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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Looking for insight using Aperture
Chris Keane, Photographer
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 9:10 PM on 03.02.11 |
->> I've had Aperture installed on my machine for sometime now (since the first version) but I've never really used it. I've used the software for a few small projects, mainly a place to store my final jpegs from a multiple day shoot as well as designing books that I've had printed through Apple's service.
I think I might be missing something here and would like to see if Aperture would be a good fit for me in my workflow. Currently I'm shooting RAW almost 100 percent of the time. I ingest everything using Photo Mechanic where I do my selections and captioning then process those files with Photoshop where I'll generally save out a jpeg. My RAW take is stored on an external RAID 1 drive sorted by date then by shoot. The final jpegs are stored on my local machine as well as stored online in my Photoshelter account.
I'd like to hear from any and all Aperture users out there. What do you like about the program, what do you not like about the program. Why are using it? Are you using it in your entire workflow or just pieces? What is your workflow with Aperture?
Thanks everyone. |
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Craig Mitchelldyer, Photographer, Assistant
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Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 10:35 PM on 03.02.11 |
| ->> I use aperture for everything you just described using three programs. Import, caption, export to photo shelter, adjustments, curves, touch ups, catalogging, archive, tethering, etc etc etc. All can be done in aperture. |
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Dirk Weaver, Photographer, Assistant
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 10:48 PM on 03.02.11 |
| ->> Craig, I'm with you. I use it for everything as it is straight forward and EXTREMELY user friendly. Check it out when you have a moment Chris. It'll make your life much, much easier. the export to Photoshelter is seamless. |
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Eric Isaacs, Photographer, Assistant
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 12:34 AM on 03.03.11 |
->> Chris:
I heard great things about Aperture and when it went on the app store for $80 I jumped on it.
First thing I noticed is it wanted to take all my carefully archived photos and move them to its own library. I don't want that so I told it to leave things where they are. Instead it wants to catalog multiple terabytes of images into its own hierarchy. I don't really understand what its doing or why it takes so long but after letting it run for 2 days straight I force-quit the program and haven't used it since.
I have a reasonably tight workflow ingesting, sorting and captioning through PM and then doing my final crop and edit in photoshop. Hopefully someone will chime in to your thread that will help us both out but for now I'm not impressed.
EMI |
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Andrew Fielding, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Denver | CO | USA | Posted: 1:41 AM on 03.03.11 |
->> Eric, you found Aperture's fatal flaw...it wants to own all the data in its library file...that's why I got rid of it. It's also not good for deadline work, PM and your choice of editor (I like Camera Raw) is the gold standard.
Aperture however is great with RAW if you can get over the horrible problems with library and crashing. As others have said it is pretty user friendly and if you buy a new Mac you can get one to one for 100 bucks and you can go to a store and someone will train you on use of Aperture |
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Chad Greene, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Knoxville | TN | USA | Posted: 8:01 AM on 03.03.11 |
| ->> I've been using Aperture 3 for the last year almost exclusively and it's been great. I got interested in it when they added video support, since now I can archive both my photo and video files in the same location and find everything at once. My old workflow was similar to yours and this has made it faster and easier. I import, tone, caption and export all in the same window, it saves me time. It takes some time to set up the program to work the way you want. Things such as your catalog importing options, export sizing and some tweaks here and there. Once your set up and going it has made my work faster overall. |
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Robert Smith, Photographer
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Brandon | MS | USA | Posted: 8:33 AM on 03.03.11 |
->> Chris: Fellow SS member Thomas Boyd is quite the expert on Aperture. You might want to seek him out. I have seen some of his tutorials through the Macreate site and he is very good. Here is his SS Page:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=9215 |
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Kent Miller, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 12:59 PM on 03.03.11 |
->> I ingest everything from a shoot with PM. I do my selections and captioning, IPTC data. I put the selects in a second folder and import that folder into Aperture. You can tell Aperture to leave the files where they are and to only make small previews. I have it set to the smallest previews it can make. I view and edit them on a 30 inch display with no problems. Then I export to JPG and TIFF when needed. The process is fast as I can make one correction and stamp it to many files at once. You can make presets for correction and export so the process goes even faster. The "Fatal flaw" of version one is no longer an issue. Store your files as you normally would and point aperture to them. Many people import everything into aperture and do all tagging and captioning inside one app. I just think nothing is faster than PM at the selection process for thousands of files. I am using a Mac Pro 8core with 24gb of ram. The app is very fast and crashing is not an issue. Drop me a note if you need more info.
I wish it had the lens correction that PS has.... Maybe next version! |
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Chris Large, Photographer
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Okotoks | AB | Canada | Posted: 12:45 AM on 03.04.11 |
->> I am a total convert to Aperture. Like Kent I ingest & rename with PM then tag the photos for delete, or prime keepers. My particular business has me send raw & jpeg's of everything (minus the crap that should never see the light of day) to the studio - I don't have to worry about tweaking or correcting anything.
I do however have to email or ftp 6 - 10 images per day to the studio so they get the feel for how the movie is going. These are the prime keepers. I copy those shots into aperture. Once imported ( jpegs only) I crop, correct and adjust then email right from aperture. It is 100 times faster than PS.
My original shots (minus the deletes) are still in the original file on my desktop - I back them up onto 2 portable HD's and I'm done for the day. I can usually do the entire day - 750-1500 images sitting in the hotel lounge, having a beer in under an hour. At the end of the movie I look at my prime keeps and move 20 or 30 into my portfolio folder in my aperture library.
Chris |
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Thomas Boyd, Photographer
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Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 1:37 PM on 03.04.11 |
->> Eric:
Andrew is incorrect in saying Aperture wants to own all the data in its library file. He's also incorrect to say it's not good for deadline work. I use it for deadline sports exclusively. It's faster in many ways than Lightroom or PM/CS5.
Aperture gives you the choice of having Aperture "manage" or "reference" your images.
It sounds like you had it set up (which is the default) to manage your images.
You need to set "Store Files" "In their current location..." in the import window. This will leave your files where they are just as PM would do.
Here's a video about importing (watch it in full screen mode):
http://aperture.maccreate.com/2011/02/23/free-video-tutorial-aperture-3-imp.../
And one on library fundamentals:
http://aperture.maccreate.com/2011/02/17/video-tutorial-aperture-3-library-.../ |
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Thomas Boyd, Photographer
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Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 1:48 PM on 03.04.11 |
->> I forgot to mention that the entire 14 shooter staff of The Oregonian where I work is in the process of switching to Aperture.
We need to upload as many quick clip videos as possible and, while Aperture isn't a full blow video editing suite, it can easily handle multiple clips, trimming and export, all while staying in the same app as we use for stills and not having to transcode clips in streamclip and set up a whole project in Final Cut. It's much faster.
Here's a very simple video we posted with an update on the Timbers MLS team.
(please don't judge!). I'm just showing this as an example of what can be done very quickly in Aperture:
http://bcove.me/ykeieiel
(it was shot on a 7D with a Rode stereo vide mic.) |
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