Apple Aperture 1.5 Photographers' Guide

401 Pages·2006·21.33 MB·English

by  Mike Cuenca

Apple Aperture 1.5:
® ™
Photographers’
Guide
Mike Cuenca
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ISBN-10: 1-59863-340-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-59863-340-5
eISBN-10: 1-59863-796-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006906899
Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 BU 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Thomson Course Technology PTR, a division of Thomson Learning Inc.
25 Thomson Place ■ Boston, MA 02210 ■ http://www.courseptr.com
For Austin Cuenca and Meredith Quinn,
my son and wife, for being in my life.
About the Author
Mike Cuenca has been taking pictures since he was given a Polaroid Swinger as
a child in the sixties. In the time since, he has taken photographs with everything
from pinhole cameras to digital cameras. He is a writer, editor, photographer, and
filmmaker, and has traveled the world on assignment. He has worked in newspa-
pers, magazines, and as a university photojournalism professor.
Mike was author of the ACE Photoshop 5 Exam Cram and Mastering Adobe
InDesign.
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1
Aperture Basics 1
Launching Aperture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Aperture’s Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Projects Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Control Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Inspectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Switching Window Layouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Maximize Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Maximize Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Working in Full Screen Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Making Adjustments and Other Edits While in the Full
Screen Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Full Screen Mode Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Filmstrip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Changing Aperture’s Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Changing the Image Management Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Changing the Interface Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Changing Output Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Changing Previews Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
vi Apple Aperture 1.5: Photographers’ Guide
Chapter 2
Understanding Aperture’s Directory
Structure and Storage Options 61
Aperture’s New Storage Paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Understanding Aperture’s Library File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Exploring Aperture’s Library File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Understanding Previews and Referenced Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Working with Previews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Working with Referenced Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Projects and Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Albums and Smart Albums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Creating a New, Empty Album . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Creating an Album and Filling It with Selected Images
from the Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Creating an Album from a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Moving Library Containers Around. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Chapter 3
Getting Photos into Aperture 83
Aperture’s File Format Compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
What Is the RAW Image Format? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Importing Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Choosing the Source of Your Images and Where to
Put Them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Import All or Some . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Canceling an Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Stacking Images as You Import Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Automatically Generating Stacks as You Import . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Manually Creating Stacks as You Import. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Choosing the Storage Location for the Masters of the
Imported Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Inputting Group Metadata as You Import. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Naming Files as You Import Them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Importing iPhoto Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Importing External Folders as Aperture Projects or into
Aperture Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Importing External Folders as Individual Aperture Projects. . . 106
Importing External Folders into Existing Aperture Projects. . . 107
Contents vii
Dragging External Files and Folders from the Finder to
the Projects Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Importing Aperture Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 4
Protecting Your Managed Images 111
Backing Up to Vaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Creating Aperture Vaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Updating Aperture Vaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Backing Up to Multiple Aperture Vaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Restoring an Aperture Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Exporting Aperture Project Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 5
Cataloguing Your Images with Metadata
and Keywords 123
What Is Metadata?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Viewing the Metadata on the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Viewing Metadata in the Viewer and Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Viewing Metadata with Image Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Badges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Working with the Metadata Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Opening the Metadata Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Viewing Different Sets of Metadata in the Metadata
Inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Editing Metadata Views and Creating New Metadata
Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Managing Metadata Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Applying Metadata to Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Automatically Filling Out Metadata Text Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Input or Edit Metadata for One Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Input or Edit Metadata for Multiple Images with Batch
Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Saving and Applying Metadata Entries with Metadata
Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
viii Apple Aperture 1.5: Photographers’ Guide
Applying Metadata and Keywords with the Lift & Stamp
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Lifting Metadata and Adjustment Information from
an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Stamping Metadata and Adjustment Information onto
an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Stamping Selected Metadata and Adjustment Information
onto an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Adding to or Replacing the Metadata and Adjustment
Information of an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Stamping Metadata and Adjustment Information onto
Multiple Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Additional Tools for Working with Keywords Only. . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Working with the Keywords HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Managing the Keyword Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Chapter 6
Sorting and Rating Your Images 163
Using Aperture’s Stacks Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Automatically Stacking Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Manually Stacking Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Viewing and Manipulating Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Understanding and Selecting Picks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Adding Ratings to Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Applying and Removing Ratings with Menus, Keyboard
Shortcuts, and Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Applying Ratings and Increasing or Decreasing Ratings
with Buttons and Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Applying Ratings to Individual or Multiple Images . . . . . . . . . 177
Comparing Similar Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Chapter 7
Using Aperture’s Search Tools and Smart
Collections 181
The Basics of Searching in Aperture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Using the Search Field of the Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Searching by Ratings Using the Search Field Pop-up Menu
or Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Searching with the Query HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Contents ix
Creating Collections with Search Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Creating Static Collections from the Query HUD . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating Smart Collections from the Query HUD. . . . . . . . . . 193
Chapter 8
Applying Basic Adjustments to Your
Images 195
Viewing and Using the Adjustments Inspector and
Adjustments HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Adding Adjustments with the Adjustments Inspector. . . . . . . . 197
Removing Adjustments from an Image and the
Adjustments Inspector and HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Turning Adjustments On and Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Resetting Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Showing and Hiding Adjustment Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Using Sliders, Value Fields, and Value Sliders in Value
Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Using the Adjustment Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Straighten. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Crop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Spot & Patch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Applying Red Eye Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Applying One or More Adjustments to One or More
Images Using the Lift & Stamp Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Using Adjustment Presets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 9
Color Correcting Your Images 223
Viewing Color Information and the Histograms in the
Adjustments Inspector and HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Using the Color Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Reading Histograms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Applying the Automatic Adjustments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Auto Exposure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Understanding the Auto Levels Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227