Selecting Images

Aperture provides some innovative features for comparing, sorting, and organizing images. All of these features require you to first select the images you want to work with. An understanding of how to make and change selections is essential for smooth Aperture workflow and for performing batch edits and adjustments.

Selecting a Project to View

Before you can select any images to work with, you must select the project that you want to view. When you click the name of a project in the Projects pane, Aperture displays all of the image thumbnails for that project in the Browser pane. If a Viewer pane is visible, then Aperture displays the currently selected image, which is usually the first one in the collection.

If your project contains any other objectsalbums, folders, Web galleries, light tables, and so onthen clicking one of these displays only the contents of that item.

Viewing Multiple Projects

If you want to view multiple projects simultaneously, or an item such as a Web gallery from one project side by side with a book from another project, just select the first project in the Projects pane and then Command-click additional projects. Each new project will be added to the Browser pane as a separate tab.

To remove a project from view, click the small X on the tab's title bar.

To view two projects side by side, select the first project in the Projects pane and then Option-click a second project. The second project will appear in its own pane, alongside the first project (Figure 2.20).

Figure 2.20. With a simple Option-click, you can split Aperture's Browser pane into multiple panes to view different projects side by side.

Select an image in either project to display the image in the Viewer pane; however, you can't select images from both projects simultaneously.

Once you've selected a project to work on, you're ready to select some images. Selecting images serves two purposes in Aperture:

It specifies the images that you want to edit.
It specifies the images that you want to view. Remember that Aperture lets you view and compare images side by side.

You select images by simply clicking thumbnails in the Browser pane of any layout. To select a single image, click it in the Browser pane. To select a different image, click it.

For the most part, Aperture follows all of the standard Macintosh selection rules. To select a range of contiguous images, do the following:

In the Browser pane, click the first image that you want to select.

Hold down the Shift key and click the last image that you want to select.

Aperture will select the first and last images as well as all of the images in between (Figure 2.21).

Figure 2.21. You can hold down the Shift key when clicking to select contiguous groups of images.

To make a noncontiguous selectionan image here, an image thereuse the Command key instead of the Shift key.

1.	In the Browser pane, click the first image that you want to select.
2.	Hold down the Command key and click any images that you want to add to the selection. You can also Command-click a selected image to remove it from the current selection.

You can also combine both techniques to make complex selections of images. Here's an example:

1.	Click an image to select it.
2.	Shift-click an image in another row. All of the images between the two clicked images are selected.

3.	Command-click some additional images. They will be added to your selection (Figure 2.22). Figure 2.22. This selection was created by clicking the first image to select it and then Shift-clicking the third image to add it and everything in between to the selection. Then the sixth image was Command-clicked to add it to the selection.

At any time, you can deselect all images by clicking in any gray space in the Browser pane.

If a Viewer pane is visible, then Aperture will display your selected images side by side. Deselect all images and then try the following:

1.	Switch to Standard layout by pressing Command-Option-S. The Viewer pane will be empty because you don't have any images selected.
2.	Select six images in the Browser pane. The Viewer pane will display all six images (Figure 2.23). Figure 2.23. Images that you select in the Browser pane are displayed side by side in the Viewer pane.
3.	Command-click an additional image to add it to the selection. The image will be added to the images shown in the Viewer pane.
4.	Command-click one of the selected images to deselect it. The image will be removed from the Viewer pane.

Depending on the size of your screen, Aperture should be able to display a large number of images side by side. This ability to lay images next to each other makes Aperture an excellent tool for reviewing, comparing, and picking images at the end of a long day of shooting.

Switch back to Project Management layout (Command-Option-M) and notice that the same images are selected. Aperture maintains the current selection until you alter or deselect it.

These are the basic selection processes that you will use repeatedly within Aperture.

Tip

Note that you can deselect images by Command-clicking them in either the Browser or Viewer pane. Aperture doesn't care whether you deselect using thumbnails or full-res images.

Image Loading

When you import an image, Aperture creates and stores a low-resolution copy of the image that is then used for the thumbnail display in the Browser pane. This proxy scheme allows Aperture to quickly display thumbnails, and it is the reason that importing into the library takes a tiny bit longer than simply copying a file.

When you click an image in the Browser pane to select it, Aperture loads the entire image into memory. How long this takes depends on the speed of your computer and the size of the image. As soon as you select an image, Aperture displays a low-res version of the picture in the Viewer pane, with a "Loading" message superimposed over the top of the image. When the loading is finished, the full-res image is displayed. You may not notice any change in the image when the proxy is swapped out for the full-res image because Aperture's proxies are large enough to fill the Viewer pane on most screens.

Aperture does a very good job of caching images, though, so depending on how much RAM you have in your computer, once you've clicked a few images, you'll probably find that you can switch back and forth between them without having to wait for a reload. This seamless loading and unloading of images is one factor that contributes to the fluid workflow in Aperture.

If you find the loading message annoying, you can deactivate it by choosing Aperture > Preferences and then unchecking Show Loading Indicator While Full-Size Images Load. (By the way, deselecting this option doesn't actually speed up loading, but hiding the indicator makes it feel like the program is running a little faster.)

