Apple has put out a call to professional photographers, seeking help with its RAW imaging program Aperture. According to Rob Galbraith, Apple has requested that professionals submit RAW image files for testing and improving the Aperture program. Apple said "In a ongoing effort to improve and refine the handling of RAW images in the Mac OS, Apple is interested in working with a broad range of sample images from professional photographers. If you have images that you feel exemplify particular aspects of RAW handling that require improvement, you can submit these to Apple for testing and evaluation purposes. Please be assured that any image content you send us will be used for internal testing purposes only. None of these images will be distributed to the public, used in any marketing capacity whatsoever, or included in public demos. They will be used exclusively to test and evaluate RAW image processing, with the goal of delivering improved RAW support for your camera in the future."

In order to submit RAW files, each photographer must provide Apple with the original, unmodified RAW image, specifying the camera model used to create it; a 16-bit TIFF file of the image created in Aperture using all default settings; a 16-bit TIFF file of the image created using the RAW conversion program of the photographer's choice, also using all default settings; any notes or commentary the photographer wishes to provide Apple with regarding strengths and weaknesses in Aperture, as well as information about the camera, computer, and software used to create the images.

All files are to be placed together in a single folder and uploaded via FTP to FTP site "privftp.apple.com," with username "proappcustomer" and password "media." Photographers should send an email to aperturefeedback@group.apple.com to notify the company that the files have been sent to the write-only FTP site.