It doesn’t really matter if you shoot sports, portraits, fashion or landscapes. Unless you are very very different from the rest of us human beings your shots of the same subject with the same lighting, framing, and perspective will usually fall within a short time period with a gap before you change your framing, lighting, subject, etc. Autostack stacks and unstacks images based on the time between images and… You can see it visually. This is fantastic and far easier than doing it manually. The big win here is when you use stack mode to review your images and get to the best ones very quickly.

Understanding why autostack is so great requires you to understand why albums are great to bubble various edits/versions/post production treatments up to the top as well. The other thing that might help are a couple of tips from me because I am an autostack/stack mode junkie. The trick is to go a little overboard with the autostack. In most cases that I have experienced you end up with everything falling neatly into really close times if they are different shots/framing/etc. with one or two that are very different that get picked up and jammed into a stack that you really don’t want in a stack. Like when you do a really really quick change in framing or composition and go back to the same one you were using before – etc. If you are too OCD with using autostack not wanting anything to be stacked “wrong” you end up with not nearly enough photos that belong in the same stack actually autostacked. It is far better to go a little more aggressive an end up with an image here or there in the wrong stack. or more likely a couple stacks that are really big with two different subjects/compositions in them.

The reason for this is that it is much quicker to get things out of a stack than it is to put them together using just the keyboard. Most of the time what will happen when you use autostack to it’s full advantage is you end up with two subjects in one stack – this is even easier to deal with while using just the keyboard. The magic keyboard short cuts correspond to “Extract Item” and “Split stack” under the stack menu. Look them up in the menu.

Learning to use autostack, a couple of keyboard shortcuts, and stack mode took my process to get to my selects down from hours to minutes for my commercial work. I found once it was so painless I actually had time and desire to do it a couple times and guess what – I made better decisions.

RB

Let’s say you have a project with a bunch of images that you need to crop to a specific aspect ratio. There is a really fast and easy way to do this without screwing up your organization or marring your pristine full-frame versions. Assuming you have stacked, rated, keyworded and adjusted all of the images and all you need are 8×10 crops to send to Walmart or something, here is what you do.

1. Make sure all of your stacks are closed in the view that you are going to select the images from. You can do this with option-;
2. Select all of the images that need the crop.
3. Create a new album from the selection by either right clicking one of the images or using command-L, you should now have an album with all of the selected images. I am calling mine 8×10.
4. Looking at the newly created album all of the stacks should still be closed,  if not close them and select all of the images in the album. You can do this with Command-A
5. Now create duplicate versions of all of the images using option-V. Because you happen to be looking at an album when creating those duplicates they all become “album picks” for this album, meaning that they show up at the top when the stack is closed. Close all the stacks again so that you can only see the duplicates.
6. Select just the first image in the album and then click on the crop tool. For our purposes I am going to use an aspect ratio of 8×10. Now apply the crop to the first image by dragging and hitting enter.
7. Click on the lift tool to lift all of the adjustments and metadata. Un-check all of the items except adjustments and open the adjustments so that you can see them. Using the delete key, delete everything but the crop and make sure the mode is on “add”
8. Reverse the selection by using command-R
9. Choose “stamp selected images”. You just applied your crop to all of the other images. Great, close the lift and stamp HUD, now here comes the really great part.
10. Select the first image only and choose the crop tool again. Do not hit enter, just use the arrow keys to “arrow through” all of your images adjusting the crop for each of the images with the mouse. No fuss, no muss. While the crop tool is active you can see and adjust the crop frame for each image without a lot of wasted motion. You do not need to hit enter for each one, if you do it will basically close the crop HUD and put you back at the arrow tool.

This sounds like a lot of steps but it’s really not. I happened to mention a lot of keyboard shortcuts that help really speed things up once you know them but even with using the menus to do everything I just explained it takes under a minute to apply this to a few dozen images and you stay organized to boot. The technique of duplicating and adjusting versions in the context of new albums having them automatically become “album picks” and showing up at the top of the stack in that album is essential to an efficient organized work-flow in Aperture. Albums and versions are practically free from a storage and resource standpoint. No need to mess about inside stacks after creating them and picking the original “stack pick” way back at the beginning of your work-flow. I never ever ever create a new version that is not somehow the “album pick” of an album somewhere.

