Aperture
Aperture: Plug-In SDK 2.1 Now Available
2008-04-22
The Aperture 2.1 SDK is now available to ADC members. This opens the flood gates to third parties who want to write plug-ins that perform adjustments like Dodge and Burn provided with Aperture.
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Aperture: Laptop Workflow
2008-04-21
Ferris Wheel: 1/1250s f/8.0 ISO200 73mm -0.3ev, Canon 30D, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS
Here is what I am currently doing to manage photos on my MacBook and iMac. It's a simple one-way process.
When I import my photos onto the Macbook I do so as managed files so they go into the library. Then I'll cull, rate, keyword, or whatever I want to get done. I don't adjust much, since the screen is small and not as good as my iMac and I can't control the room illumination as well. I leave preview generation turned on for all projects in my library and set it to make half size images. This lets me quickly put together slide shows and skim through images in a flash.
Then when I'm done working on the laptop, I export the project to the desktop and rename the project in the library by adding "Exported" to the end. That's to remind me that I've already done the export and should not do any more editing.
To transfer the project to the iMac I either copy it across the network, or restart the laptop in Firewire target mode and use the Finder to drag the folder across and onto my iMac Aperture library.
Back on the MacBook I delete all the rejects by finding them with a smart album and pressing command delete and then relocate all the remaining project images to a temporary folder. I immediately delete the temporary folder, since I don't want the RAW images to remain on the Macbook, and rename the project again by removing "Exported" and adding "Previews".
So on the laptop I have previews that I can easily show, drag out to other apps, or email, and on the iMac I have the RAW files, the previews, and the project intact. On the laptop the images use up only about 1 MByte each with the thumbnails and previews, so it is pretty space-efficient.
Aperture: Adjustment Plug-Ins Starting To Appear
2008-04-20
Tiffen now has their Dfx digital filter suite available as a plug-in for Aperture 2.1:
They are offering a 15-day free trial with full availability in May.Dfx digital filter suite offers precision adjustments over its range of effects that cannot be approached by any other digital filter software. A complete edition includes the most comprehensive array today, emulating more than 1,000 varied effects and gels, from factory pre-sets or custom effects, providing total creative and technical control with the most comprehensive and user-friendly filter-effect palette today.
Digital Film Tools has Light, Ozone, and Power Stroke, three tools that appear to be available right now.
Light: Using a pre-built light and texture library that includes windows, doors, leaves and abstract patterns, you can add realistic lighting and shadow to scenes just as if you were adding a light at the time of shooting.
Ozone: Inspired by Ansel Adams' Zone System for still photography, Ozone allows you to manipulate the color of an image with incredible flexibility and accuracy using a Digital Zone System. The Digital Zone System takes the spectrum of image values and divides them into 11 discrete zones. The color, brightness, contrast and gamma of each zone can be independently adjusted until you've painted a new picture.
Power Stroke introduces a simple, interactive stroke-based interface to quickly and intuitively perform targeted adjustments. Instead of meticulously selecting regions or hand-painting masks, regions of interest are isolated by drawing a few simple brush strokes with adjustments then made only in those areas. Strokes can be assigned multiple adjustments and effects such as color correction, recoloring or desaturation, colorization of black and white images, blur, fill light for dimly lit image areas and Diffusion/Glow.
Aperture: How To Install Aperture On A Second Machine
2008-04-15
I just purchased a MacBook as a work and development machine and naturally wanted to put Aperture on it. But how? When I bought Aperture 2.0 I did so by downloading the demo that was immediately available and buying an upgrade key immediately. After that I updated to 2.1. Since I don't have a DVD to install from, how should I get it onto my laptop?
Dragging the application over does not work because there are some pro application frameworks that are needed. How about downloading another demo and entering my key? That would probably be OK, but then I need to fill out the form and download the whole thing over again.
What worked was to install the original 2.0 demo that I had kept, and then enter the upgrade key I had paid for. When I did that it requested my original Aperture 1.1 key as well and was unlocked. Then I ran the 2.1 updater.
I was quite pleased to find that Aperture 2.1 runs just fine on my MacBook. It's the lowest spec machine, but with 4G RAM fitted. Processing 7MB CR2 files is easily fast enough for normal use, but noticeably slower than my iMac. The glossy screen is nice, but low-end, perfectly acceptable for normal use.
Dragging the application over does not work because there are some pro application frameworks that are needed. How about downloading another demo and entering my key? That would probably be OK, but then I need to fill out the form and download the whole thing over again.
What worked was to install the original 2.0 demo that I had kept, and then enter the upgrade key I had paid for. When I did that it requested my original Aperture 1.1 key as well and was unlocked. Then I ran the 2.1 updater.
I was quite pleased to find that Aperture 2.1 runs just fine on my MacBook. It's the lowest spec machine, but with 4G RAM fitted. Processing 7MB CR2 files is easily fast enough for normal use, but noticeably slower than my iMac. The glossy screen is nice, but low-end, perfectly acceptable for normal use.
Fraser Speirs On Keywording
2008-04-12
Fraser Speirs has blogged his experience keywording his photos:
In particular he talks at length about the keyword bar at the bottom of the window:So, finally, I’ve drawn together my thoughts about keywording in Aperture. My problem with keywording has always been more about “how can I make it easy enough that I will actually do it?”, rather than “what should the keywords be?”. I’ll explain my personal taste for both, though.
The magic — if that’s what it is — is that these button sets give keyboard shortcuts to your keywords. The first nine keywords in any set get the shortcuts Option-1 through Option-9, although the set of keywords can be arbitrarily large (I think). The second insight, that I think few people have noticed, is that you can cycle through these button groups using the shortcuts Comma and Period. This makes for really fast navigation through keyword groups.
Lightroom 2.0 Beta And Aperture 2.1
2008-04-04
Thomas Fiztgerald compares Lightroom 2.0 Beta To Aperture 2.1.
Undoubtedly in response to pre-empt any traction by Apple’s rapidly updated Aperture 2 software, Adobe has released a beta of the next version of its competing Lightroom, now at 2.0. As always, comparisons abound, and as always fans of either software will draw their respective lines in the sand.
Aperture: Migrating From 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.1
2008-04-02
Adam Tow has been migrating his collection of more than 100,000 photos to new drives and to Aperture 2.1. He writes about his experience on his blog. It was a little complicated because he had duplicates and a mixture of managed and referenced photos and had several different schemes of library organization in use.
Aperture: Aperture 2.1 Released -- Adds Image-Editing Plug-Ins
2008-03-28
Apple has added image-editing plug-ins to Aperture in this free update to owners of 2.0. The first plug-in is Dodge and Burn, but may more are coming. From the Aperture Resources page:
Aperture 2 includes a powerful plug-in architecture for the seamless integration of popular third-party image editing software, such as Nik Software's Viveza and PictureCode's Noise Ninja (both available soon).
