Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

442
The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Importing Images
The starting point in the workflow begins with importing images from either a media
card or a disk drive. Having upgraded Aperture’s RAW conversion engine, Apple recommends,
but does not demand, a RAW workflow. Selecting File> Import> Images
brings up the complete Import window where you can select the source and the destination
project. The window displays all the thumbnails from the selected card or folder.
At this point, very usefully, you can choose which images or groups of images you want
to bring into the Library. Alternatively, you can leave the images in their existing location
if they are already on disk. Import takes place in the background, but you can begin
work on the image even before the process has finished.
Organizing with Stacks
Aperture is particularly useful if you need to sort through dozens of similar shots, such
as those taken in burst mode. It has several tools for doing this, of which Stacks is one.
You can use it manually, taking images from anywhere in the Library and ranking them
alongside a “pick” image, beneath which the stack can be made to collapse. However,
its most effective mode is Auto-Stack, which allows you to specify a time interval
between shutter clicks. Moving the slider control from the off-position through fractional
increments up to one second, dramatically reduces the number of thumbnails
displayed. Stacks is also indispensable for people who bracket their exposures. It reduces
screen clutter significantly, but the hidden photos can be accessed instantly by clicking
on the pick image.
Compare Mode
Following how photographers actually work, Aperture’s developers provide an essential
Compare mode to help you decide between pairs of images without stacking them. To
use it, select an image and press Return. This places your chosen picture on the left side
of the viewer, with a green border to distinguish it as the source image. Beside it,
Aperture places the next image in your project, which is often from the same burst if
you shoot in burst mode. To compare the two, use the Loupe or Zoom features, select
one of the images, reject the other, and navigate to a third to continue making comparisons.
When you finally have the one you want, give it the top star rating and it will
appear at the top of the stack in Stack mode.
The Light Table Tool
A free-form method of examining, grouping, and comparing images, Light Table has
features no physical light table ever had. It is expandable (just nudge the edge with an
image to make it bigger), can extend way beyond the viewing window, is scrollable in
both directions, and the images are all resizable to give you ideas about future layouts.
You can create a new Light Table at any time, save it in the Projects panel, and populate
it by dragging images from the browser. Sorting tools allow you to expand groups of