Just to drive this home lets make all of these custom crops black and white.

1. Command-A select all.
2. Command-L New album from selection.
3. Type in the new name “Black and White”
4. Control-M add monochrome mixer adjustment. Tweak settings
5. Shift-Command-C lift
6. Delete everything but the monochrome mixer
7. Command-R reverse selection
8. Stamp selected images

Ten seconds flat for a new album with new black and white “album picks”.

RB

Now if you do shoot RAW+JPG you will end up with two files for every image. One with an NEF/CR2 extention and one with a JPG extention in the same folder on your card or wherever you copy the files to. When you import these into Aperture it will look like you only have the RAW image when in fact Aperture imports both. Secretly behind the scenes Aperture will store the JPG along with the RAW file. To get at the JPG and view it or use it or whatever all you have to do is right click on the RAW version and choose “New version from master JPG” or use the shortcut option+J. This will convieniently create a new version from the JPG.

Say you do shoot RAW+JPG and you want to see all of the JPG files and maybe email them to a client or blast them up to flickr or whatever. Here is a three keystroke sequence that will give you an album with all of the JPG versions as the album picks (on top of the stack for that album):

• Command+A – select all
• Option+L – new album from selection
• Option+J – new version from master JPG

If you happen to stack your originals and only want your project stack picks to show up as new JPG versions just close all stacks as the first step (Option+;). One last thing for the squeamish – if you try to delete the newly created version you will most likely get the very confusing and misleading message that you are about to delete a master and all versions – ignore it. It just gets rid of the version that you just created it does not remove the imported “Master JPG” file.

RB

In most cases I would select all of the images that I plan a new version or variation, like an aspect ratio crop and create a new album from that selection. After creating the new album I would close all the stacks, select all, and then duplicate version – hence createing both a new version for the modification and creating an album pick in one fell swoop. If you are planning on using an external editor or plugin this will not work out. If you use “edit with…” you will find that the new version is not automatically the album pick after round tripping the image to the external editor. Wow, that sucks. So here is the super secret recipie for dealing with this efficiently. Create a new album with the target images or don’t it doesn’t matter yet. Do your modifications to new versions with the external editor. When you are ready to go and have done all the diry work just do a quick search in the browser search box for psd or tif (the choice of formats you use for sending to the external editor) do a select all on the results and create a new album from selection. The versions that were selected will be the album picks in the newly created album. No fuss, no muss, just two keystrokes and you have your new album with all of the versions modified with an external editor at the top of the stack in that album.

I hope this helps speed things up for those of you that have been aggrivated by this speed bump.

RB

The real power of custom sort orders in the browser is that you can have as may as you want for whatever purpose you need. Yet another thing in Aperture that is great but not well documented, each album that you create can keep track of it’s own custom sort order, sort of like an “album pick” in each stack being specific to each and every album. Since albums are almost free in terms of performance and storage space I create albums for the specific purpose of just another sort order. A couple of ways that I use this capability constantly is for Aperture slide shows. In fact I have short slide shows, long slide shows. slide shows with just portrait oriented images, slide shows with only landscape oriented images. I most cases I use a sort order that  makes more logical sense, more aesthetic sense, or both. If you ever used the “three up” type slide show o an HD display for portrait images you probably know that the order of images is critical. If you haven’t used it you may want to try it.

Another thing that I use custom sort orders for is for image naming and export. I create an album anytime that I need to export a set of specific images, the really cool thing is that when you use a custom sort order for that album in combination with a custom export naming template you can achieve just about any image order that you want built right into the file naming scheme.

Hope this helps those of you who haven’t stumbled on to this Aperture feature save some time in your photographic endeavors. As usual comments on how you use this or will and questions are always welcome.