Aperture 2.1 also includes an Apple developed plug-in, Dodge & Burn, that provides tools for making selective edits of images with dodge (lighten), burn (darken), blur, sharpen, and saturation effects.
There is a new movie that shows Dodge and Burn in operation.The free Imaging Plug-in Software Developer Kit (SDK) for Aperture will be available through the Apple Developer Connection (ADC) soon. Interested developers should contact Apple at aperturedeveloper@apple.com.
This considerably opens up the the usefulness of Aperture and will create a whole ecosystem of very useful additions. I will be very interested to see the SDK when it arrives.
In addition to the plug-in, there are a host of other features added:
• Customize Default Adjustment Set. You can now specify which adjustments appear by default in the Adjustments Inspector/HUD.
• Updated Crop Tool. A simplified UI makes it easier to preserve an image’s original aspect ratio, match the aspect ratio of your display, or use one of the standard preset aspect ratios.
• Sorting in All Projects View. A contextual menu allows you to sort the All Projects view in ascending or descending date order.
• Show on Map A contextual menu allows you to choose the Show on Map by right-clicking (or Control-clicking) on an image that contains GPS
data.
• Access to Toolbar on Second Display. When using multiple displays in Full Screen mode, the Full Screen toolbar is now accessible on a second display.
• “Snapshots” book theme. This additional theme includes new “photo border” frames in which to place images.
• Flip Images. You can now flip images horizontally or vertically within Aperture.
• Vignette. The range of gamma and exposure settings available has been expanded.
• Save Books as JPEG or TIFF images. Automator workflows have been added to the PDF pop-up menu in the Print Book window to automatically generate JPEG or TIFF images from book pages.
• Update EXIF from Master. This command allows Aperture to reread EXIF from master images after they have been imported.
• 8-bit External Editor support. Preferences settings have been updated to allow you to send images to an external editor as either 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF or PSD files.
• Extended AppleScript support. The “Reveal” verb in the AppleScript dictionary has been extended to include containers such as projects and albums.
The update also includes fixes that impact a number of other areas, including import, Quick Preview, All Projects view, image adjustments, books, printing and export.To get the update (41 Mbytes), go to the Aperture Downloads page. Then check the Late Breaking News from the Help menu.
[Late updates:]
Rob Galbraith has a particularly good write-up on his site.
The catch with the plug-ins is that they work on a copy of the original image, just like round-tripping to an external application like photoshop -- they are not integrated into the RAW processing that Aperture does. This means that you have to separate your plug-in adjustment workflow from your Aperture adjustment workflow, deciding what you are going to do first, last, and in the middle.
The logic of this implementation is understandable when you consider what will happen long-term, and what Apple has control over. Apple controls its own built-in adjustments and processing so can guarantee that they will stay intact, or be enhanced (like the RAW 2.0 processing update we received recently). But the same guarantees cannot be made for third-party plug-ins, so they have to create and store the intermediate images.
The improved crop is still lacking a basic setting: Current. There is no way to scale (except by math and typing) an image that has been custom-cropped and keep the same aspect ratio. There is also no "flip" option that keeps the clip rectangle the same , but rotates it 90 degrees.
Aperture: A Fix For The Leopard Printing Bug
2008-03-26
Apple has released Security Update 2008-002 v1.1 (Leopard): an update to the security update that was causing printing problems for Aperture users on Leopard.
Security Update 2008-002 v1.1 addresses reliability issues with the "Printer Settings..." button in Aperture 2.0 on systems running Mac OS X v10.5.2. No applications other than Aperture 2.0 are affected.
Aperture: Digital Camera RAW Support 2.0
2008-03-21
Maybe this will put an and to the arguments about RAW converter updates being tied to the operating system. You can download the updater directly from Apple.
Aperture 2.0: Processing 11,000 Images, 136GBytes
2008-03-18
James Duncan Davidson recounts how he recently shot ETech and eComm: 11,000 photos in total, and processed them all with Aperture.
Ars Technica Reviews Aperture 2.0
2008-03-10
Aperture: 2.0.1 Brings New Applescript Features
2008-03-04
Apple's Applescript pages are showing how new features introduced by Aperture 2.0.1 allow integration with Adobe InDesign CS3. By fingerprinting images with a number in a metadata field, applications that receive previews have, via Applescript, a away to get the original. InDesign uses this to work with previews as proxies until the document is exported for print. At that time the originals are retrieved and put into the final document. There are two short videos that show how it is done.
Aperture 2.0.1 Update Available
2008-03-03
Apple has updated Aperture to 2.0.1. You can get the download via the 2.0.1 update page. It includes lots of fixes:
- Upgrading libraries from earlier versions of Aperture
- Publishing .Mac Web Gallery albums
- Preview generation and deletion
- Creating and ordering books
- AppleScript support
- Keyboard shortcut customization
- Appearance of metadata overlays in the Browser, Filmstrip, and on light tables
- Watermarking of emailed photos
- Highlight Hot and Cold Areas
- Loupe
- Smart Albums
- All Projects View
- Straighten Tool
- Filmstrip
- Drag and drop import
- Thumbnail generation
- Import window
- Export plug-in reliability
Aperture Export SDK: Missing Files
2008-02-28
For anyone who is trying to make an export plug-in for Aperture: make sure you keep a copy of your Tiger development environment backed up somewhere. I installed Leopard and the dev tools and found that my Random Wok plug-in would not compile.
It failed at this line:
in ApertureExportPlugIn.h. The PROAPIAccessing.h file is missing because it and PROPlugInBundleRegistration.h are not included in either Leopard or the ApertureSDK 1.5.5.
To fix it , I copied across the Headers folder that contains those two from a Tiger back up. The full path is /Library/Frameworks/PluginManager.framework/Versions/B/Headers. There is already a soft link for Headers that is correct. It should look like this:
It failed at this line:
#import <PluginManager/PROAPIAccessing.h>in ApertureExportPlugIn.h. The PROAPIAccessing.h file is missing because it and PROPlugInBundleRegistration.h are not included in either Leopard or the ApertureSDK 1.5.5.
To fix it , I copied across the Headers folder that contains those two from a Tiger back up. The full path is /Library/Frameworks/PluginManager.framework/Versions/B/Headers. There is already a soft link for Headers that is correct. It should look like this:
Aperture: Apple's World Tour
2008-02-27
Apple is starting a world tour for Aperture on March 5th. I plan on being at the San Francisco event on March 26th.
Get Your Head Around Aperture 1.5 Edition 3 Now Available
2008-02-26
 | Eleven New Articles |
I have updated Get Your Head Around Aperture 1.5 with eleven new Aperture articles that were published on the blog between the second edition and the release of Aperture 2.0. For full details of the changes see the Publication History page.
If you have purchased the book, you will have received an email with a download link that is good for 5 downloads or one year, whichever comes first. Just use that link and it will download this new release.
