Making Your Photos "Pop" Using Aperture's Adjustment Tools
Wednesday, November 25, 2009Image Adjustments In Aperture from John Thawley on Vimeo.
Now we're in the off-season, I wanted to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I especially want to keep moving forward with fundamental photography tips and offer up advice for those that are using Apples Pro photo application, Aperture.
This week, I'll be discussing how to get the most out of your images using Aperture's adjustment tools. I'm delivering this tutorial via the new Quicktime feature in Apple's new OS, Snow Leopard. The new feature allows you to take a video of your computer screen activity. Of course, it can also be done using a microphone for the voice over.
So, not only will I be talking you through the steps, you will actually follow along while watching the process on my screen. So you get to see the adjustments and changes in real time and the before and after. I hope it will be helpful.
Keep in mind, what I'm demonstrating in this video is how to get the most "pop" out of your images. This is not about salvaging or saving a bad image. It's also important to remember that this is all subjective and a matter of taste. You may not like the same "look" as I like.
What is important about the tutorial is it will give you the fundamental understanding of Aperture's adjustment tools and how each can or will affect your final image. Hopefully, I will provide you with a starting point to develop your own "secret sauce" to getting the most out of your images.
Enjoy the video.
JT
Reader Comments (12)
You also want to disconnect ANY non-essential peripheral devices... external hard drives etc.
The other thing to consider is to delete Aperture (this won't bother your libraries) and re-install the latest version from Apple's download site... the trial. Just delete the Aperture preferences first... and consider installing in safe mode.
I run external drives... it turns out, too many external drives. Six to be exact. I'm now down to two 2TB fire wire drives and have delegated the others to stored back-ups. I set the drives so they do not sleep. This helps avoid the spinning up and down due to Spotlight running in the background.
Once you restart Aperture, it will recreate it's preference files.
John
I enjoyed and learned from your presentation. Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get aperture on my Apple - I just broke my piggy bank to buy a Canon Rebel. You are a natural teacher. You have an excellent speaking voice which is calm, confident and reassuring. The plus side is that you are an accomplished photographer - among the very best in automotive photography but also masterful in other subjects. You have the eye. Thank you for sharing your many talents.
Tom Bucher