RB

Immediately after import I fix any stacking issues in the browser using shortcut keys for extract item, stack (make two stacks one), and split stack. I make sure “primary only” is off and then go into full screen mode with the “F” key, turn on “stack mode” with option-t and proceed to do two things only. One make sure my “stack pick” is the best image in the stack using the “Z” key for 100% view and shift-command-space and drag to simultaniously evaluate two very similar images critically without wasting time with the loupe. Hit “Z” again and move on. The second thing I do during this pass is use the “minus” key to reject the total garbage. I know what you are thinking, why not do some keywording here. For me it slows me down at this phase, I also get a much better idea of the keywords that I will need and want while I am going through making my stack picks.

Now back to the browser, here I quickly make a new keyword button set  and select all of the images that will get a keyword and just use the new shortcut key. I’ll do a quick tip on my keywording philosphy soon if anyone is interested. Just a clarification here, I keyword all of the images not just the stack picks. Most of the time images in a stack get the same keywords. Occasionally a few get an additional keyword or two sort of as notes to self. One thing I don’t do is my ratings – yet. This is on purpose after doing ratings and stacking a couple of different ways over the last few years.

The next thing is using the browser to show all the garbage that I rejected. I do a quick run through making sure that I wasn’t too itchy with the trigger finger. Then I select all and command-delete them. Gone. At this time I usually move on to do the same thing with another project or go to bed or drink or something. I like to sleep on my stack picks unless I must get them out right the F now. Also part of the reason I don’t rate them yet but only half the reason.

So now when I am fresh and rested and had a chance to absorb what I did the night before or whatever, I go through in full screen stack mode again and make sure that the stack picks are my favorites in the stack. This takes very little time and once and a while I make different and usually better decisions. Now I go back to view multiple mode in a filmstrip and viewer arrangement, close all stacks (option-;) and do a couple or ratings passes to end up with my final ratings. Note that only my stack picks are rated now. My rationale for this is simple, your milage may vary. All of my metadata is done, including keywords. Now my ratings are done but only to the stack picks. To understand my rationale you have to also understand I only do adjustments, etc to my stack picks. I always make adjustments and alterations or variations for specific purposes on duplicate versions in the context of an album that is just for that purpose. As an example lets say I make an album called final adjustments where I optimize the image contrast color, etc. In that album the “album pick” or version that shows up at the top of the stack for that album only is a duplicate version of my over all project stack pick. It has the same metadata, and the same rating. Now when every I do a searh in a smart album or the browser or whatever at any level of the hierarchy I only see the stack pick and all of the adjustment variations that I do. I don’t see every version that I shot of that image. For me this reduces the visual clutter you may see things differently.

As for creating an album for each variation I feel this part is crucial to stay organized. By doing this your stacks will all look the same at the project level. A stack pick that is rated, and various visual variations of that right behind it with variations made in camera following those without any rating. Each of those rated versions will also have an album that is named for it’s purpose within the project like “print”, “web”, “contrast and color”, “black and white”, etc. If you really want one of the in camera variations that you shot adjusted etc. fine, just extract it from the stack give it a rating and off you go using the same work-flow system.

That’s pretty much the front end of my Aperture workflow. The back end various based on the output, the purpose of the project, as well as other considerations. I am not suggesting that you adopt exactly what I do on the front end just take what you want and customize it to fit your needs. As always questions, comments, and discussion are welcome.

RB

First the similarities between Lightroom and Aperture. Both applications can group images together either manually or automatically by the date and time stamps on the original images. They both automatically put new versions/virtual copies in a stack with the original master image. You an move images “up” or “down” in a stack or move an image right to the top. Images at the top of the stack are the images that represent the stack when the stack is closed and there for provide an easy way to select only the images at the top of stacks when all stacks are closed.