If you have not purchased the book, then I'm afraid it is no longer available. Aperture 2.0 changed so much of the interface and features (and fixed so many problems!) that much of the material in the book is now unnecessary, incorrect, or misleading, especially to beginners. All the material in the book remains freely available on this site. If you really want a copy, then let me know. If there is enough demand I will reintroduce it for sale at a reduced price.
I am also interested to know what kind of information you would want to see in a future Bagelturf publication about Aperture or anything else.
Aperture 2.0 vs. Lightroom 1.3 At High ISO
2008-02-25
James Duncan Davidson compares the performance of Aperture 2.0 and Lightroom 1.3 at 3200 ISO. He's a Canon user.
At the Money:Tech 2008 conference a few weeks ago in New York City, I mostly took the high ISO approach and shot almost exclusively at ISO 3200 with my Canon 1D Mark III’s. Of course, an ISO 3200 image has noise in it. The question is how well does the combination of camera and RAW processor render that noise.
CNET Is Asking Which Is Better: Aperture Or Lightroom
2008-02-23
This article on CNET asks you to vote:
The good news is that there's some competition again for software to edit and catalog raw images, the detailed and flexible file formats from higher-end cameras. The bad news is that anybody buying the software has a harder choice to make.
Aperture 2.0 vs Capture NX
2008-02-23
David Hassler has been comparing the performance of Aperture 2 with Capture NX for skin tones on this Flickr page.
Aperture: Complexity Killed Aperture 1.5
2008-02-21
James Duncan Davidson has posted an interesting article about his meeting with Apple's Aperture team. He told them what irked him about Aperture as a photographer and they went off and fixed it. But how did they fix it?
I've looked a little at the internals of Aperture 2.0 and there are some striking differences between the two. It looks as if the whole core of the application has been rewritten.
Here is one thing I found. That diagram below is the data model for Aperture 1.5. The boxes represent information stored about things like versions, albums, vaults, adjustments etc., all the things that are carefully managed by Aperture and kept in a consistent state, all the things that are needed to display and manipulate images through the interface:
What matters is the number of lines in the diagram. I reckon there are about twenty. Each one is a relationship between the data in the boxes and many lines means much complexity and lots of work to keep things in order. And the impact of complexity grows very quickly as the number of items increases.
Now have a look at the data model for Aperture 2.0:
Still plenty of boxes, several more in fact, but hardly any lines. And only two are actual relationships, the two in the center representing inheritance instead. This means that Apple has eradicated the complexity inherent in the data model and moved it elsewhere, clearly to something faster.
This is at least partly why Aperture 2.0 is so much faster than Aperture 1.5. The other benefit of removing the complexity is that reliability should increase, so I'm hoping for a more stable, less buggy application.
For anyone wondering how I got hold of the data models for Aperture; it was easy. I just decompiled the .mom file in the application with Xcode.
I've looked a little at the internals of Aperture 2.0 and there are some striking differences between the two. It looks as if the whole core of the application has been rewritten.
Here is one thing I found. That diagram below is the data model for Aperture 1.5. The boxes represent information stored about things like versions, albums, vaults, adjustments etc., all the things that are carefully managed by Aperture and kept in a consistent state, all the things that are needed to display and manipulate images through the interface:
What matters is the number of lines in the diagram. I reckon there are about twenty. Each one is a relationship between the data in the boxes and many lines means much complexity and lots of work to keep things in order. And the impact of complexity grows very quickly as the number of items increases.
Now have a look at the data model for Aperture 2.0:
Still plenty of boxes, several more in fact, but hardly any lines. And only two are actual relationships, the two in the center representing inheritance instead. This means that Apple has eradicated the complexity inherent in the data model and moved it elsewhere, clearly to something faster.
This is at least partly why Aperture 2.0 is so much faster than Aperture 1.5. The other benefit of removing the complexity is that reliability should increase, so I'm hoping for a more stable, less buggy application.
For anyone wondering how I got hold of the data models for Aperture; it was easy. I just decompiled the .mom file in the application with Xcode.
Aperture 2.0: No Tethering For You!
2008-02-20
If you use one of the popular Canon DSLRs, there's a good chance that there is no tethering for you! There is a tally of which cameras work with the tethering feature and which ones don't at 20SEVEN. Mine, a Canon 30D, does not. It stays busy. It is still possible to use Automator and a hot folder with the Canon software, so all is not lost. Nikon is much better supported than Canon.
The tethering feature is accessed via the File > Tether... menu. From there you can define import settings and start the session.
Aperture 2.0: Hanging Up At The Splash Screen
2008-02-19
Aperture started hanging on me today. I launched Aperture and it just hung at the splash screen. Renaming preferences and the Application Support folders did nothing. In the console I get this message:
2/18/08 1:54:59 PM Aperture[501] *** NSRunLoop ignoring exception 'Exception in Aperture: *** -[NSURL initFileURLWithPath:]: nil string parameter
Backtrace:
0x0006ffdc (in Aperture)
0x93c77eb7: +[NSException exceptionWithName:reason:userInfo:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x93c78023: +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x93c7806a: +[NSException raise:format:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x92ef5039: -[NSURL initFileURLWithPath:] (in Foundation)
0x92ef4d28: +[NSURL fileURLWithPath:] (in Foundation)
0x002cfc00 (in Aperture)
0x002cfd3a (in Aperture)
0x002cdc64 (in Aperture)
0x00351982 (in Aperture)
0x00359b79 (in Aperture)
0x92ee602d: __NSFireDelayedPerform (in Foundation)
0x93bfeb5e: CFRunLoopRunSpecific (in CoreFoundation)
0x93bfed18: CFRunLoopRunInMode (in CoreFoundation)
0x92a7f6a0: RunCurrentEventLoopInMode (in HIToolbox)
0x92a7f3f2: ReceiveNextEventCommon (in HIToolbox)
0x92a7f32d: BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode (in HIToolbox)
0x963227d9: _DPSNextEvent (in AppKit)
0x9632208e: -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] (in AppKit)
0x0035e62a (in Aperture)
0x9631b0c5: -[NSApplication run] (in AppKit)
0x00954e5a (in ProKit)
0x00003652 (in Aperture)
' that raised during posting of delayed perform with target 0x13b7230 and selector '_delayedFinishLaunching'
And a sample of the process just gives me a bunch of threads all waiting.
I did get Aperture back. First I reinstalled Aperture and renamed my Aperture Library file. Then I launched Aperture with the option key held down and selected to make a new library. That brought Aperture up. Then I could quit and relaunch and open other libraries with option launch. Finally I renamed my library back to Aperture Library. Somewhere in there I did remove the option to share previews with iLife and iWork, but I don't know if that had any effect.
