addresses an issue that could affect performance when importing projects.
• Improves database reliability if renaming masters via Batch Change is unexpectedly interrupted by a hard drive failure or power loss.

Slideshows
• Fixes an issue that caused slideshow titles to default to Custom Text when videos contained with the slideshow were trimmed.
• Fixes an issue that prevented the Space Bar and S key from working correctly when typing into Slideshow text boxes with Caps Lock enabled.
• Addresses an issue that could cause slow performance when adjusting the duration of multiple images in a slideshow.
• Addresses an issue that could prevent secondary audio tracks from playing back in exported slideshows created on Mac OS X v10.5.8 Leopard.

Places
• Imported GPS track logs now display time accuracy in hours, minutes, and seconds.
• GPS data included in XMP sidecar files with imported photos is now correctly reverse-geocoded in Places.
• Metadata
• Query HUD now correctly handles dates entered into the Date search field.
• Search field on Keywords HUD now performs a "contains" search to find matching keywords.
• Fixes an issue with auto-complete in the Keyword Controls search field.

General
• Now correctly retains position of Full Screen Filmstrip after relaunch.
• Images selected using the Select All command are now batch processed in the correct order.
• Addresses an issue that could cause watermarks to be displayed incorrectly in the Export Presets window.
• Addresses an issue that could cause Batch Change to enter data from a previously-selected preset when "None" was selected.
• Fixes an issue that caused video clips to flicker momentarily in the Viewer when entering and exiting Full Screen view.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Aperture to stop responding if you attempt to open the Import window while a previous import is being completed.
• Fixes an issue that could cause the Aperture toolbar to be temporarily grayed out after importing an iPhoto Library.