articles/Media/aperture2workflowoptions-page2

Aperture 2 - workflow options - part 2 of 1 2 3

Published 01/10/2008

Adjusting/Enhancing Images

Once I've sorted and renamed my files, I'll go through them and apply any adjustments, needed. Simple tasks such as fixing white balance, enhancing colours, straightening, cropping and improving exposure are all done non-destructively. I've made pre-sets which I apply, on the fly. If there is a batch of images shot under the same lighting conditions, then only one image is adjusted and the settings applied to this image 'lifted' from it and 'stamped' on all the rest of the images in one go. Now I export them as 'versions' and saved as high-quality JPEGs.

Presenting Images to Clients

This is where Aperture 2 comes on to its own. When a client books an appointment to either come and see our work or to preview their wedding or portrait images, the images are shown as a slideshow with music, all available in Aperture 2. I have a dual-monitor set up on 30" and 23" Apple Cinema Displays. When I purchased the 30" ACD, I did get a bit of stick from Farzana (my wife) for spending as much on a monitor as the G5! However, the 30" ACD paid for itself within the first month, as clients purchased images which they wouldn't have if they had not seen them enlarged on a 30" display. They are just amazed with the quality of images shown to them. To fully take advantage of Aperture, you've got to work with a dual-monitor set-up. This really does speed up the workflow.

The Selection Process

This process takes around an hour or so for a wedding (300 images) and about 15-20 minutes for a portrait session (60 images). Multiple images are selected and displayed at the same time and the ones which the client likes are rated as 1-star. Once we've gone through all the images, I do a quick search for all 1-star rated images and work with just these.

Designing the Album

The album is created with the selected images. I've made my own custom sizes for the various albums, ie 10"x14", and so on. Designing each page individually is very easy; each album I create is unique, as there are no templates to be repeated. I have used album design software before and the problem I found was that whenever I had a layout in my mind, it took me ages to find it. Here in Aperture 2, I can very quickly create custom pages without any need for a degree in graphic design! Once all the pages are created, they can be exported as JPEG files and sent to the laboratory for printing or you can print in-house. Web galleries can also be created and uploaded to your .Mac account, all within Aperture.

As you can see from the above, I've not left Aperture for a single moment in my workflow. With Aperture 2, I can even clone and repair any image that requires it - if I really do need to take an image into Photoshop, I can do this directly from within Aperture 2 and make the changes. Aperture 2 automatically updates that image.

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