Grouping Images Into Stacks


It's standard practice for a photographer to bracket shots or shoot action in bursts. In both cases, you end up with a series of very similar photographs of the same subject, with subtle variations of exposure, lighting, framing, and composition. It's just as standard for the photographer to spend a fair amount of time sorting through that series of photographs to find the best image. Stacks are one of several intelligent features in Aperture that speed up the editing process. We'll look first at how to organize a series of portraits of a young girl.

1.

In the Projects panel, select your new album, Tibet Selections, from the Tibet Albums folder.

2.

From the Browser, select the image named Tibet 05 095 (the girl wearing a cowboy hat).

The image appears in the Viewer.

Tip

If you can't see the image names in the Browser, you can increase the thumbnails by dragging the Thumbnail Size slider to the right on the lower right of the Browser.

3.

Choose View > View Options.

4.

Click to select the Viewer option in the upper left corner of the window, if it is not already selected.

5.

From the Set 1 pop-up menu choose File Info.

6.

Choose Below from the Placement pop-up menu, then click Done.

Tip

Press Y to show and hide the Viewer metadata overlays.

7.

In the Browser, Shift-click on the last image of the girl with the cowboy hat, Tibet 05 100.

All the images in the portrait series are now displayed in the Viewer. You can view up to ten images at once.

Tip

If you wish to make any of your layout windows larger or smaller, simply place your mouse pointer between the window and its neighbor (for example between the Viewer and the Browser), wait until your cursor turns into a double-headed arrow, and click and drag. The window will expand.

8.

Choose Stacks > Stack.

Stacks are an effective way of grouping and ranking a series of similar images. By stacking the selected images, you group them together. Notice the numeral 6 on the Stack button in the upper-left corner of the first image. This indicates that there are six images in this stack, and it also indicates that the first image is the pick of the stack.

Aperture identifies whichever image you place first in the stack as the best image. When the stack is closed, only the pick of the stack will be displayed. You can close and open the stack by clicking the Stack icon in the upper-left corner of the first image. The number indicates how many images are in the stack.

Open stack

Closed stack

9.

With the stack open, press the Right Arrow key to view the images one at a time.

10.

Click the first image in the stack.

11.

Press Shift and click the third image. You are now comparing the first three images.

12.

Press Command and click the second image. Now the "compare" selection has been reduced to the first and third image.

While sorting stacked images, you may want to check the detail of an image at full resolution to compare factors such as focus, exposure, and contrast. Aperture provides an extremely effective tool for doing so: the Loupe. We'll discuss the Loupe in detail later in this lesson. For now, experiment with the following.

13.

In the toolbar at the topright of the main window, click the Loupe icon (the third icon from the right) to select the Loupe tool.

14.

In the Viewer, move your pointer over each image with the Loupe tool and look closely to compare them. You can instantly see the details of your RAW images at 100 percent by using the Loupe. Now move your pointer over some images in the Browser to see and compare those images. You can use the Loupe on any image in any view in Aperture, even on thumbnails.

15.

Press Command-+ twice to increase the magnification of the Loupe Tool. Let's promote the third image.

16.

Click the Loupe icon in the toolbar to return to the Selection tool.

17.

Click to select the third image of the girl in the Browser and press Commandleft bracket twice. The third image is now promoted to the front and becomes the pick of the stack.

Stacking images is a convenient way to save desktop real estate and to arrange a selection of images in order of preference.




Apple Pro Training Series. Getting Started with Aperture
Apple Pro Training Series: Getting Started with Aperture
ISBN: 0321422759
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 110

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