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A Tip for the Crop Tool
At this point when everyone is clamoring for a new version of Aperture, I must admit that I feel a little embarrassed to admit that I just learned something new about how to use one of the tools I’ve used literally thousands of times since Aperture was first released. But I suspect that I’m not alone in not knowing this trick, so despite being a little red faced, I decided to share it.
Up until now whenever I’ve drawn a crop and then decided that the image was better off without the crop, I would either go into the Adjustment HUD and uncheck the box by the Crop Tool or I’d just extend the crop to match the original image. Both procedures felt clunky and unnatural. In fact there’s a more efficient way to remove the crop. Simply click in the area outside the boundary of the crop, and the crop vanishes! That’s so easy and quick that I’m still laughing at myself. The crop tool will still be checked in the Adjustment HUD, but the X and Y values will be 0. The engineers did a good job with that one!
And by the way, with all the outcry for a new version of Aperture, and/or at least support for the recently released cameras, I want to add my two cents. I too want the support - I don’t like being forced to use Bridge or any other program for my editing. But having to do so has made me appreciate how well designed and convenient Aperture really is. Certainly there are ways it can be even better and I’m assuming that the Apple engineers are busy working to make that happen. Obviously they are well aware of the need to not leave us stranded when we get new cameras. In the meantime I’ll wait (somewhat patiently, somewhat impatiently) until we see what they have up their sleeves. In my opinion Aperture is worth waiting for.
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I just click once outside of the cropped area to make the crop go away.
You're right and I've changed the blog accordingly! There is just a small pause after you click before the crop disappears. Thanks!
Oh man. You have no idea how glad I am you've said that. I too, have used it a thousand times, and I too have specifically thought about how annoying the absence of even being able to cmd+z a crop is. But clicking outside... Ugh. Silly me.
As a random aside, talking about a new version of Aperture. Being able to let other people access my Aperture library over a network would be one of the biggest things for me, since I work in an ad company and people frequently need my images. Installing copies of Aperture for them and just letting them browse naturally would be a godsend.
Oh, and dodging and burning.
I also like the idea of allowing others to access your aperture library over the internet. Ideally, you would have different permission groups to allow some outsourcing of adding keywords or allowing assistants to enhance the photos. Basically if you could assign groups and then determine which operations those groups could perform. This would significantly improve productivity.
And built in support for HDR and pano stitching. I panorama could be a special kind of stack. And of course the dodging and burning as previously mentioned.
And it goes without saying, the ability to support 3rd party plug-ins for image enhancements.
Ok, so I'm a week late on this, but I would really love to have MANAGED PROJECTS!
Yes, I can do this with referenced images, but this would be great at the project level (make it easier at least). Then instead of having a directory of raw images, I just have exported but still connected projects.
I use a laptop for my editing and disk space is preciously slim.
Do you mean you'd like REFERENCED projects? Currently they are managed ...
Ellen
Thank you for this logical view on waiting for the next version of Aperture. I wish Apple would communicate just a little about its intentions. For example, they could release news that work on Version 2 is underway, with release scheduled for later this year. That would show that they plan to continue supporting this product.
Steve, actually Joe Schorr broke with tradition and indicated that work is very much underway. He said, "
"We're constantly working to make Aperture an even better tool for users, and will soon release an upgrade that includes RAW format support for new cameras and other exciting new features. Please stay tuned."
I fully expect based on that, that we'll see a new version that was worth waiting for before too long.