The big difference between Aperture2 and Lightroom2 is that stacks are inherent and visible no matter where you are looking at an image in Aperture. When using Lightroom you only have access to stacks and the related stack functionality when looking at images in the library module and then only when clicked on a folder (the closest thing to an Aperture project) view. For instance if you drag an image in a stack into a collection that image shows up in the collection but there is no indication when viewing the collection that it is part of an image stack. There is no stack functionality at all when viewing a collection with one exception. If you create a new virtual copy or version of an image in a collection it will automatically be added to a stack with the original image when viewing that image in a folder. In aperture it is apparent that an image is in a stack no matter where you are looking at it, in an album, a smart album, the project, etc. This may not seem like a big deal but it is huge in terms of a streamlined work-flow. When combined with the functionality of “album picks” in Aperture, the ability for different images to show up at the top of a stack in every different album or album like thing is a huge time saver for creating and managing various versions of an image for different output purposes. Take for example the need for different image crops for standard paper sizes. In Aperture you can close all of your stacks, select all of them (or filter based on whatever criteria you want) create a new album with those. Hit one key to make a new version and then apply an 8×10 crop to all of them at the same time. Just the act of doing this causes the new versions created in the context of the album to show up at the top of the stack in that album. Don’t get me wrong there are ways of accomplishing this in Lightroom with much less fanfare than the way we all used to do things like this but Aperture’s stacks/stack picks/album picks are major work-flow efficiency tools when used to their best advantage. The Light room equivalent is more like go to the folder, close all the stacks, select all images or filter/select all images, create virtual copies, create new collection, drag collection to collection set, select all images in collection, apply black and white preset. Not a big deal but here is the big deal but longer and clunkier.

The other thing that is different is what is almost a total lack of short cut keys to manipulate stacks in Lightroom. WTF, once you have some experience using an application and you are whizzing through your work-flow using short cut keys and one or two are missing for what you want/need to do it’s like hitting a brick wall going 90 mph. The same applies to the lack of short cut keys for Lightroom compare mode. If you get proficient using both Aperture2 compare features and Lightroom features you will feel like you are in slow motion, mouse move point, click, hell in Lightroom. Talking about compare features for a moment, Lightroom has a workable compare mode and just enough keys to make you want the ones it does not have. Lightroom also has absolutely no connection between it’s compare features and it’s stack features. The big missing key as compared to Aperture is the set compare item key. Don’t think this is a big deal? You should have seen the seizures and conniptions that the experienced Aperture users had when Apple removed not that key but the short cut that put you into compare mode and set the compare item at the same time due to newbie users accidently putting themselves in compare mode. The speed of compare mode, short cut keys and stack mode are deal breakers when comparing Aperture2 to Lightroom2 for a lot of people. Stack mode in Aperture2 is like compare mode but tied to image stacks. A summary is that the right/left arrow keys only move the candidate image within the stack, they won’t go beyond. The up/down arrow keys move from stack to stack. When changing stacks the “stack pick” or image at the top of the stack is automatically set to the compare images. Last but not least, ta da… there is a shortcut key/function that replaces the compare image with the candidate AND makes it the stack pick.

It’s also kind of nice to do a search or use a global smart album and know that an image that shows up is part of an image stack, in other words has other versions or similar shot variations. Even if the other version do not meet the search or smart album there is a grey box around the image along with a badge indicating the number of images in a stack that the image is a part of.

The bottom line stacks, compare mode, and their relationship to versions/virtual copies and collections/albums are workable in Lightroom and better than anything we had a few years ago but Aperture2 blows the living crap out of Lightroom2 when it comes to stack functionality when looked at in the context of an overall work-flow.

RB

Once I have my stacks I can get to my stack picks, the ones that represent the best and show up when stacks are closed extremely quickly using stack mode. It’s easy to turn stack mode on just go over to the button on the right above the filmstrip that looks like a TV set and use the drop down to choose stack or better yet hit option-T. You can do this when viewing the filmstrip and the viewer but I prefer fullscreen mode so I hit F. Now for the good part…

In stack mode you will see two images at a time. On the left will be the current stack pick. On the right will be the compare image. If you like the compare image better just hit the command-\ and the compare will become the stack pick and will now be on the left. The image on the right will now be the next one down the stack. If you want to leave the current stack pick alone just hit the right arrow key to move on down the stack. When you get to the end of that stack the right key won’t do anything any more. Hit the down arrow to go to the next stack. The key to using this effectively is to get your stack picks before creating new versions.

Another tidbit. When you are comparing images like this try hitting the Z key. This zooms into 100% view on both images you can scroll them around at the same time by using shift-command-space and drag. This is usually much faster for me to evaluate sharpness between two images or compare details rather than moving the loupe around between the two.

Comments and critique always welcome. MobileMe comments have been really flakey lately so you can email me.