Apple has added several new feature to the latest version of its Aperture photo editing and management software, including easier organization of photos, "painted" photo adjustments, and one-touch preset photo effects.

Aperture 3, which sells for $219 ($109 as an upgrade for existing users) incorporates more than 200 new features for both professional and pro-sumer users. Photos can be organized by faces via face recognition, or by places via the location where each image was snapped. A new view is said to speed up the organization process, including displaying faces that have been detected, but haven't yet been named. In terms of location, these can now be assigned by dragging and dropping images onto a map.
Using the new Brushes tool, effects can be painted directly onto a photo via 15 popular effects like dodge, burn, polarize, and blur. The edges of an image are automatically detected, and presets can be stored for applying specific styles via one click.

Another new function is the ability to create slideshows by combining photos, audio, text, and video. There are six Apple-designed themes, or a user can select his own transitions, background, borders and titles. Slideshows can be exported to iTunes; and images can be published directly to photo-sharing Websites like Facebook and Flickr.

A 30-day trial version of the software is available at www.apple.ca/aperture/trial.

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