Making Selections Using the Keyboard

In addition to performing selection tasks using the mouse, you can make selections using the keyboard.

To deselect the current selection, you can press Command-Shift-A. To select everything, press Command-A (just as you do in other programs).

You can easily select multiple images by using the arrow keys.

Select a single image using the mouse.

Hold down the Shift key and press the Right Arrow key.

The next image will be added to the selection.

You can continue to make a contiguous selection using Shift and the arrow keys. You can use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys to make selections in the previous and next rows, respectively.

Press CommandLeft Arrow to shift the entire selection to the left. Press CommandRight Arrow to shift the selection to the right (Figure 2.24).

Figure 2.24. Pressing Command-Left Arrow shifted the selection of three images (top row) to the left (bottom row). You can shift in either direction using the Command key in conjunction with the arrow keys.

The Primary Select

As explained earlier, you select images in Aperture for two reasons: to view a series of images side by side and to perform edits on an image (or images). To serve these two different purposes, Aperture distinguishes between a regular selected imagethat is, an image that is simply selected for viewingand the primary selectthe image that will be altered if you perform an editing operation.

To see this distinction, switch to Standard layout (press Command-Option-S) and select three images. Notice that while all three selected images in the Browser pane have a white border around them, one of the images has a thicker border. This thickly bordered image is the primary select (Figure 2.25).

Figure 2.25. In both the Viewer and Browser panes, the primary select is surrounded by a thick white outline while the rest of the selected items are surrounded by thin outlines.

Now look in the Inspector pane (if it is not already open, press I to open it). The Adjustments inspector shows a histogram for the current primary select, and the Metadata inspector shows the metadata tags for the primary select. So even though three images are selected, the parameters of only the primary select are shown.

When multiple images are selected, pressing the arrow keys moves the primary select from image to image within the group of selected pictures. To ensure that your edits affect the images you want, it's important to pay attention to the primary select. Some types of edits and changes can be applied to the primary select only, while others can be applied to every image in the current selection. In later chapters, you'll learn how to control this functionality.

Sorting Images in the Browser Pane

By default, the Browser pane displays thumbnails sorted by date, but you can easily change the way that the images are sorted by selecting a different criterion from the sort menu at the top of the Browser pane (Figure 2.26). When you pick a new sort criteria, Aperture immediately reorders the thumbnails you are viewing.

Figure 2.26. The Sort pop-up menu lets you select a new criterion for sorting the thumbnails in the Browser pane.

You can manually rearrange the thumbnails in a project by simply dragging them into a different order. Click an image and drag it to a new position. Aperture will display a green line to indicate where the image will be positioned when you release the mouse.

Once you've rearranged some thumbnails, the Sort pop-up menu will change to Custom to indicate that you are now viewing a custom sort. Once you've defined a custom sort, you can freely switch between it and other sorting criteria through the Sort menu. Aperture remembers your custom arrangement, allowing you to switch back to it later if you want.

Tip

In Aperture 1.0.1, moving thumbnails can sometimes result in quirky behavior. Sometimes images won't land in the correct location, or they will always drop into the first position in the Browser pane. If your thumbnail dragging becomes strange, try choosing a different criterion in the Sort menu and then again choosing Custom. This process will usually clear up the problem.

Viewer Modes

So far, you've been using the Viewer in its default, normal mode so that when you select an image, it appears in the Viewer pane. As you've seen, you can select multiple images, and they will appear side by side in the Viewer pane.

You can change the Viewer pane, though, so that it behaves a little differently when you select an image. You can do so by using the Viewer Mode pop-up menu on the left side of the control bar (Figure 2.27).

Figure 2.27. The Viewer Mode menu on the left side of the control bar lets you control the Viewer pane's display of the current selection.

Tip

If you aren't currently viewing a layout that shows the control bar, you can either switch to one or activate the control bar manually, by choosing Window > Show Control bar or by pressing Shift-D.

By choosing different options on the Viewer Mode menu, you can alter the display of the current selection of images.

Multi is the default mode. In Multi mode, clicking an image selects it and displays it in the Viewer pane, if this pane is visible. You can change to Multi mode by pressing Option-U.

Primary mode displays only the primary select of the current selection. It allows you to select multiple images for keywording or rating, but view only the primary select (making it easier to edit that image).

Three-Up mode, which can be accessed from the View Mode menu or by pressing Option-H, automatically displays the currently selected image alongside the images that appear immediately before it and after it. As you change the current selection, the before and after images update automatically.

Three-Up mode can provide a quick way of getting a view of a series of images. If you regularly shoot bracketed bursts of three imagessomething many cameras can do automaticallythen this feature is particularly useful.

Stack and Compare modes are more sophisticated modes for comparing images, and they will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

Tip

Though they may seem a little random, the keyboard shortcuts for the various viewer modes are actually easy to remember. They're simply the Option key plus the second letter of the name of the mode.

Note

If you have multiple monitors attached, Aperture will display a separate set of options for the additional monitors. Consult the Aperture Getting Started manual for details.