2/18/08 1:54:59 PM Aperture[501] *** NSRunLoop ignoring exception 'Exception in Aperture: *** -[NSURL initFileURLWithPath:]: nil string parameter
Backtrace:
0x0006ffdc (in Aperture)
0x93c77eb7: +[NSException exceptionWithName:reason:userInfo:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x93c78023: +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x93c7806a: +[NSException raise:format:] (in CoreFoundation)
0x92ef5039: -[NSURL initFileURLWithPath:] (in Foundation)
0x92ef4d28: +[NSURL fileURLWithPath:] (in Foundation)
0x002cfc00 (in Aperture)
0x002cfd3a (in Aperture)
0x002cdc64 (in Aperture)
0x00351982 (in Aperture)
0x00359b79 (in Aperture)
0x92ee602d: __NSFireDelayedPerform (in Foundation)
0x93bfeb5e: CFRunLoopRunSpecific (in CoreFoundation)
0x93bfed18: CFRunLoopRunInMode (in CoreFoundation)
0x92a7f6a0: RunCurrentEventLoopInMode (in HIToolbox)
0x92a7f3f2: ReceiveNextEventCommon (in HIToolbox)
0x92a7f32d: BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode (in HIToolbox)
0x963227d9: _DPSNextEvent (in AppKit)
0x9632208e: -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] (in AppKit)
0x0035e62a (in Aperture)
0x9631b0c5: -[NSApplication run] (in AppKit)
0x00954e5a (in ProKit)
0x00003652 (in Aperture)
' that raised during posting of delayed perform with target 0x13b7230 and selector '_delayedFinishLaunching'
And a sample of the process just gives me a bunch of threads all waiting.
I did get Aperture back. First I reinstalled Aperture and renamed my Aperture Library file. Then I launched Aperture with the option key held down and selected to make a new library. That brought Aperture up. Then I could quit and relaunch and open other libraries with option launch. Finally I renamed my library back to Aperture Library. Somewhere in there I did remove the option to share previews with iLife and iWork, but I don't know if that had any effect.
Aperture 2.0: New Album Pick Behavior Kills My Workflow
2008-02-19
A reader pointed out to me that the workflow described in Use Albums and Stacks To Manage Adjusted Images no longer works. Aperture 2.0 has changed the behavior of album picks so that creating a new album from non-pick images no longer automatically makes those images the album picks in the new album. Send feedback to Apple if you want the old behavior back.
Random Wok On Aperture 2.0
2008-02-18
My Aperture export plug-in, Random Wok, runs just fine [Update: not quite; see below] with Aperture 2.0 and Leopard. The version I'm using internally has some additional features and I have recompiled it using XCode 3.0, idea being to release an update as soon as I can muster the time. My big hang-up was trying to localize the plug-in. This is a tremendous amount of work and requires lining up volunteers to do the translation and much on the management side of things. So going forward I have decided to not support localization.
Note that Aperture 2.0 no longer displays a sheet to show progress. Instead, it exports in the background and progress is shown in Aperture's tasks window. Look at the bottom of the window next to the tools to see what is happening in the background:
Clicking on the spinner shows more detail:
A new feature in Aperture 2.0 is the ability to pause activity. That plus background operation makes exporting so much nicer.
[Update: A couple of problems have appeared if Random Wok 1.0 is used with Aperture 2.0. See below]
If used with Aperture 2.0 the behavior with respect to clashes with existing files has changed. With Aperture 1.5 Aperture would never supply an existing file name. However with 2.0 it does not check, and so plug-in exports will overwrite existing files with the same version name. Export to empty folders to work around.
If used with Aperture 2.0 the behavior with respect to clashes with existing random files has changed. Random Wok 1.0 will issue a warning if random files are exported that have a name clash, as before. However with 2.0, Aperture does not think that the export has finished and will show the export continuing forever in the background. This is usually only an issue if Freeze is used and repeated exports to the same place are performed. Quit Aperture and relaunch to fix.
Note that Aperture 2.0 no longer displays a sheet to show progress. Instead, it exports in the background and progress is shown in Aperture's tasks window. Look at the bottom of the window next to the tools to see what is happening in the background:
Clicking on the spinner shows more detail:
A new feature in Aperture 2.0 is the ability to pause activity. That plus background operation makes exporting so much nicer.
[Update: A couple of problems have appeared if Random Wok 1.0 is used with Aperture 2.0. See below]
If used with Aperture 2.0 the behavior with respect to clashes with existing files has changed. With Aperture 1.5 Aperture would never supply an existing file name. However with 2.0 it does not check, and so plug-in exports will overwrite existing files with the same version name. Export to empty folders to work around.
If used with Aperture 2.0 the behavior with respect to clashes with existing random files has changed. Random Wok 1.0 will issue a warning if random files are exported that have a name clash, as before. However with 2.0, Aperture does not think that the export has finished and will show the export continuing forever in the background. This is usually only an issue if Freeze is used and repeated exports to the same place are performed. Quit Aperture and relaunch to fix.
Aperture: RAW Converter 2.0 Ate My Yellow
2008-02-15
RAW 2.0 on the left, RAW 1.1 on the right. What happened to my yellow?
That's a screen shot of a zoomed-in pair of versions of the same master. That's a startling difference. Neither has been adjusted in any way. And I was unable to get the yellow back without affecting the rest of the image. That may be my lack of understanding of the myriad controls, but I thought it would be straight-forward.
Update: The consensus among the comments is that RAW 1.1 is the culprit here and that I should be glad the bug has been fixed.
I am also noticing that Aperture now sharpens thumbnails. That has the effect of making some images look harsher than they really are when viewed in the browser. Again, RAW 2.0 on the left, RAW 1.1 on the right:
But RAW 2.0 does better on the highlights by default.
Aperture 2.0: Updating And Migrating
2008-02-14
After playing with the free trial of Aperture 2.0 yesterday, I purchased the upgrade package and receive my key today. The Aperture menu has an Authorize entry and I could put my key in immediately and get full use of the product.
The next thing I did was update my library. I did a couple of smaller libraries first as a sanity check, and all was well. My 90GB library with 32,000 images took about ten minutes to convert. Inside I can see that the original Aperture database has now been split into two. The original database pretty much doubled in size, while the new one is obviously dedicated to Blobs (binary large objects) and is quite small.
The surprise can when I quit Aperture: quitting took more than 20 minutes! The sheet said Writing Files... and I believe it was updating the database. It also used up an ungodly amount of RAM. I only have 3GB and it sucked up everything it could find. I sampled the Aperture process while it was doing this and saw 16 Exabytes in use -- about 5 billion times what I actually have:
It did finish, and all was well. My guess is that this delay was because I am still on Tiger and this is a Core Data efficiency problem.
Next I looked at the possibility of migrating my images to the new RAW converter:
Entire projects can be converted, or just individual selections. I selected Migrate and got this rather confusing dialog:
Upgrade existing RAW images
This means that of the images selected all the non-RAWs will be left alone. The RAW images will have their RAW converter changed to 2.0 and the versions and previews updated. While I can't go back on this, I can individually set the RAW conversion back to 1.1 from the RAW Fine Tuning adjustment panel if I want:
I can also create new versions manually and compare the RAW 1.1 and RAW 2.0 converters side by side for individual images. Note that none of this affects the masters. The reference to "images" should be to "versions".
