Searching and Filtering Images


Stacking, rating, keywordingall of that organizing takes time, as you've seen. At last, however, you get to experience the payoff. We're going to use Aperture's Browser Search field and Query HUD to see how you can quickly search and filter images based on the metadata and rating information that we've applied to the images in our Lesson08 First Import project.

1.

Press Command-Option-B to switch to the Maximize Browser layout. Then select the Lesson08 First Import project.

2.

Click in the Browser and press Command-A to select all of the images in the project.

3.

Close all stacks by pressing Command-;. When you use the Browser search feature, Aperture searches only pick images, so there's no need to show the contents of your stacks. Don't worry, you can use different means for searching images within a stack.

The Browser Search field pop-up menu allows you to quickly search for images by their star rating. You specify the rating criteria, and the Browser will show only those images. Let's begin by filtering the images to display only those with five-star ratings.

1.

In the Browser, click the Search field and choose the five-star rating from the pop-up menu.

The Browser filters the images to display only those with a five-star rating.

Filtering Images Using the Query HUD

The Query HUD, as you may recall from Lesson 3, allows you to specify any number of search criteriarating, keywords, and more. Now, let's open the Query HUD and winnow out a subset of these five-star images by selecting ones tagged with certain keywords.

1.

Open the Query HUD by clicking the Search Query button (next to the Search field) at the top of the Browser.

Notice that the Rating box is checked. That's because you already filtered the images by their five-star rating. Let's filter now by keyword.

2.

Select the Keywords checkbox.

Aperture displays all of the keywords that are attached to the currently selected images. Let's tell Aperture that we want to see only our rehearsal images.

3.

Select the Rehearsal checkbox.

Only Pickle Circus images tagged with the Rehearsal keyword (and five stars) appear in the Browser.

4.

Select the Acrobats checkbox.

The five-star performance shots of acrobats appear in the Browser alongside the rehearsal images.

5.

Change the Keywords pop-up menu to "contain all of the following."

The Browser shows only those images that are tagged with all of the checked keywords.

6.

Deselect the Acrobats checkbox.

The Browser displays your five-star rehearsal images.

7.

Change the Match pop-up menu from "all" to "any" of the following.

All of your five-star images will appear, regardless of their keywords. You've told Aperture that if an image matches any of your chosen criteria, it should be displayed.

Using various combinations of "any" and "all" criteria, you can conduct powerful searches of images in Aperture.

Searching by Additional Criteria

As you've seen, Aperture supports a tremendous number of metadata tags, ranging from the EXIF metadata generated by your camera to star ratings to IPTC metadata. All of these metadata tags are searchable using the Query HUD, even though you can't see all of these criteria in the Query HUD at the moment. You have to add them using the Add Filter pop-up menu.

1.

Choose Match > "all of the following" in the Query HUD and set the Keywords pop-up to "contain all of the following."

2.

Make sure the Acrobats checkbox is deselected. (You may get different results if you did not apply ratings to all photos.)

3.

Click the Add Filter pop-up menu (the button with the plus sign in the upper right corner of the HUD), and choose EXIF. EXIF filter options appear at the bottom of the Query HUD.

Digital cameras automatically embed EXIF information in images that they capture. EXIF information includes camera settings such as shutter speed, ISO, focal length, and exposure. Let's use the Query HUD to search for images with different ISOs.

4.

Choose ISO Speed Rating from the first ISO pop-up menu at the bottom of the Query HUD. Set the second pop-up menu to "is," and then enter 400 in the text field, and press Return. One image appears in the Browserthis is the only five-star image that we shot at ISO 400.

5.

Enter 800 in the EXIF text field. Eight images appear in the Browser. Because Rehearsal is still checked and the Rating is set at five stars, however, the Browser only displays the five-star rehearsal images that were shot at ISO 800.

6.

Enter 1600 in the EXIF text field. The Browser now displays five images.

7.

Close the Query HUD. Even when the Query HUD is closed, your images are still filtered according to the Query HUD's search criteria. The text field next to the Query HUD button indicates that the current image selection has been filtered.

In this case, the three icons indicate that rating, keywords, and EXIF data are all being searched. To clear the filtering and view all images, click the X button in the right side of the Query HUD field.

We could continue, but you get the idea. A common use of the Query HUD is to find images that you need to edit, so often you'll just use it to find five-star images.

It's important to note that the Query HUD is not global: It filters only the currently selected item in the Projects panel. Each project in Aperture has its own filter settings, so you can sort one project one way, and then go to another and define completely different filters. When you return to the first project, you'll find your Query HUD settings just as you left them.

Aperture's Query HUD is a powerful tool for sifting through your images. The ability to search on any combination of multiple criteria can help you quickly find the images you need. However, good searching depends on having good metadata assigned to your images. If you take the extra time to apply IPTC data, ratings, and keywords, you'll be able to quickly find images shot on specific dates, by specific photographers, of particular events. As your Library grows, this functionality will become increasingly valuable.

To help you with your IPTC keywords, Aperture can even find images that lack IPTC metadata. For example, you can search for images that don't have a copyright. In the Query HUD, add an IPTC criterion, and then configure it as follows:

The ability to search for empty fields makes it simple to find images that need additional rating and tagging.

Congratulations. You can now consider yourself a pro at stacking, rating, keywording and doing all other tasks related to organizing images in Aperture. It's a lot to digest, but once you do, you'll savor the robust and powerful control that Aperture provides you over your image Library.




Apple Pro Training Series(c) Aperture 1.5
Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 1.5
ISBN: 0321496620
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 190

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net