As you've probably already noticed, most of the images in this project are burst sequences of various performers in action. Our primary organizational goal will be to select the best image from each of these bursts. We'll begin by stacking our images, which will allow us to use Aperture's comparison tools to quickly pick the best image from each burst. 1. | With the Pickle Circus Rehearsal project selected, choose Stack > Auto-Stack. Aperture opens the Auto-Stack Images HUD, which offers the same Auto-Stack slider that's available in the Import dialog.
| 2. | Drag the Auto-Stack slider to 0:15.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_03.jpg) When you move the slider, Aperture groups images together according to the specified time interval. When you release the mouse at 0:15, all images shot within 15 seconds of each other will be grouped into a separate stack.
Note When you select Auto-Stack, your images revert to being sorted by date and time. This is necessary since auto-stacking is based on time criteria. | 3. | Close the Auto-Stack Images HUD.
| 4. | Click an empty area of the Browser to deselect all images, or press Command-Shift-A.
Auto-stacking did a good job of creating our basic stacks, but let's do some fine-tuning.
| Rearranging Stacks You can rearrange stacks in the Browser just like you rearrange thumbnails: by dragging them. Stacks must be closed for you to rearrange by dragging in the Browser, however. Let's organize our stacks to group them together by subject. 1. | Choose Stack > Close All Stacks or press Option-;.
| 2. | Select the stack of the ballet dancer balancing on the acrobat's head (image _MG_7342).
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_04.jpg) | | | 3. | Drag the stack next to the other two similar stacks.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_05.jpg) Note If you drag an image in an open stack to another location in the Browser, you will move it out of the stack. After you reposition a stack, you can open it again to see its contents.
| 4. | Press Option-' to open all stacks again.
| Combining Stacks A few of our Pickle Family Circus images weren't correctly stacked by the Auto-Stack command. Luckily, Aperture lets you add images to a stack, combine stacks, and split stacks so that you can get the exact grouping that you need. 1. | Press Option-' to open all stacks.
| 2. | Look through the images in the Browser to find these two stacks:
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_06.jpg) There was a delay between shooting these two bursts, so the Auto-Stack command created two stacks. We only need one pick of the juggling bicyclist, however, so let's combine these two stacks into one.
| 3. | Click the first image in the second stack (_MG_7387) and then Shift-click the last image to select all four images in the stack.
| | | 4. | Drag the selected stack over the first stack so that the green positioning bar is at the end of the first stack. Be sure the bar is positioned just as it is shown in this image. Then, release the mouse. This combines the stacks while keeping the images in shooting order.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_07.jpg) When you release the mouse, all of the juggling bicyclist images should be inside the same stack. You'll know you combined the stacks because the stack number changes from 3 to 7. If you make a mistake press Command-Z and try again.
| Adding Individual Images to a Stack Balancing ballet dancers, juggling bicyclists. We also captured several images of an acrobat balancing on a ring. Aperture grouped four of these images in one stack and left the fifth image unstacked; let's add the fifth image to the stack of four. You might be able to guess how to add an individual image to a stack: simply drag it into the stack. | | 1. | Scan the Browser until you find these images. Depending on the size of your display and your zoom setting, they may not appear in the same row, but they should be adjacent to each other.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_08.jpg) The first image belongs in the stack with the other four.
| 2. | Drag the unstacked image into the stack, placing it between any two images.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_09.jpg) Once again, you'll know you added the image to the stack successfully because the stack number will change from 4 to 5.
| Creating Stacks Manually You don't have to use the Auto-Stack feature to create stacks; you can also create them manually by simply selecting images and using the Stack command. This is a good way to organize stray images that fell outside the specified Auto-Stack time interval, or to create stacks of images that contain related subject matter but that might have been shot at different times. 1. | Locate these two images in the Browser and select them both. They should be adjacent, so you can either Shift-click or Command-click to select them.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_10.jpg) | 2. | Choose Stacks > Stack or press Command-K. Aperture groups the two images into a stack. The Stack command is very useful. You can use it to create a stack from any number of images, as well as to merge stacks or add images to a stack.
| | | 3. | Leave the two images in the stack selected, and find the image of the same performer stretching and reading, this time with his leg extended in front of him.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_11.jpg) We could add this third image to the stack by dragging it, but then we'd have to fuss with clicking and deselecting and dragging. Instead, here's an easier way.
| 4. | Command-click the third image of the performer (_MG_7258) to add it to the selection, and then press Command-K to add it to your existing stack.
Note Images added to an existing stack are placed at the end. If you wanted the image in a different position in the stack, you could drag it to change its location. ![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_12.jpg) Our stacks are really coming together now, but editing stacks isn't a one-way street: You can also split stacks and remove images from stacks if they don't belong.
| Splitting a Stack Just as you can add images to a stack by dragging them into an existing stack or by using the Stack command, you can also remove images from a stack by dragging them away from the stack, and you can break up stacks using the Split Stack command. Let's try it. 1. | Locate the stack of the five images of the ballet dancer balanced on the acrobat's head.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_13.jpg) Notice that in the first image, the acrobat is holding the ballerina's ankle, but in the other images his arms are extended. Let's remove this first image from the stack so that the stack contains only images of the dancer balancing.
| 2. | Click to select the second image in the stack. Aperture will split the stack at the point to the left of the selected image.
| | | 3. | Choose Stacks > Split Stack, or press Option-K.
Aperture splits the stack, leaving only four images in it. You can also use Split Stack to break one stack into multiple stacks.
![](/books/2/720/1/html/2/images/08_14.jpg) Tip You can also drag the first image to an empty area of the Browser to remove it from the stack or select it and choose Stacks > Extract Item (Option-Shift-K). | 4. | Click to select the third image in the stack, and then press Option-K.
Aperture splits the single stack of four into two stacks of two. We don't need such fine delineation of these images, however.
| 5. | Press Command-Z to restore the stack of four images.
Note If you decide that you don't want a set of images stacked, you can of course drag out each image to disassemble the stack. An easier way is to simply select an image in the stack and then choose Stacks > Unstack. Unstacking completely dissolves the stack, leaving all of the images as separate, individual images. | |