Create upgraded versions of existing RAW images
This works exactly the same as Upgrade existing RAW images except that a new version is created (in a stack) with the original and the converter changed to 2.0 for that new version only.
All images
Means all selected RAW images. The other two selections are similar.
I don't recommend updating converters en masse. I am finding that the new converter is quite different, particularly for heavily adjusted images. Here is a quick example: RAW 2.0 is on the left here:
The new RAW converter does do a much better job with highlights.
The next thing I did was update my library. I did a couple of smaller libraries first as a sanity check, and all was well. My 90GB library with 32,000 images took about ten minutes to convert. Inside I can see that the original Aperture database has now been split into two. The original database pretty much doubled in size, while the new one is obviously dedicated to Blobs (binary large objects) and is quite small.
The surprise can when I quit Aperture: quitting took more than 20 minutes! The sheet said Writing Files... and I believe it was updating the database. It also used up an ungodly amount of RAM. I only have 3GB and it sucked up everything it could find. I sampled the Aperture process while it was doing this and saw 16 Exabytes in use -- about 5 billion times what I actually have:
It did finish, and all was well. My guess is that this delay was because I am still on Tiger and this is a Core Data efficiency problem.
Next I looked at the possibility of migrating my images to the new RAW converter:
Entire projects can be converted, or just individual selections. I selected Migrate and got this rather confusing dialog:
Upgrade existing RAW images
This means that of the images selected all the non-RAWs will be left alone. The RAW images will have their RAW converter changed to 2.0 and the versions and previews updated. While I can't go back on this, I can individually set the RAW conversion back to 1.1 from the RAW Fine Tuning adjustment panel if I want:
I can also create new versions manually and compare the RAW 1.1 and RAW 2.0 converters side by side for individual images. Note that none of this affects the masters. The reference to "images" should be to "versions".
Create upgraded versions of existing RAW images
This works exactly the same as Upgrade existing RAW images except that a new version is created (in a stack) with the original and the converter changed to 2.0 for that new version only.
All images
Means all selected RAW images. The other two selections are similar.
I don't recommend updating converters en masse. I am finding that the new converter is quite different, particularly for heavily adjusted images. Here is a quick example: RAW 2.0 is on the left here:
The new RAW converter does do a much better job with highlights.
Buy Aperture 2.0 Through This Site
2008-02-13
You can purchase Aperture 2.0 from Amazon via the associate links on my site. Doing so shamelessly contributes a small percentage of each transaction.
 | Buy Aperture 2.0 Buy 2.0 Upgrade |
Aperture 2.0: Get The Trial Version -- It's Fast
2008-02-12
To get started with Aperture 2.0, download the trial version and wait for the key to arrive in email. Then before launching it, rename your current Aperture application and rename your Aperture library. Renaming makes sure that 2.0 doesn't stomp on 1.5. I added 15 to the end of my application and my library. Also, make sure you have your 1.5 key handy. If you launch 1.5 after running the 2.0 trial, you'll have to reenter it.
The installer requests the key and the application installs. It creates a new Aperture Library and you can fill it with images and use that as a sandbox for a while.
Aperture 2.0 is fast. Adjustments are much faster, though there is a short delay before they are active. Even traditionally slow adjustments like Straighten and Shadows and Highlights are very responsive. I have a lowly 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac 24" and it really flies now. Scrolling is like iPhoto, and the new Quick Preview mode (P key) prevents Aperture from doing the RAW conversions, so making scrolling through images in the viewer very fast indeed.
The installer requests the key and the application installs. It creates a new Aperture Library and you can fill it with images and use that as a sandbox for a while.
Aperture 2.0 is fast. Adjustments are much faster, though there is a short delay before they are active. Even traditionally slow adjustments like Straighten and Shadows and Highlights are very responsive. I have a lowly 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac 24" and it really flies now. Scrolling is like iPhoto, and the new Quick Preview mode (P key) prevents Aperture from doing the RAW conversions, so making scrolling through images in the viewer very fast indeed.
Aperture 2.0: Trackpad Gestures And More Details
2008-02-12
Apple has a support page for Aperture with more information. From there you can download the Late-Breaking News PDF. That document reveals that Aperture 2.0 supports trackpad gestures.
The troubleshooting links on the page are also handy (they are Knowledge Base articles). XLR8YourMac has collected a bunch of them together into a list which reproduce here:
AUPN has two articles that cover the new features: Part 1 and Part 2. As AUPN points out, lost in all the hoopla is the fact that Aperture 2.0 supports editing plug-ins. This will lead to all kinds of interesting things.
The troubleshooting links on the page are also handy (they are Knowledge Base articles). XLR8YourMac has collected a bunch of them together into a list which reproduce here:
- Aperture 2: Tips on migrating images to RAW 2.0
- Aperture 2: Some tips on Baseline DNG support
- Aperture 2: RAW 2.0 not available with some cameras
- Aperture 2: Some referenced images may be reimported even when Do Not Import Duplicates is selected
- Aperture 2: Newly supported images may not display properly after upgrade from Aperture 1.5.x to 2.0
- Aperture 2: Avoid making manual changes to your library structure
- Aperture 2: Avoid putting the computer to sleep while shooting tethered
- Aperture 2: Date on exported master image may be different in rare circumstances
- Aperture 2: Externally edited images are automatically located alongside originals
- Aperture 2: Tips on tethered shooting
- Aperture 2: Duplicate Images in library when tethering
AUPN has two articles that cover the new features: Part 1 and Part 2. As AUPN points out, lost in all the hoopla is the fact that Aperture 2.0 supports editing plug-ins. This will lead to all kinds of interesting things.
Aperture 2.0: All The Video Links In One Place
2008-02-12
I've collected all the links for the Aperture 2.0 videos together in one place for convenient clicking. If you use Firefox you will be able to download everything for offline viewing with a tool like FlashGot.
