Aperture 2.0 Q's

mercphoto · June 18, 2008

Well, I'm trying Aperture. Have quick questions. I imported images and, while I am getting keywords pulled in correctly, I'm not getting the ratings brought in. Very odd. And irritating. Didn't have that problem with LR. Second, there is no curves adjustments, only levels? Lastly, it seems you can't create albums under albums. LR lets you do this, as does iView Media Pro.

I'm thinking I'll be using LR instead of Aperture...

tjstrider · June 19, 2008

get used to it for a while
There is a difference between projects and albums... and you can next them inside of projects...

I have 1.5 and it is great especially for exporting images.

mercphoto · June 19, 2008

tjstrider wrote:

There is a difference between projects and albums... and you can next them inside of projects...

I have 1.5 and it is great especially for exporting images.

Thanks for the tip. But the fact it isn't importing my ratings, and that I can't adjust curves (only levels) is a big issue for me.

CatOne · June 22, 2008

mercphoto wrote:

Thanks for the tip. But the fact it isn't importing my ratings, and that I can't adjust curves (only levels) is a big issue for me.

Import ratings from what? Aperture unfortunately doesn't input stuff from XMP files.

As far as curves, you're correct. Though the levels too in Aperture tool is a lot more powerful than Photoshop's levels -- you can enable the quarter-tone sliders and come up with the equivalent of an S-curve. Still, curves are more flexible and more intuitive IMO.

mercphoto · June 23, 2008

CatOne wrote:

Import ratings from what? Aperture unfortunately doesn't input stuff from XMP files.

I'm importing .dng and .psd files and I've rated them (5 stars, 4 stars, etc) in iViewMedia Pro (and I've sync'd the metadata back to the original files).

CatOne · June 23, 2008

mercphoto wrote:

I'm importing .dng and .psd files and I've rated them (5 stars, 4 stars, etc) in iViewMedia Pro (and I've sync'd the metadata back to the original files).

Hmmm. I wonder if the concept of "rating" is not standardized. The key that's in the metadata or something. I don't actually know here -- I haven't imported from another app into Aperture.

There *is* a tool called Annoture which can move info from iView Media to Aperture. Looks like it's not compatible with Aperture 2.0 though :-(

http://www.tow.com/annoture/

mercphoto · June 26, 2008

Smart album issue
Well, I decided to use Aperture and I'm starting the process of importing, organizing, rating, etc. I've run into a problem with Smart Albums: I can't make them. If I make a filter query, I get a "create album" button, but not a "create smart album" button. It will, however, correctly filter the images based on the search criteria. Image rating, keywords used, even file extension. That all works. I just can't create a smart album from the search criteria.

If I create a smart album from the main menu, however, no photos end up in the smart album. Not only that, but it will not let me filter based on keyword.

Really bizarre.

mercphoto · June 26, 2008

Never mind, figured out the problem. Though I have to admit, a lot of things about Aperture seem very un-Apple to me. I hope I don't regret this purchase.

redleash · June 26, 2008

I bought a new iMac a few months back and went with Aperture. It's taking some getting used to and I often feel like I have image files all over the place. I didn't have any photo mgt software before, but in Windows I could find images quickly, even in multiple subfolders. Sometimes it does seem to take me a while to find stuff in Aperture.

But, I went for a couple one-on-one sessions at the Apple store and that helped a lot. One instructor here (in San Antonio) is also a photographer, so he can show me how he sets stuff up based on shoots, etc. I had some trouble with the smart albums at first, but I'm getting the hang of it. There is so much metadata that I don't use, so I just picked a couple fields and started using them to catalog some of my stuff and pull it into smart albums. I also found that I can open an image into Photoshop from Aperture and then the edited file gets saved as a new version in Aperture automatically. That saves some time for me.

The whole rating/keywords/metadata stuff is new to me so I do sometimes have to go back and look at some images multiple times to be sure they will end up where I want them. But once I get used to it, I do think Aperture is a powerful program that will help me a lot.

I hope you get it worked out.

Lauren

CatOne · June 26, 2008

mercphoto wrote:

Never mind, figured out the problem. Though I have to admit, a lot of things about Aperture seem very un-Apple to me. I hope I don't regret this purchase.

I take it the problem was that you were creating albums at the root level of the hierarchy. Where there are no photos, and thus you can't see keywords and create smart albums that way.

