Paul Inskip Photography

I’ve had a few people recently ask about my Aperture workflow so I thought I’d put it up here to give people an idea, this is the last e-mail I sent out so it’s written as a reply rather than a normal ‘here’s how I work’ piece, I hope people find it useful: > No problem at all, I’ll give you an idea of how I use it (not > necessarily typical) but will hopefully get you started.
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> Firstly one of the strengths of Aperture is that it manages your > files, no longer do you need to create folders and download files to > various locations, Aperture manages all the files in a database and > internally in its library (provided you choose managed not > referenced) From then on any time you want to view/edit/process/> export those RAW files you go through Aperture no more search your > hard drives.
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> Aperture uses 3 main devices to manage the location of the files.
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> Folders
> Projects
> Albums
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> Folders don’t contain the files but contain the Projects, projects > are where your files will be stored, these can either be created > manually by you when you import or created using the exif data > (projects based on date, camera etc) if you don’t do anything > Aperture will automatically create a new project when you start to > import unless you have selected one already.
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> So think of Projects as your folders on your hard drive, the place > where the files are located
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> From then on Aperture takes the strain.
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> Once you’ve imported your RAW files into a Project All Aperture > edits are saved and of course non-destructive, you can also create > ‘versions’ of the RAW files, this allows you to process up the same > RAW file in multiple ways but all without touching the original RAW, > this saves space as the ‘versions’ are just sets of adjustments.
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> One thing I always do straight after import is I have a master > project with one RAW file in it which has a set of standard > adjustments done to it such as sharpening, contrast, saturation and > tweaking the colour values and a 2 star rating, I apply these > settings to every RAW file. This gives me a base for the files and > takes care of some of the basic tweaks I make to files.
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> With all the files 2 starred I know sort though them, hitting 9 to > reject files and hitting 1 to downgrade files that I’m not too keen > on.
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> Once I’ve done this I then may chooses to give higher rating to > particular files, either for my own benefit ready to export or ready > to show a customer.
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> The “show all” sorting box on the right hand side above the > thumbnails is great for being able to quickly and effortlessly sort > the files based on these ratings, ‘show all’ ‘show rejected’ show > all 2star+ show all 4star+ etc.
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> I can edit the files, adjusting levels etc until I’m happy, cropping > and even basic adjustments, if I want to make a big change which > requires photoshop then I can simply right click on the file and > select “edit with…photoshop” and set up Aperture so that it > automatically creates a PSd or Tiff and opens it into photoshop for > editing. Once finished I can close and save it back into Aperture > and it’s managed alongside the original.
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> If however you just wanted to choses files to then use somewhere > else you can export the files as jpegs/tifs etc to pretty much any > settings you with, there are also a wide range of export plugins > that, for instance allow you to ftp the files from inside aperture, > no need to export them or use an additional piece of software.
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> Thats a VERY quick whistle-stop tour of Aperture, other great > features are smart albums (like smart folders/playlists in finder/> itunes) - allowing you to ‘virtually’ group together files for > viewing without moving the originals, for instance you can have a > smart album (based on the exif data) that show all files taken at a > certain focal length or iso from all of your shoots all together in > one smart album without moving the originals! its a great tool
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> Basically the only reason I edit files in PS is for the following:
> Specific sharpening on studio portraits
> layers and masks
> very find airbrush work
> 85% of my files never need anything that Aperture can’t do.
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> Where I differ from many Aperture users is that I use multiple > Aperture libraries rather than one huge one. The reason being that I > personally don’t need every wedding i’ve ever taken in one library > because I never need to access them all at the same time, so each > wedding have its own 30+GB library, but as I said I’m a bit odd on > that one.

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