Adjustment Tools
Platform Integration
Customizing the Keyboard
Importing Basics
Tethering
Using Aperture and iPhoto Together
Making Multiple Selections
Using the Loupe Tools
Using the Zoom Tool
Using Quick Preview
Using the Sort Tool
Applying Ratings
Using Compare Mode
Using Stacks
Using Stack Mode
Assigning Keywords
Viewing Multiple Displays
Filtering and Searching in Aperture
Skimming All Projects
Creating Albums and Smart Albums
Using Light Tables
Using RAW Fine Tuning
Cropping and Straightening
Adjusting White Balance
Adjusting Exposure
Recovering Highlights
Enhancing Your Images
Setting Levels
Setting Advanced Levels
Adjusting Highlights and Shadows
Improving Color
Using the Retouch Brush
Applying Vignette and Devignette
Applying Black & White and Color Effects
Sharpening Images
Using Lift and Stamp
Editing Metadata
Adjusting Date and Time
Embedding and Exporting Metadata
Exporting Versions, Masters, and Projects
Making Prints and Contact sheets
Making Books
Creating Web Pages
Creating Web Galleries
Creating Slideshows
Using Export Plug-ins
Exploring Presets
Using Aperture and iPhoto Together
Creating Advanced Slideshows with Keynote
Making Photo Movies with iMovie
Accessing Aperture through Leopard
Quick Tours
Streamlined UIAdjustment Tools
Platform Integration
Tutorials
Exploring the InterfaceCustomizing the Keyboard
Importing Basics
Tethering
Using Aperture and iPhoto Together
Making Multiple Selections
Using the Loupe Tools
Using the Zoom Tool
Using Quick Preview
Using the Sort Tool
Applying Ratings
Using Compare Mode
Using Stacks
Using Stack Mode
Assigning Keywords
Viewing Multiple Displays
Filtering and Searching in Aperture
Skimming All Projects
Creating Albums and Smart Albums
Using Light Tables
Using RAW Fine Tuning
Cropping and Straightening
Adjusting White Balance
Adjusting Exposure
Recovering Highlights
Enhancing Your Images
Setting Levels
Setting Advanced Levels
Adjusting Highlights and Shadows
Improving Color
Using the Retouch Brush
Applying Vignette and Devignette
Applying Black & White and Color Effects
Sharpening Images
Using Lift and Stamp
Editing Metadata
Adjusting Date and Time
Embedding and Exporting Metadata
Exporting Versions, Masters, and Projects
Making Prints and Contact sheets
Making Books
Creating Web Pages
Creating Web Galleries
Creating Slideshows
Using Export Plug-ins
Exploring Presets
Using Aperture and iPhoto Together
Creating Advanced Slideshows with Keynote
Making Photo Movies with iMovie
Accessing Aperture through Leopard
Aperture 2.0: Now Shipping
2008-02-12
Aperture 2.0 has shipped. It needs Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.2. It's $200, down $199 from 1.0, and an upgrade is $99. If you purchased 1.5 recently then you can get it for $9.95.
Apple claims 100 new features that I have not had time to read yet.
Apple's Aperture page has many details. including the specs. The features page has some Quick Tours to watch and there are many tutorials. You download the User Manual, and a publication called Exploring Aperture. There is a compatibility checker that will see if your system can run it.
As usual there is active conversation (maybe less whining?) at Apple's Aperture discussion page.
Aperture: My Projects Have Disappeared -- Is My Library Corrupt?
2008-02-11
If you have projects disappearing but not the images they contain, then you probably have selected Recent Projects at the top of the library pane. Change that to Show All and everything will be back to normal.
Recent Projects will show projects and blue folders that have been recently modified. What is confusing is that clicking on the blue folders will show images, and yet there can be no projects inside the selected blue folder to contain them. For example, I have 2005 selected and images are visible:
Aperture: 10.5.2 Released With Nikon D3 and D300 Support
2008-02-11
Go grab 10.5.2! It supports the Nikon D3 and D300 as well as others.
Update: My Headline is wrong (still on Tiger here, and no Nikon). Comments are saying things like this:
The only remaining question is whether there will be a RAW update for Tiger or not. There is also a Leopard Graphics Update available that only appears in Software Update after 10.5.2 is installed. This all bodes well for a new Aperture coming soon.Unless I'm missing something-- 10.5.2 supports the D3 and D300 with everything BUT aperture. iPhoto, Finder, Preview... all open D300 RAWs... not Aperture...
Aperture Caption: An Applescript To Quickly Caption Images
2008-02-11
Adam Tow has posted an Applescript called Aperture Caption that allows captioning of a series of images without all that frustrating switching between the mouse an the keyboard. You can use FastScripts Lite to create a keyboard shortcut for invoking it, so removing even more mousing.
Aperture: Applescripts To Extract Metadata
2008-02-09
Berend Hasselman has a page dedicated to Aperture scripts he has put together. He needed to get at the metadata that Aperture stores but doesn't give access to, like Lens ID and Auto Focus point used so created these scripts. They run fine under Tiger and Leopard.
Aperture: How To Adjust And Compare Two Images
2008-02-02
Sometimes I have an image that I want to adjust to look like another in some way -- maybe the same brightness or color. This is easy to do because Aperture can display both at the same time and I can adjust one while using the other as a reference.
The first thing I do is press the S key to select Primary Only. This has no effect on adjustments (adjustments can be applied to only one image at time), but it does very conveniently make the currently selected image very obvious. Only the selected image has a white selection ring in this mode.
Here I have the upper image displayed as a reference and am adjusting the lower image:
This also works in full screen mode (F key) and with zoom on (Z key):
If I need to adjust two images at the same time, this is possible too. Clicking on an image changes the selection to that image and I make adjustments. This technique can be applied to as many images as I can cram on the screen.
The first thing I do is press the S key to select Primary Only. This has no effect on adjustments (adjustments can be applied to only one image at time), but it does very conveniently make the currently selected image very obvious. Only the selected image has a white selection ring in this mode.
Here I have the upper image displayed as a reference and am adjusting the lower image:
This also works in full screen mode (F key) and with zoom on (Z key):
If I need to adjust two images at the same time, this is possible too. Clicking on an image changes the selection to that image and I make adjustments. This technique can be applied to as many images as I can cram on the screen.
Bagelturf Added To MacCreative
2008-02-01
I've added Bagelturf to MacCreative. MacCreative collects together sites and links to all things creative in the Mac World. You can vote for sites and write reviews if you like.
Aperture 2.0: Joe Schorr Speaks; Photographers Dare Not Breathe
2008-01-30
Joe Schorr, Apple's Senior Product Manager of Photo Applications (wasn't he just product Manager for Aperture a while ago?) has spoken to the assembled throngs in a posting on the Aperture discussion board:
[Update: Nothing so far (the end of Jan 31st). I saw this posting at DPReview:
We're constantly working to make Aperture an even better tool for users, and will soon release an upgrade that includes RAW format support for new cameras and other exciting new features. Please stay tuned.
My guess is that at the first possible moment following PMA opening its doors (ie Thursday morning), Apple is going to announce whatever it is we have all been waiting for. Then, I'm sure the real whining will begin as it dawns on people that Apple has somehow not implemented every single one of their personal favorite missing features.Joe Schorr
Sr. Product Manager, Photo Applications
Apple
[Update: Nothing so far (the end of Jan 31st). I saw this posting at DPReview:
Curiouser and curiouser.The booth number reserved for Apple (X128) simply says HOLD. It doesn't even identify the company by name anymore. Perhaps they will be a no show.
Aperture: How To Share Image Adjustment Presets
2008-01-29
Ian Wood, a prolific poster on Apple's Aperture discussion forum (how does he get anything else done?) has posted a quick how to on sharing Aperture image adjustment presets.