Smart Albums can be scoped. The manual explains them pretty well -- once you think about it it makes sense but it's not exactly 100% intuitive.

As far as Aperture being non-Apple-like... well it is more complicated than iPhoto, true. Aperture is designed by the "pro applications" group at Apple and these applications are much more powerful (and are more complex, but still simple for what they do), than the consumer apps like iPhoto. There certainly is more of a learning curve. Aperture 2.x is easier to use than 1.x was.

It's a very powerful and well thought out application for what it does. My advice is to get the "Aperture 2" book by Long, Harrington, and Luna. It's a very good book, and you WILL learn a number of things that you'll say "Wow! Now THAT'S neat!" You can't get them all by poking around and learning as you go.

mercphoto · June 27, 2008

Good info, CatOne. I think part of my problem is I don't understand the necessary distinction of projects, folders and albums. In iViewMedia Pro you simply had catalogs, and they could be nested inside each other as you saw fit. And you are correct that I did not understand that simply starting a filter at an album was not sufficient. Wierd, but there are photos in that ablum, and I want to filter on what is there. Turns out that my album was under a project, but the project did not have any images in it, only the album under the folder within the project had images, and that appears to be the primary problem. Why it is a problem I still not sure of. But one thing I am sure of is I don't understand the how's and why's of Aperture groupings. And, I am expecting it to act similiar to iVMP3.

I'll get the book.

apexonephoto · June 30, 2008

I set up my keyword, using Aperture and the button sets. Then I use Aperturetosmugmug, Macuploader or the drag and drop. A2S hangs up, but brings in the keywords. A2S, and Macuploader only allow one gallery upload at a time. Drag and drop won't bring up my keywords.

Is there something I have to do to ensure the keywords are somehow burned into the image file? I am new to Mac and the way I did it in ACDSee on Windows, I had to "set information" before any keywords "stuck" to the file.

Thanks
James

CatOne · June 30, 2008

apexonephoto wrote:

I set up my keyword, using Aperture and the button sets. Then I use Aperturetosmugmug, Macuploader or the drag and drop. A2S hangs up, but brings in the keywords. A2S, and Macuploader only allow one gallery upload at a time. Drag and drop won't bring up my keywords.

Is there something I have to do to ensure the keywords are somehow burned into the image file? I am new to Mac and the way I did it in ACDSee on Windows, I had to "set information" before any keywords "stuck" to the file.

Thanks
James

Keywords are automatically applied on export. So no, you don't have to make something "stick."

apexonephoto · June 30, 2008

For all the smac the Mac users talk, it seems that all of the 35,000 photos I uploaded with a PC went up really nicely. But my new Macbook may be going to my wife, and I may have to get a PC for myself. With the drag and drop on windows the keywords work right away.

I am aware of the "click edit and then the keywords show up" solution. This doesn't always work. I up load 5 or 6 galleries at a time, and have done so every weekend for the past two racin seasons. I have 700+ galleries, so I have done this before. Don't mean to say I don't appreciate the help, just have to vent the "new easy" life of a Mac user isn't all it's cracked up to be.

James

CatOne · July 3, 2008

apexonephoto wrote:

For all the smac the Mac users talk, it seems that all of the 35,000 photos I uploaded with a PC went up really nicely. But my new Macbook may be going to my wife, and I may have to get a PC for myself. With the drag and drop on windows the keywords work right away.

I am aware of the "click edit and then the keywords show up" solution. This doesn't always work. I up load 5 or 6 galleries at a time, and have done so every weekend for the past two racin seasons. I have 700+ galleries, so I have done this before. Don't mean to say I don't appreciate the help, just have to vent the "new easy" life of a Mac user isn't all it's cracked up to be.

James

Not sure what else I can say. There are many advantages IMO to the Mac but if you want to focus specifically on the uploading of multiple galleries of photos and the tools you're using to do so...

It does look like the Aperture2Smugmug plug-in will only upload a single gallery at a time. This may just be a limitation of the plugin (it's a piece of freeware), which granted is inconvenient to you as a user. I haven't had occasion to upload multiple galleries at once, though I can understand your need.

As far as the Macuploader issue -- probably something to talk to Smugmug about. What are you using specifically on the Windows side to upload the photos? I assume there's no Mac equivalent?

Aperture 2.0 Q's

Comments