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Tools for assessing image quality
You can use the Zoom tool and the Loupe tool when finely assessing and evaluating image quality in Aperture. You may want to use one or the other, or both (even at the same time). To call up the Zoom tool, just press the letter Z. To call up the Loupe tool, just press the tilde key, or, "the key below the ESC key." The Zoom tool brings your image to a resolution of a hundred percent, or the acual pixel size or dimension, which you can then grab and move around. The Loupe tool, on the other hand, focuses your view on select areas of the image with a resolution of from 50 percent of the original size to 1600 percent magnification, without zooming the entire image.
While the Zoom tool gives you a bigger screen area when viewing compared to the Loop tool, there are several features f the Loupe tool that you might find useful. First, you can set your focus on the loupe tool itself, dragging it over portions of the image you want magnified, or, set the focus on cursor, which allows you to place the Loupe tool in a fixed spot anywhere in the screen while giving you the freedom to move the pointer (cursor) anywhere else, and whichever area the pointer is located, that is what is going to be magnified inside the Loupe tool. You can also choose to view by Pixel Grid or by Color Value, both of which provides you with exact information you might need.
But whether you use the Loupe tool or the Zoom tool, you will not be able to assess the actual pixel quality of the image if you are in Quick Preview mode only. Press P to enable or disable the Quick Preview mode. In Quick Preview mode, you are essentially looking at a "copy" of the original image. Even if you choose the highest or best preview image setting available in Aperture, it is still advisable to turn off the Quick Preview mode. Once turned off, and when using the Zoom and the Loop tool, you will be looking at the actual pixels instead of the preview copy of the image. This way, your assessment will be more accurate.
[Note: Domnique James is professional photographer based in New York City. He is an Apple Certified Professional and Trainer for Aperture 2.0. Click here to send emai or check out his websites at The Studio and The Playground. Thank you.]
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I've been using Aperture for a long time now, and I don't understand what you mean by "preview mode only" and how to turn it off. I know about Quick Preview mode, but that doesn't seem to be what you are talking about.
I need a little clarification, please. Thank you.
Sheesh, I think that an "Apple Certified Professional and Trainer for Aperture 2.0" could at least know that it's called loupe, not loop.
Information has been updated. Thanks for the feedback.
Oh, so you DID mean the Quick Preview mode. Thanks for the clarification!
I tend to use the loupe over the Zoom function. Coincidentally, though, I just tried using the Zoom function again a few days back, and found that it no longer operated how it used to. Now (latest version of Aperture), "Zoom" (the 'z' key or via the toolbar) in Full Screen Mode only "zooms" so that the picture completely fills the screen.
For instance, my camera is a 40D, and it's pictures generally will fill the screen horizontally but leave black bars (empty space) at top and bottom; now, the 'zoom' function zooms in to the point that there is no empty space top or bottom, and so a small portion of the image is "off-screen" to the left and right.
This perplexed me when I first noticed it, and I at first thought that somehow the image I was "zooming" had been horrifically cropped down. However, there was no crop applied, the image is a 10MP image with about 2 times the resolution in either axis than my monitor has. I then brought up the loupe, set to 100x magnification, and further confirmed: inside the loupe the image was significantly more magnified than the 'zoomed' image.
So, question: is this something which (quite oddly) was changed for Aperture 2.x, or is there a hidden preference somewhere which says something like "make 'zoom' 'fill screen' instead of 'view actual pixels'" ?
I think you will find that when Quick Preview is 'on' that the zoom key 'z' will zoom into 100% of the jpeg image. When you call up the loop tool with Quick Preview 'on' you will be looking at 100% of the RAW master file. Hence the difference.
The only 'zoom' functionality that changed between 1.5 and 2.0 is that the zoom now always goes to 1:1 of what you are looking at. So, if you're looking at the full resolution image, it will go 1:1 of that. If you're looking at the JPEG preview in Quick Preview it'll go 1:1 of that.
Thanks, David and Dominique. I'm pretty sure I was in Quick Preview mode while in full screen going to zoom, now that you mention it (was going through the first pass on pictures). That makes sense!