Aperture 2.0 Rumors And Wishes
2008-01-27
There has been a great deal of speculation as to what will be in the next release of Aperture -- even as to whether it will be called 2.0 or 1.6 -- but now there are rumors starting to appear. I saw this one on DPReview. It's a typical "I have a friend of a friend whos hair cutter knows this guy who overheard two people on a bus talking" kind of rumor. So there is no way to know how accurate it is. There are so many things that could be changed or improved, that practically any subset would be believable. You can even see how people were thinking a while back at MacPredict (the site appears to no longer be updated).
What does appear to be unanimous is that either Apple will announce something at PMA this week, or thousands will defect to Lightroom. Apart from some bug fixes, it has been an awfully long time since any significant changes were made: 1.5 was released September 29, 2006 according to Wikipedia.
Fraser Speirs posted his wishes for Aperture a short time ago. And Eric Barzeski made his wish-list known a year ago and is itching for information. Sören Nils Kuklau has a list that he posted last year. Inside Aperture speculated some time ago, around the same time that Ed Fladung had a go. Chuqui hoped for 2.0 before Christmas 2007, but was disappointed.
My needs are modest, so I'm wishing for things like better speed and better keyboard navigation. For the product, I think the best thing that could happen would be a flexible plug-in architecture so that the application could be expanded by third parties. I would also like to be able to have Aperture handle all media types, not just photos, and to have a lightweight application that can read the database independently. That would allow plugins and automation scripts run at the same time as Aperture, so not interrupting workflow.
We shall see. I hope it's not Leopard-only because I'm still on Tiger, waiting for a compatible update to SuperDuper.
Aperture: Use A Web Journal To Hold Project Notes
2008-01-26
Missing from Aperture is the ability to attach notes and documents to images, albums, or projects. A partial way around this limitation is to create web journals in Aperture and associate them with the images they relate to.
To add notes to My Macworld 2008 project, I control-click the project and select New > Web Journal:
That creates an unnamed web journal inside the project which I then rename. A web journal consists of blocks of text and images arranged on individual pages, the idea being that each page is a single entry for a unit of time such as a day. In this case I'm just going to use one page.
I add text to the blank web journal by clicking the +T icon, or by dragging it to where I want a new entry. The green line shows where it will be placed:
Placeholder text appears and can be replaced with notes by overtyping:
There is a control at the top right that selects whether the text is used as a subtitle or as body text. I can also replace the site title and other placeholder text.
To add images to the web journal pages, I must first add them to the web journal image browser. I add images by option-clicking on a project or album so that two browsers are displayed together and then drag the images I want over to the web journal browser:
In this case I am taking images from the MacWorld 2008 project, but they could come from anywhere in my library.
To make things easier, I can lock the viewer to the web journal browser:
This keeps the web journal displayed all the time even if I select album or project browsers and click on the images they contain.
Once I have some images in the web journal browser, I add them to my notes as illustrations by just dragging them in:
As well as living inside projects, web journals can also be stored in blue folders or brown folders. Although I can't have web journals inside albums or smart albums, I can name my web journals in such a way that they are easily associated with them.
While this technique does not allow documents to be stored with projects, I can still associate them. Using a copy of TextWrangler, I open a new file browser with option command N. Then I navigate to the document I want, in this case a Garageband file, and control-click:
By selecting Copy URL I have a URL that starts with file://. I paste that into my web journal. Later when I want to access the document I can copy and paste the URL into Safari. Safari will open the document if it can (for a movie for instance), or if it cannot will reveal it in the Finder. This technique works with folders as well. There is, unfortunately, no way to make the link clickable.
To add notes to My Macworld 2008 project, I control-click the project and select New > Web Journal:
That creates an unnamed web journal inside the project which I then rename. A web journal consists of blocks of text and images arranged on individual pages, the idea being that each page is a single entry for a unit of time such as a day. In this case I'm just going to use one page.
I add text to the blank web journal by clicking the +T icon, or by dragging it to where I want a new entry. The green line shows where it will be placed:
Placeholder text appears and can be replaced with notes by overtyping:
There is a control at the top right that selects whether the text is used as a subtitle or as body text. I can also replace the site title and other placeholder text.
To add images to the web journal pages, I must first add them to the web journal image browser. I add images by option-clicking on a project or album so that two browsers are displayed together and then drag the images I want over to the web journal browser:
In this case I am taking images from the MacWorld 2008 project, but they could come from anywhere in my library.
To make things easier, I can lock the viewer to the web journal browser:
This keeps the web journal displayed all the time even if I select album or project browsers and click on the images they contain.
Once I have some images in the web journal browser, I add them to my notes as illustrations by just dragging them in:
As well as living inside projects, web journals can also be stored in blue folders or brown folders. Although I can't have web journals inside albums or smart albums, I can name my web journals in such a way that they are easily associated with them.
While this technique does not allow documents to be stored with projects, I can still associate them. Using a copy of TextWrangler, I open a new file browser with option command N. Then I navigate to the document I want, in this case a Garageband file, and control-click:
By selecting Copy URL I have a URL that starts with file://. I paste that into my web journal. Later when I want to access the document I can copy and paste the URL into Safari. Safari will open the document if it can (for a movie for instance), or if it cannot will reveal it in the Finder. This technique works with folders as well. There is, unfortunately, no way to make the link clickable.
Aperture: A Fix For Leopard Automator Problems
2008-01-24
This thread on Apple's Aperture discussion forum includes a fix for a bug that prevents Automator actions from working correctly under Leopard. It manifests itself with the error:
-NSNull length: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0xa063f020
Berend posts this explanation and fix:
What has happened is that the Aperture Automator actions have been removed from /System/Library/Automator on installing Leopard (probably with Archive and Install).
I've been having this same issue and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong.
The hint provided by the previous poster put me on the right track.
The Aperture Automator actions are located in the the Aperture application.
Steps to take for repairing the situation:
1. Open a Finder window and navigate to /System/Library/Automator
2. Open a second Finder window and navigate to /Applications/Aperture
3. Execute a Show package Contents of Aperture (you should get a third Finder window).
4. Now navigate to Contents/Library/Automator
5. Select everything (.definition and .action) in that folder
6. Copy with option drag to the folder in the window created in step 1.
You will be asked for the administrator password.
7. Close superfluous windows.
8. Start Automator and enjoy.
In short: copy the contents of /Applications/Aperture.app/Contents/Library/Automator to
/System/Library/Automator
I've done this and no longer get the NS Null error messages. I can now access the actions and will see if they actually work some time in the next few days.
Cause: Apple Leopard Installer.
Remedy: Apple should have warned beforehand that something like this would happen and should have provided the solution.
Hopefully the expected updated to Mac OS X and Aperture will fix this.
-NSNull length: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0xa063f020
Berend posts this explanation and fix:
What has happened is that the Aperture Automator actions have been removed from /System/Library/Automator on installing Leopard (probably with Archive and Install).
I've been having this same issue and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong.
The hint provided by the previous poster put me on the right track.
The Aperture Automator actions are located in the the Aperture application.
