Aperture Road Tour 2.0 by Aperture Prof. Users Network (post on hold)
[Sorry for all- classes have been keeping me wicked busy (yes WICKED), I haven’t had a chance to finish this entry, I thought I would have had it done a long time ago- but I guess, get what you can from it now- I’ll have it finished soon enough - and def check out APUN]
The Short of it: A run down of Aperture tips, tricks, shortcuts hot keys and best practices, ended off with my favorite features and export plugins.
First I would like to say that David and the guys from Aperture Professional Users Network (APUN) are great guys and put on an awesome seminar worth going to, even if you’ve been using Aperture for a while. Make sure to check them out.
{ Legend: BP = Best Practices, HK = Hotkey, QT = Quick Tip, N2 = new to Aperture 2.0, N2.1 = New to Aperture 2.1, !! = Important/Valuable }
Workflow - The flow or progress of work done by a company, industry department or individual.
Digital Imaging Stages - Capture > Organization/Editing > Output > Archiving - but really, there is no step to step process.
Tip: Pick the best camera and lens combo you can afford
Because, the sensor in a digital camera is a huge factor- it’s like your film. (The lens is important too, but unlike in film days, the camera is the sensor so the better camera, the better sensor, better picture)
CF cards
- UDMA, the newest read, write protocol of CF cardsp (300x speed) - 1GB transfer for a reg card 1.5 - 2 minute, UDMA = 52 seconds.
Procards typically come with image recovery software - when images “disappear” they typically aren’t gone, - the directories are messed up.
On an LCD there is no true black - your colors on an LCD are not true by nature. There is no true black on an LCD. (This is because the panels stay charged to switch color).
Color Management
- Every human sees color differently
- Every human device records output color differently
Range of human vision - Calibration and Profiling ensures that each device in your imaging chain describes color the same way.
Human Vision - (reverse flag) the human eye determines colors based on the colors around it (if you have yellow walls behind your monitor or don’t have black out curtains, colors will look different through out the day).
- Keep consistent lighting in your work environment.
- IF you are viewing a laptop screen at full brightness you are not viewing accurate color. (For Mac laptops, anywhere within 2 boxes of the downward spike of the sun logo)
- If you have two monitors and cannot get them to match via color calibration then one monitor is probably out of wack or broken.
(Note, Best Buy has loss leader sales every two weeks so if a HD is expensive when you go to get it- wait a week)
Output-
HP Photosmart Pro B8850 Photo Printer - cheap
The number inks does not necessarily mean good images, the quality of inks is what matters- wilhem- ??? research.
Archiving
Amazon’s S3 - for online backup
SugarSync - syncs drives on multiple machines
Drobo - backup option
Automated backup, like a better RAID.
If you are not backing up to a source at least 1000 miles away, you are not fully backing everything up.
Getting Around in Aperture
BP: One of the first things you can do to increase your productivity is to invest in dual monitors. You get a greater workspace, more screen real estate for your main viewing image and an overall more unified workflow. (I personally utilize a dual display set up at home and love it). Increase speed and accuracy when viewing your images. Also to quote Jason Calacanis from his list of top tips for start ups:
Buy second monitors for everyone, they will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year… which is at least $2,000 a year…. which is $6,000 over three years. A second monitor cost $300-500 depending on which one you get. That means you’re getting 10-20x return on your investment… and you’ve got a happy team member.
N2 - Unified Inspector pane. No longer will you struggle (if you used 1.5-) flipping your attention from the left with projects to the right for meta and adjustments- all the info and controls you need live on our left- at first I was kind of against this. I liked the segregation of controls- however, using it more, I would never go back- this change results in: faster workflow and more screen real estate for images.
Related HKs)
I = toggles the inspector pane on and off
Ctrl+P switches within inspector to Projects Tab
Ctrl+D switches to the Meta tab (D for Data)
Ctrl+A switches to the Adjustments tab
N2) Your entire keyboard is 100% customizable
