Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Aperture 2: The Adjustments Panel

November 20, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

This tutorial takes you through a few of the customizations and options of the Adjustments panel. Keep in mind, the Adjustments panel has a set of menus, and each tool has its own menu as well.

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Night Time Photograpy

November 17, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Digital Photography

Long shutter speeds are great for ocean and sky shots. Also great for night shots.

(click for larger view)
cold night

Tonight my wonderful husband drove me to a nearby beach to take some long exposure photos. It was very cold and the wind was strong, but I had a great time!

My info:

The RAW photo was edited in Aperture 2, along with some “dodge and burn” - love the dodge & burn in Aperture 2.

Camera Raw Bundle 2.3 released

November 6, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software • iPhoto

Hopefully this version (check software update) will fix all the ongoing problems, such as importing in Aperture.

http://splashofstyle.com/archives/2008/09/25/aperture-2-crashing-when-importing-from-compact-flash-cards/#comment-18483

I will probably hold off for a day or two before installing. Just to get my backups in order. It looks like there could be further issues.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8404756

update 2008-11-8: Installed the update yesterday, and so far so good. No problems w/ importing photos and/or editing.

Aperture 2 - Changing Image Date & Time

October 26, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

UPDATED 2008-11-22:

So, you have a photo in Aperture 2, and you need the date (and/or time) adjusted. It’s actually pretty easy once you know where Aperture has hidden the option! See further below for info on changing multiple images.

From the Metadata Menu

Select the photo, choose Metadata>Adjust Date & Time from the menu.

from-the-metadata-menu.png

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Aperture 2 Projects Import and Export

October 24, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I tried a quick experiment tonight with Aperture 2. I wanted to see how Aperture’s project import and export worked and if photos would be duplicated if the same project was imported.

  1. First, I exported a small project from my Aperture 2 library.
  2. I launched a new test Aperture library and imported the project.
  3. I checked to make sure that it was imported into the Aperture library, and not referenced. All looked good.
  4. Back to my original library, I made some editing adjustments to one photo in the project, then exported the project as a new name.
  5. Launched my test library and imported the 2nd project. It imported as a brand new project, with no notations of duplicated data.
  6. I thought maybe it was due to the different project name, so I went back to my main library, and exported the project as the original name.
  7. In my test library, I imported the 3rd project, and it added it as a new project with (1) in the project name, again with no indication of duplicated files.

So, this means that if you like to work on projects on different computers, you will have to be careful with importing. I was sort of expecting (hoping) Aperture would “merge” the two projects together, updating any editing adjustments or meta data to all the files, instead of creating a new project all together.

Aperture 2 Open Projects in Multiple Tabs

October 21, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

Oh I love this, and I just found it by accident.

I had an open project, and noticed that somehow there was a tab at the top of my browser workspace. hmm, how did that get there?

I Googled “aperture 2 multiple tabs” and found out that you can command + click on a project to open it in a tab.

I am constantly switching from one project to another, and it’s annoying to keep switching from the meta or adjustments to project mode to choose a new project.

This will be so much more efficient to have all the projects I need open at once. Yeah, I suppose I will still have to click the tab to switch the project, but it’s still quicker than switching to projects mode, then scrolling to find my project.

Links:

  1. Inside Aperture: Opening Multiple Projects
  2. Safari Books Online (Preview)

How to Search in Aperture 2

October 15, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

My friend Allison from the Nosillacast podcast emailed me, asking about searching for a specific file name in Aperture 2. I thought it was simple enough because I do it all the time, but when I received her reply asking WHERE is the search, I realized, AH HA! you have to be in a specific view mode to see the search box.

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Aperture 2 Managing Libraries

September 28, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I am eventually going to run out of space on my Macbook Pro as I import the photos from my iPhoto libraries to Aperture 2.

This means I will have to maintain a smaller library on my MBP (containing current projects), along with a larger library on an external hard drive. Looks like it is pretty easy to do.

I figured out that double-clicking on any library will launch Aperture 2, and I love the idea of creating shortcuts to each library on your desktop or dock for easier access.

Here’s what I learned: Links for managing multiple Aperture 2 libraries

Editing Aperture 2 Autofill

September 28, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

To add, delete, and edit the autofill contents in Aperture 2, choose Metadata>Edit Autofill List

Found @ Inside Aperture

I am loving Aperture 2 more and more each day!

Aperture 2 - Inspector on Left or Right

September 27, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

Using Aperture 2 tonight, I was typing a keyword & accidentally hit the “I” key which hid the Inspector.

I don’t know the keyboard shortcuts very well and I somehow must have hit “Shift + I” and the Inspector reappeared but on the opposite right side of my workspace.

At first, I thought okay, let’s give it a try, maybe I will like it on the right side. But after a few minutes, I wanted the inspector back over on the left side. I tried dragging the Inspector, but it didn’t work. Google to the rescue.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/features/100.html

To switch the Inspector on the either side, click “Shift + I”

I really need to find a list of keyboard shortcuts for Aperture 2. Maybe I should try reading the manual, eh? Ha, there is a full pdf list on the Aperture Support page at Apple.

Download the pdf file directly.