Steps to take for repairing the situation:
1. Open a Finder window and navigate to /System/Library/Automator
2. Open a second Finder window and navigate to /Applications/Aperture
3. Execute a Show package Contents of Aperture (you should get a third Finder window).
4. Now navigate to Contents/Library/Automator
5. Select everything (.definition and .action) in that folder
6. Copy with option drag to the folder in the window created in step 1.
You will be asked for the administrator password.
7. Close superfluous windows.
8. Start Automator and enjoy.
In short: copy the contents of /Applications/Aperture.app/Contents/Library/Automator to
/System/Library/Automator
I've done this and no longer get the NS Null error messages. I can now access the actions and will see if they actually work some time in the next few days.
Cause: Apple Leopard Installer.
Remedy: Apple should have warned beforehand that something like this would happen and should have provided the solution.
Hopefully the expected updated to Mac OS X and Aperture will fix this.
Aperture: Use The Thumbnail To Preview Crops
2008-01-20
If you want to see how a crop will look in the final image but still play with it, set your workspace up like this:
After starting the crop with the C key, adjustments of the crop rectangle in the viewer are accompanied by thumbnail regeneration in the browser. Once it looks right, press A to finish. The same trick works in full screen mode:
Just make sure that the thumbnails are set to be visible all the time by setting the viewer mode to On:
After starting the crop with the C key, adjustments of the crop rectangle in the viewer are accompanied by thumbnail regeneration in the browser. Once it looks right, press A to finish. The same trick works in full screen mode:
Just make sure that the thumbnails are set to be visible all the time by setting the viewer mode to On:
Aperture: How To Construct Impossible Smart Albums
2008-01-17
Aperture's smart album filtering logic offers only the most basic logical choice: all the conditions set in the dialog or any of the conditions set in the dialog. This means that while there are many different criteria provided, it not apparently possible to combine them in complex ways.
However, due to the fact that there are actually two levels of filtering provided by the thumbnail and grid views, impossible filters can be constructed. For instance, I can find images taken on Wednesday OR Thursday OR Friday AND at between 100 and 130mm focal length. I can find images with the keyword Duck OR Swan OR Goose AND the keyword Lake AND rated two stars and above. And if I want, I can make these type of smart filters specific to a single project or to a collection of projects in a blue folder.
Here is how to combine logic using the two available levels. I'll use the requirement that I need to view all RAW images taken in 2007. To find all RAW images I have to create a filter that ORs together all the different kinds of RAW there can be, since there is no setting for "is RAW".
First I select the library and create a new smart album and call it RAW-2007:
I select the Library before I create the smart album because I want this to work on all my images. The dialog reflects this in its title.
Then I set the match to be ANY and filter to Filename ends with .CR2. I add some more conditions for the file name ending that deal with all the RAW formats I am going encounter:
I could check the Ignore stack groupings box at the bottom if I wanted to look inside stacks. This first filter finds all the RAW images in my library.
I close the dialog and with the smart album still selected I click on the filter icon on the browser, top right.
To set up the second level of filtering I filter on the EXIF capture year and match it to 2007:
I could add more conditions at this point, such as ratings or camera model, if I wished.
To make more filters similar to this one, say for different years, I duplicate the smart album, rename it, and then change the year number in the filter:
This second level of filtering works because each album, project, and smart album remembers its current filter setting. I have to be careful not to change it once I have the thumbnails displayed or else it will not work as expected when I reinvoke it. One way to reduce this risk is to select all the RAW-2007 images and create a new regular album from them (or just use the New Album With Current Images button) Since no more images will be added in 2007, the contents of that static album should never change.
However, due to the fact that there are actually two levels of filtering provided by the thumbnail and grid views, impossible filters can be constructed. For instance, I can find images taken on Wednesday OR Thursday OR Friday AND at between 100 and 130mm focal length. I can find images with the keyword Duck OR Swan OR Goose AND the keyword Lake AND rated two stars and above. And if I want, I can make these type of smart filters specific to a single project or to a collection of projects in a blue folder.
Here is how to combine logic using the two available levels. I'll use the requirement that I need to view all RAW images taken in 2007. To find all RAW images I have to create a filter that ORs together all the different kinds of RAW there can be, since there is no setting for "is RAW".
First I select the library and create a new smart album and call it RAW-2007:
I select the Library before I create the smart album because I want this to work on all my images. The dialog reflects this in its title.
Then I set the match to be ANY and filter to Filename ends with .CR2. I add some more conditions for the file name ending that deal with all the RAW formats I am going encounter:
I could check the Ignore stack groupings box at the bottom if I wanted to look inside stacks. This first filter finds all the RAW images in my library.
I close the dialog and with the smart album still selected I click on the filter icon on the browser, top right.
To set up the second level of filtering I filter on the EXIF capture year and match it to 2007:
I could add more conditions at this point, such as ratings or camera model, if I wished.
To make more filters similar to this one, say for different years, I duplicate the smart album, rename it, and then change the year number in the filter:
This second level of filtering works because each album, project, and smart album remembers its current filter setting. I have to be careful not to change it once I have the thumbnails displayed or else it will not work as expected when I reinvoke it. One way to reduce this risk is to select all the RAW-2007 images and create a new regular album from them (or just use the New Album With Current Images button) Since no more images will be added in 2007, the contents of that static album should never change.
Aperture: An Inconsistency In Your Database Has Been Detected
2008-01-12
Brett Gross recounts his experience tackling the message from Aperture: An inconsistency in your database has been detected.
He did all the right things. He immediately made a back up of the library. Then he tried repairing the problem. When that didn't work, he broke the problem down and solved one part at a time. After he had some success, he made another back up in addition to the first. Eventually he found what was causing the problem, deleting the offending files, and all was well.
He did all the right things. He immediately made a back up of the library. Then he tried repairing the problem. When that didn't work, he broke the problem down and solved one part at a time. After he had some success, he made another back up in addition to the first. Eventually he found what was causing the problem, deleting the offending files, and all was well.
What Is Missing From The Aperture Library?
2008-01-09
What is missing is a search field at the top of the library pane that filters on the name of projects and folders. Aperture works best with relatively small projects and provides blue folders for grouping them. But as time goes on, the number of projects and folders increases to the hundreds, and the point is reached where it is impossible to remember where anything is; hence the need to be able to filter.
Another missing feature is the ability to tag projects. Aperture is hot on keywords and has all these features based on metadata, but still offers only a hierarchical organization for projects. If I could tag projects then I could classify them in several different ways simultaneously. For instance, I could have some projects tagged Personal and Biking and others tagged Business and Biking and be able to filter to any Biking projects, not caring about the situation in which I shot them.
In the Finder list view I can open and close all folders at once with command right arrow and command left arrow respectively. I can include nested folders if I add the option key. But there is no similar facility in Aperture's library pane. In looking for a project I have to manually open, open, open, all the folders, and then when I'm done, close, close, close, all the folders. This adds to the frustration in dealing with many folders and projects.