From 229 to 6 Images
My Aperture workflow is gradually taking shape. The goal has been to do as little as possible while still adding value to the images. In a nutshell it is sweep, rate, stack, tag, tweak, organize, delete.
Here is what I do:
1. Import images, usually without autostacking. Autostacking causes problems later on, particularly with rating (if you eject the pick, the whole stack is rejected). I'm usually importing into an existing project, such as a month. I set the sort order by reverse image date so that during the import new images go to the top.
2. Set up the display with the thumbnails on the left and the right half of the screen as the Viewer. Get rid of the bars top and bottom. There needs to be a feature to remember workspace setups, since this one is not supplied. In this example I am starting 229 images.
3. Set filtering to this import only and rejects or better. Go quickly through all the images in time order and mark all rejects by hitting 0 (zero), avoiding the temptation to do anything else. (If there are a lot of images taken on different days, then select one day only and process that days pictures completely before moving on to the next day). [Update: As of Aperture 1.5, the Reject key is 9, not 0. You can switch it back if you prefer to use zero by following instructions here]
4. Set filtering to this import only and unrated or better. This hides all the rejects. In this example I am down to 184 images now. Go through all the images in time order and rate them, hitting + to increase, - to decrease. I use the loupe or zooming to help. I rate images as follows:
1 star = Keep, internal. No reason to throw it away, but has problems. Probably will not be shown to anyone
2 star = Good, internal. Image has no problems. Will not be published or posted outside of family and friends
3 star = Keep, external. Image has problems or is nothing special. May be published or posted
4 star = Good, external. Image is good and is special. May be published or posted
5 star = Excellent, external. Image is really good and flawless. May be published or posted
Usually I rate up to three stars and then go back for a second pass with the filtering set to three or better and re-rate those into three, four or five stars.
After finding some more rejects during the rating process I am down to 128 images.
5. Autostack or create stacks individually to get the grouping right, making the picks and closing them as I go. Command-K creates the stack, shift K closes it. I switch to Layouts->Maximize Viewer and select Stack view (Option T) if I need to.
The number of images is typically a quarter to a third of what I started with. In this example I have 48. Next is metadata.
6. Add captions. This is awkward. Using the information pane is OK, but only works on one image at a time. Batch Change (Shift Command B) is better, but is modal and there is a lot of clicking needed. Lift and stamp has its own quirks. Struggle through.
Captions help because they add a lot of words that are not in the keyword list and can be applied liberally. The same caption can be applied to forty or fifty images that are connected in some way, such as Row of houses awaiting demolition. There is no way that row and demolition would ever be keyworded, unless there was a very specific need to differentiate those from non-row or not for demolition.
7. Set filtering to this import only and exactly two stars. Add some keywords to some images. There are a lot of 2 star images and most don't need keywords. In particular, only content is keyworded, not people, activity, geography, event, or anything like that.
8. Set filtering to this import only and three stars or better. I'm down to about ten percent of the images I started with now, so this goes quickly. There are 23 images in this example. Add keywords to all images for people, event, content, activity, type, geography, location, etc. It's quite quick to do because I have the keyword lists set up and displayed across the bottom of the screen. Command-click all images with a common keyword and then click the keyword. My keywords are set up hierarchically and I attach just the lowest level keywords.
9. Set filtering to this import only and four stars or better. Tweak, enhance, crop, create new versions. I'm down to six images now.
10. Manually add selected images to albums
I keep some albums for temporary use. These have names like Mail to Fred, Tweak later, Mosaic candidate. I would like to have Smart Albums that automatically populate a specific folder on my hard drive. That way I could designate one for wallpaper, or use folder actions outside of Aperture to do further processing of images, for upload to Flickr for instance.
11. Filter to Rejects Only, review them, select them all, and delete. I have a library level filter set up for this that has the Ignore Stacking box checked.
Here is what I do:
1. Import images, usually without autostacking. Autostacking causes problems later on, particularly with rating (if you eject the pick, the whole stack is rejected). I'm usually importing into an existing project, such as a month. I set the sort order by reverse image date so that during the import new images go to the top.
2. Set up the display with the thumbnails on the left and the right half of the screen as the Viewer. Get rid of the bars top and bottom. There needs to be a feature to remember workspace setups, since this one is not supplied. In this example I am starting 229 images.
3. Set filtering to this import only and rejects or better. Go quickly through all the images in time order and mark all rejects by hitting 0 (zero), avoiding the temptation to do anything else. (If there are a lot of images taken on different days, then select one day only and process that days pictures completely before moving on to the next day). [Update: As of Aperture 1.5, the Reject key is 9, not 0. You can switch it back if you prefer to use zero by following instructions here]
4. Set filtering to this import only and unrated or better. This hides all the rejects. In this example I am down to 184 images now. Go through all the images in time order and rate them, hitting + to increase, - to decrease. I use the loupe or zooming to help. I rate images as follows:
1 star = Keep, internal. No reason to throw it away, but has problems. Probably will not be shown to anyone
2 star = Good, internal. Image has no problems. Will not be published or posted outside of family and friends
3 star = Keep, external. Image has problems or is nothing special. May be published or posted
4 star = Good, external. Image is good and is special. May be published or posted
5 star = Excellent, external. Image is really good and flawless. May be published or posted
Usually I rate up to three stars and then go back for a second pass with the filtering set to three or better and re-rate those into three, four or five stars.
After finding some more rejects during the rating process I am down to 128 images.
5. Autostack or create stacks individually to get the grouping right, making the picks and closing them as I go. Command-K creates the stack, shift K closes it. I switch to Layouts->Maximize Viewer and select Stack view (Option T) if I need to.
The number of images is typically a quarter to a third of what I started with. In this example I have 48. Next is metadata.
6. Add captions. This is awkward. Using the information pane is OK, but only works on one image at a time. Batch Change (Shift Command B) is better, but is modal and there is a lot of clicking needed. Lift and stamp has its own quirks. Struggle through.
Captions help because they add a lot of words that are not in the keyword list and can be applied liberally. The same caption can be applied to forty or fifty images that are connected in some way, such as Row of houses awaiting demolition. There is no way that row and demolition would ever be keyworded, unless there was a very specific need to differentiate those from non-row or not for demolition.
7. Set filtering to this import only and exactly two stars. Add some keywords to some images. There are a lot of 2 star images and most don't need keywords. In particular, only content is keyworded, not people, activity, geography, event, or anything like that.
8. Set filtering to this import only and three stars or better. I'm down to about ten percent of the images I started with now, so this goes quickly. There are 23 images in this example. Add keywords to all images for people, event, content, activity, type, geography, location, etc. It's quite quick to do because I have the keyword lists set up and displayed across the bottom of the screen. Command-click all images with a common keyword and then click the keyword. My keywords are set up hierarchically and I attach just the lowest level keywords.
9. Set filtering to this import only and four stars or better. Tweak, enhance, crop, create new versions. I'm down to six images now.
10. Manually add selected images to albums
I keep some albums for temporary use. These have names like Mail to Fred, Tweak later, Mosaic candidate. I would like to have Smart Albums that automatically populate a specific folder on my hard drive. That way I could designate one for wallpaper, or use folder actions outside of Aperture to do further processing of images, for upload to Flickr for instance.
11. Filter to Rejects Only, review them, select them all, and delete. I have a library level filter set up for this that has the Ignore Stacking box checked.
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