Today is a day that Apple-centric photographers have been waiting for a long time. After almost 2 years from the release of Aperture 2, this morning Apple announced the latest version of their professional imaging and workflow application, Aperture 3. Some quick Aperture 3 highlights:

  • Faces - this face detection software that debuted with iPhoto '09 has been a huge hit.
  • Places - Super neat feature that maps the geographical location of your photographs based in the GPS information from your camera. This also debuted with iPhoto '09.
  • Non-destructive brushes - a much needed feature that will allow you to do more retouching in Aperture, reducing the need for an external editor like Photoshop.
  • Adjustment presets - save your favorite adjustments into a 1-click preset.
  • Full screen browser
  • Advanced slideshows - now includes an audio timeline and the ability to drop videos into your slideshow.
  • 64 bit - Finally. Aperture now takes advantage of Snow Leopard's 64 bit processing.

We're super excited about these new, and long-waited for, features. We'll let you know what we think once we've had a chance to get our paws on it! For a full breakdown of the 200 + features and a free-trial download link, click here. Have questions about Aperture? Have you already been playing with it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!