If Alien Skin develops plugins for Aperture or Lightroom, then I may fully commit to a self contained RAW/DAM environment. However, as things stand, I bring a lot of images into Photoshop in order to apply color film simulations in Alien Skin Exposure. I tried using Color Efex in Aperture and the color film simulations in Color Efex just don't so it for me. The Exposure simulations by comparison take a long time, even on a quad Mac Pro with plenty of RAM, but they're worth waiting for IMO. Since I'm bringing files into CS3 anyway, it makes sense to use a lightweight RAW processor, and RD excels in that aspect.
If anyone experienced at using Aperture is willing to try a file of mine, I'd be very interested in seeing the results. I've uploaded a D700 NEF along with my version processed in Raw Developer. Mine lost a touch of detail because of a subsequent red/cyan CA removal step in CS3, but it is still noticeably more detailed than anything I've been able to get out of an Aperture workflow.
I used the Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AIS at f/11 ISO 200, and some of the foliage is blurred due to windy conditions and a slow shutter speed. Still, there's enough detail for these purposes. I'm interested to see whether someone who knows their way around Aperture can get the same kind of apparent detail using that program that I'm getting in Raw Developer. I don't doubt that someone more experienced with RD could get more with that app also.
The NEF and my version (saved as 8-bit TIFF) are
here.
Regards,
Amin