Apple has just issued a press release announcing Aperture 2.1. The updated software designed to assist professional photographers now introduces an open plug-in architecture aiding users to employ third-party imaging software right from within the program. Apperture 2.1 also includes the in-house-developed plug-in, Dodge & Burn, which adds brush-based tools for dodge (lighten), burn (darken), contrast, saturation, sharpen and blur.

Apple has also confirmed today that more third-party software will be available for integration with Aperture, delivering image editing plug-ins for "localized editing, filters and effects, noise analysis and reduction, fisheye lens correction" and others. As of today, owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2.1 for free.

"The image quality in Aperture 2 has won over the most demanding photographers," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "Now, thanks to our open plug-in architecture, users can access an entire industry's worth of imaging expertise without ever leaving Aperture."

"To date, maybe two percent of my photographs needed to be touched up outside Aperture," said John Stanmeyer, founding member of the VII Photo Agency and contributing photographer for Time and National Geographic magazines. "Now that I can dodge and burn right within Aperture's new plug-in, I can't imagine when I'll have to open any other application to tone my images."

Applying specialized imaging operations to either TIFF or RAW images is as easy as clicking on one or more images within Aperture and then choosing a plug-in from a menu of installed plug-ins. The Cupertino-based company has also confirmed in today's press release that it is "working closely" with a number of "key" developers to bring more requested plug-ins. Nik Software's Viveza, PictureCode's Noise Ninja, The Tiffen Company's Dfx plug-in, are just a few examples.

Aperture 2.1 is available immediately as a free software update to current Aperture 2.0 users.

Also, check out this guided tour of Aperture.