The new plugin is one of the first to be available from a third-party developer.
Apple Aperture allows photographers to import, manage and enhance their photos within a simple, integrated workflow. When Apple released version 2.1 in March, many were surprised by its abiity to work with plugins, both those from Apple and from third-party developers using a new SDK. At the time Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing stated that, "Now, thanks to our open plugin architecture, users can access an entire industry's worth of imaging expertise without ever leaving Aperture."

The arrival of dvGarage's dpMatte plugin marks an important step in that evolution, since it allows photographers to use traditional greenscreen techniques to shoot subjects and later add the background of their choice, freeing them from the complexities of masking within an application like Photoshop. dpMatte makes compositing possible within Aperture thanks to a range of tools that provide foreground image scaling and placement, edge color and foreground tint adjustment, and background blurring.

dpMatte can be purchased on the dvGarage site for $49.