Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Photography and aperture

Aperture vs. Shutter Priority

netbros — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 16:59:05 -0800

Under what lighting and landscape conditions are aperture priority vs. shutter priority more appropriate for capturing motion in water? Does the color of the surroundings have any affect on that choice?

Photo processing workflow for non-photographers.

dolface — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:36:02 -0800

Help setting up a mostly-automated digital photo processing workflow for non-photographers. This previous Ask comes closest to what I'm trying to do but isn't quite right, likewise these (1, 2, 3) don't quite get to what I need.

Tools available: Macbook Pro, Photoshop CS5, Aperture 3.1, Lightroom 3.2, iPhoto, Picasa.

We take a lot of pictures, (mostly of our baby these days) but we're not photographers and I'd like to set up some kind of automated system to do some pre-processing of the photos before we get involved.

We're using a Panasonic GF1, mostly on auto shutter/aperture and shooting RAW.

Ideally the process would go something like this: connect the camera to the computer, originals are dumped into a directory and deleted from the card, then copied to another directory where they are auto-rotated and exposure, color, and contrast are auto-corrected, then renamed based on the date they were shot.

I've fooled around with Automator and know my way around Python and Applescript if that matters.

Help me choose between Aperture and Lightroom!

PossumCupCake — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:42:21 -0800

Aperture vs Lightroom? I have done lots of reading on the newest version of each online, only to become more and more confused.
I'm on an late '08 model macbook pro, shoot in RAW and have a canon 50d (doubt the last part is relevant but figured I'd add it anyway).

Which is better in your opinion and why?

The Digital Darkroom

Garak — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:44:41 -0800

What are some good books on the digital darkroom in general, and not just Photoshop? I'm an amateur photographer, and I postprocess my photos in Aperture. I also have Pixelmator. I know how to work the camera pretty well, but learned most of what I know about postprocessing from random tutorials on the Web. I'd like to learn more about digital postprocessing and digital images in general from a more formal, authoritative source. Specifically, I'm looking more for things like levels and curves and less for things like the clone stamp. Maybe what Ansel Adams would've written as the digital update to "The Negative" and "The Print." (I haven't read those yet, but plan to.)

Aperture books seem to just state the obvious ("To adjust levels in your image, open the Levels palette and drag the sliders below the histogram") and Photoshop books are, well, about Photoshop. I've got nothing against Photoshop, but I don't have it yet and would rather learn about the "theory" before I learn any specific interface. It's okay if the book uses Photoshop as an example, of course.

Triple gratitude points if it somehow makes a connection to the film days ("Kodachrome images are different from Velvia images because X, and this corresponds to Y in the digital world.")

Photo Workflow Tips?

Admiral Haddock — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:21:01 -0800

Any good tips on digital workflows in Lightroom for large groups of images? Really, any input on the photo editorial process (whether it be film or other software) would be much appreciated. I take a lot of pictures when I go out shooting, and even more so when I go on vacation. (I realize my "a lot" is nowhere near what a pro might shoot.) I really like processing and cataloging my images in Lightroom, but I find the process entirely overwhelming when faced with 3000 new photos.

Does anyone have any tips on making that process manageable? For instance, the other day I shot a concert and took, say 150 images in a fifteen-minute set. I wanted only a few selects of different setups, but I might have 20 images of the guitarist and bass player scattered throughout the set, and I found it maddening to search around for comparisons of image 12 vs 34 vs 45 vs 54 etc. And, of course, it is easy to crop down to just the guitarist or the bass player, so you may end up comparing with those sets, too.

My current workflow is to import and tag with the highest-level common keywords. I then advance image by image flagging picks. I then go through the picks several times while refining the images. Along the way, bad shots get unflagged, and shots that I like but that don't quite make the cut are labeled with a color (usually yellow, as the shortcut for yellow is right above unflag shortcut) and then unflagged--just in case I want to revisit images that were good, but not great. The end result is a pile of flagged (but without a color label) images that I export for the web or printing.

What do you do?

Different exposures of the same scene

FidelDonson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:32:25 -0800

Exposure difference between two lenses at the same aperture? I just noticed that using the programmed exposure on my d80 with two different lenses at the same aperture produces different shutter speeds - even though the scene is the same. First i measured the exposure with my Nikkor 50mm 1.4 at an aperture of 2.0. This yielded a shutter speed of 25.
Next i did the same with my Sigma 20mm 1.8 at aperture 2.0. This gave me a shutter speed of 15.

Can someone explain this difference to me?

Merging pictures and metadata in Aperture

cebailey — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:43:33 -0800

Aperture Question: Can I replace .JPGs in a project with the corresponding RAW files? Here's my dilemma:

Project 1 has 300-ish JPGs that have keywords, ratings, and a few tweaks to the images (cropping, etc). They have filenames like IMG_0201.jpg.

Project 2 has the same 300 images in RAW format with none of the metadata. They have corresponding file names like IMG_0201.cr2.

It turns out this is the case for several projects I have, so I'd like to know if there's a way to either 1) get the metadata, etc from Project 1 and apply it to the pictures in Project 2 or 2) replace the master image files in Project 1 with the ones from Project 2. Can anyone help?

How do I get my Aperture Library into Lightroom?

BlackLeotardFront — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:02:40 -0800

How can I get my Aperture photo library exported into Lightroom? I've decided to switch to Lightroom but I have a few hundred photos in Aperture, all tweaked up and everything. I don't mind losing the color correction (it'll be fun doing it again) but how do I even get my photos out of Aperture? The Aperture Library is a package file filled with more package files, it's a huge mess. Is there a way to do this easily? I can't seem to google up an answer.

