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

Aperture 2 Projects Import and Export

October 24, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • 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.

Happy Bokeh Wednesday

October 22, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Flickr

Happy Bokeh Wednesday (HBW)

Time goes by so fast....

From wikipedia:

Bokeh is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

Aperture 2 Open Projects in Multiple Tabs

October 21, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • 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)

AOL is a Cruel Joke

October 18, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography

haha, not such a funny joke, but AOL is so f@#*$ stupid!!!

I haven’t chatted regularly in years, but I decided to start chatting w/ one of my online buddies and dug out an old AOL AIM log in and password. I downloaded Adium and logged into my AIM account.

I figured I better head over to AIM.com to check settings and make sure everything was valid and up to date; my email address was incorrect, so I went through the menus to change it.

I get an email at my new email address, and the text instructs me to:

“Please reply to this email and type ‘OK’ within 72 hours to confirm your email address change to xxxxx@gmail.com from xxxxx@xxxx.com. It is really important that you confirm your new e-mail address.”

So, I reply with the word “OK” and silly AOL returns my email:

“Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 553 553 Requested action not taken: mailbox name not allowed (state 18).”

What?

I tried no less than three times to reply, and I received the same delivery failure message. The problem appears to be the extra long email address that AOL has set up for me to reply to.

I also tried to change my email address again in my AOL account settings, and it won’t allow me because “There is already a pending change. We cannot change your E-mail Address at this time.” Perfect.

So, since the original email I used to set up the account is inactive, I set up a forward in my web account’s cpanel to “forward” all mail to my gmail account. It’s absolutely crazy how messed up AOL is.

How to Fix Camera Hot Pixels

October 16, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography

Found this post tonight on the Canon Digital Photography forums - scroll down to post #742.

Putting the camera in sensor cleaning mode (mirror lock) for a few minutes appears to jog the pixel.

I have noticed stuck/hot pixels on my photos when I use an extremely slow shutter speed, other than that, it’s really not a problem. But you never know when it might come up, so I am blogging this tip for the future.

How to Search in Aperture 2

October 15, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • 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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How To Be More Popular on Flickr

October 4, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Flickr

A few weeks ago, I received an email from another Flickr member asking “how do you get SO many people to comment on your work? how do you manage to not get it lost among the zillions of photos here?”

Ha! If I had the true answer to popularity on Flickr!! Seriously, I don’t consider myself to be one of the most popular photographers on Flickr, and I am not claiming to be an expert. But I guess I do alright.

This article is a snapshot of my journey and how I came to my place in the Flickr community today. It’s just a few things I have noticed along the way.

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Aperture 2 Managing Libraries

September 28, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • 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

Fantastic Bird Photography Website

September 27, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Podcasting

I found an inspiring bird photography web site the other day. It was referenced on a recent TWiP podcast show, which also included an interview with Arthur Morris.

BirdPhotograhers.net is almost too good. The photos are incredible, and there is so much to learn about nature photography.

I am still a beginner when it comes to birding and bird photography; I don’t know if I will ever be as wonderful as some of the photographers on BirdPhotograhers.net but it’s fun to keep trying.

White Throated Sparrow

Erasing and Reformatting a Camera Memory Card

September 26, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I was having crash problems with Aperture 2 (my photo management & editing app) when trying to import my photos directly from a compact flash card. See my previous article for more details.

I found what I hope is a solution - Erasing and reformatting the compact flash card in my computer, NOT just in my camera.

I am a believer of formatting your media memory card in your camera before every new photo shoot. But formatting this way doesn’t permanently erase the data; there is still a way to recover the data even after it has been formatted. My thoughts are, if a memory card is fully erased in your computer, then any extra residue will be removed and it should keep your cards running smoothly.

Think of it this way. It’s like when you reinstall Mac OS X or Windows. They say you should never reinstall without an erase and format of your hard drive, right? At least that is my way of looking at it, right or wrong, I don’t know for sure.

Remember, don’t format or erase your card(s) until you download your photos to your computer AND back them up to a second source. Always keep at least TWO copies of your photos!!

This tutorial covers how to erase and format using Mac OS X, but there are other excellent tutorials out there for Windows users. I found one from the Simple Help that is excellent. Just make sure to format as FAT.

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