I'm certainly impressed - the selection isn't quite as nice as in Lightroom (where you can have different shaped selections) but it IS good, and it seems to work really fast an stable in Aperture.
Dammit - more expense!
Jono,
My initial impressions of Viveza were good, and after using it through PS, and now in Aperture, those impressions remain. While it does not have the shape control things you mention in LR (have not worked with LR myself, so I cannot say for sure), it does have the ability to lay in as many control points a you want, each handling very tiny through very large changes. I have started to try some larger area changes to things, and then coming back with localized "negative" changes for specific corrections. Really works quite nicely.
My only wish, and this may be beyond what the software can do, would be the ability to make changes to the image that Viveza Version is based upon, and have them reflected, rather than having to create new Versions each time. In other words, if I tweaked a file with normal adjustments, then did more adjustments in Viveza, I cannot go back to the original to adjust things again and have those work with the Viveza Version without having to redo the Viveza version. Just takes a bit more planning for adjustments before going to Viveza. This is bit different in PS, as the Viveza layer is separate, and you can make adjustments to the Background layer, and just have the Viveza layer over that.
None of this is really a showstopper for me. Just wishing for more true non-destructive changes that could still be adjusted, rather than creating a new 16-bit PSD Version every time. As I say, it really just comes down to a bit more more planning, or experimenting and tossing out the ones you do not want to avoid bloating the Library with image files. I very much like the Nik Color EFEX Pro 3.0, Dfine 2.0 and Sharpener Pro 2.0 that I use through PS. In fact, the Dfine 2.0 noise reduction tool is really good, and I have started to use it more than Noise Ninja, my past favorite, with very nice results. I have purposely kept my G5 running 10.4.11, just so I could use Sharpener Pro, as that plug-in has not been updated to work in Leopard yet without some real issue (running PS in Rosetta, for example). It delivers outstanding sharpening for display and printing. If those tools (Dfine and Sharpener) could be added as Aperture plug-ins, it would pretty much eliminate much need for PS, in my workflow.
Sorry to prattle on, as the topic was Viveza and Aperture. I think it a great tool and nice addition for Aperture. The Dodge and Burn tool that Apple released is also quite good and fairly robust, but Viveza seems much easier to use, and offers a different kind of control. If only both could be used on the same file interchangeably, rather than each creating its own PSD file.
LJ