How can I improve contrast of photos at the time they are taken without resorting to curves and levels tools in photoshop?

Pastabagel — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:59:07 -0800

PhotographyFilter: How can I improve the dynamic range of photos at the time they are taken without resorting to curves and levels tools in photoshop? I understand how to improve the contrast, or dynamic range, of a photo in post processing using photoshop by playing with the curves or levels tools. If you think in terms of the histogram of the image, what I am talking about is how to take the photo such that the histogram fills up the range without clipping.

Specifically, suppose you take a photograph of a crumpled white piece of paper. Using the manual settings, I can completely avoid clipping, but I get little in the way of contrast across wrinkles, etc. In other words, the histogram fills a tiny portion of the total range. What I want to do is to stretch this out so it uses all of the available range.

Does some combination of aperture and shutter affect this? In my experience it simply shifts the curve more towards the dark end or the light end, but the curve itself remains the same width. In a studio setting, would lighting help to achieve this result? If so, how would you accomplish this outdoors?

If it matters, the camera in question is a Nikon D50. I know you can change the shape of the contrast curve in the camera, but my understanding is that this is simply done in processing, i.e. it does the same thing that photoshop would do, it just does it in the camera. But the same artifacts would be introduced. (But please correct me if I am wrong about this).

Aperture or Lightroom? And do I let them manage my library?

phearlez — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:25:27 -0800

Aperture or Lightroom? And do I let them manage my library? It's been a year since it was addressed and both applications have come a long way. So... have opinions been changed? Critical features added? Achilles heels revealed? And regardless of which I pick, should I suck it up and let them manage my library or stick with my hierarchical self-managed structure? The Aperture v Lightroom question speaks for itself, I think. I've found Lightroom's quick crop system (ie, the recognition that it's more likely what you'll be doing than anything else and not making me press C first and return to accept it) pretty nice, but dislike the switching between viewing and altering mode. Aperture's stacks are nice and I LOVE having an add-on importer to push the set up to Flickr after I'm done. And quite frankly, Apple's collection of instructional videos is a big plus for me.

Are there other compelling issues I'm missing?

On both applications I am facing the referenced vs imported issue - All my photos - and there's more than a few - are currently organized like this:

/1998/1998_10_31-Halloween
[snip]
/2006/2006_09_25
/2006/2006_09_25/raw
[snip]
/2007/2007_11_05-HawkOnLine
/2007/2007_11_05-HawkOnLine/raw
/2007/2007_11_11-LyleAtBirchmere
/2007/2007_11_11-LyleAtBirchmere/raw

Using Aperture I don't need (hell, shouldn't) separate out my jpeg and raw images, but I'm finding keeping to using referenced to make life harder - at least when it comes to putting in the old stuff. The 10000 image limit for a project precludes just picking "2007" and pulling everything in. In this, it seems, I am not alone.

The prospect of picking shift-option-I about 2000 times is not appealing. Am I missing something? Should I butch up and just let Aperture import everything? Would Lightroom be notably better at this?

Help an unfrozen caveman photographer cope with tools that do more than just show everything in a directory!

How do I read this confounded light meter?

katillathehun — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:35:09 -0800

I have a Mockba handheld light meter with radial dials that I'm attempting to use with a rangefinder that doesn't already have one. Now, how do I read this thing? Here's a picture of the thing.

The numbers on the inner part of the red dial (directly under the Mockba logo) go 11, 22, 45, 90, 180, 350, 700 with a dash in between each.

The silver dial numbers that show up in the square of the red dial (where the triangle arrow points) go from 1 to 15 without skipping.

I'm sure the main numbers on the silver dial (around the edge) are shutter speeds and the numbers on the outer edge of the red dial are f-stops.

I think you start by lining up the two needles in the white window by using the silver dial. Apart from that, I'm clueless, people. What are the numbers in the squares for? How in the blue blazes do I figure out the necessary aperture from this thing? I've found instructions for other manual light meters on the web, but nothing that makes sense with this one. At least, not to this amateur.

(Yeah, sure, I could go get a more modern meter, but I'd still love to understand this one)

On Aperture and missing my photos.

coolhappysteve — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 01:32:19 -0800

I switched to Aperture from iPhoto and love it, but I miss feeling connected with my old photos like I used to. Help develop strategies to stay in touch with them in Apple's grown-up photo client. I've been on Aperture for a while now and love it, but don't interact with my photos as much as I did in iPhoto. Once I import, edit, and Flickr, I never see them again - there was always something about that accessibility of the cascade/roll view in iPhoto that encouraged me to look back. Aperture is just so expansive and project-oriented - much more about getting the job done. What are common practices that can feel as natural as iPhoto for not forgetting where I came from?

Aperture or Lightroom?

alidarbac — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:07:20 -0800

Which one should I use for my photo workflow? Aperture or Adobe Lightroom Photoshop? I'm on a G5 iMac with 1.5 gig of RAM. Aperture can be slow at times, but useable. Lightroom feels snappier. Both programs look like a step-up from my previous workflow of importing into a big unsorted iPhoto library and then editing in Photoshop.

I've played around with both and from what I can discern, Lightroom has better RAW processing but Aperture has a much better UI and better organizational capablities. Whereas I can't find a better way to sort within Lightroom, in Aperture it's easy enough to send a pic out to Photoshop and then back.

I'm also wary about committing my photo library to a program that's in beta and will expire or drastically change in the next several months.

This dilemma is even worse than choosing which browser to use when I moved to a Mac. (It took me several months to choose Camino.) At least then it was effortless to switch between the many different options. I don't want to move my photo library back and forth constantly because I can't make up my mind.

So which program did you choose?