Apple Aperture 2 Course

Welcome to VTC's tutorial on Aperture 2. I'm Ellen Anon. In this course I'm going to take you step by step through Aperture via a series of movies. Each movie will be from roughly three to seven minutes long and will highlight a particular tool or feature of Aperture. We'll begin with movies that give you an overview of Aperture itself and what it's designed to do and then we'll progress through all the various capabilities within Aperture. The course is designed to take you from square one to the point where you are a proficient user of Aperture. But if you're already using Aperture, you're going to find that I fill in some of the gaps in your knowledge and offer you tips that will help you use it even more efficiently. First I'll familiarize you with the language of Aperture, talking about projects and albums, inspectors, versions, vaults and more and it will all be second nature to you before you know it. I'll also talk about computer specs necessary to have Aperture run, as well as some accessories such as backup drives and .Mac accounts that can make your life easier. I'll tell you how to know if your camera is compatible with Aperture and what to do if it isn't. And no, I won't just tell you to go buy a new camera. I'll teach you to import images into Aperture from a variety of sources including your memory card, local files or even your iPhoto library. I'll explain the differences between managed and referenced files and help you understand which will serve your needs better. I'll even talk about shooting tethered. I'll show you how to officially use the various views within Aperture and customize the interface so that it meets your specific needs. Similarly, we'll go through establishing the preferences so that Aperture works the way you want it to. You'll learn several ways to quickly add keywords and custom metadata. You'll see how to quickly skim through all the images in each project. For example, I'll take you step by step through all the powerful adjustment tools and you'll learn how and when to use each. You'll learn how to recover highlights and which tools to use to get the results your after. You'll learn to use the various tools like a pro. You'll know when you need a new version and when to update a preview. You'll see how easy it is to use an image editor such as Photoshop with Aperture and then have the image update automatically within Aperture. In addition, you'll learn how to use the dodge and burn plug-in from Apple and how to access and use additional plug-ins. You'll learn to output your images from emails to slide shows to web galleries and web pages to prints. You'll be able to take advantage of Aperture's tight integration with other applications to use your images in numerous other apps, from iWork to Microsoft Word. As an advanced user, I'll show you how to backup your images using the vault, as well as other ways. You'll learn to create a two-computer workflow so that you can use your laptop in the field and transfer the images to your home computer. You'll even learn to customize your keyboard and create your own automator actions to facilitate your workflow. By the time you finish the CD, you'll have see how to use Aperture to its full extent. But by taking it one step at a time you won't get overwhelmed. One of the really helpful things about learning from a movie is that you can pause it whenever you need to. And of course, you can replay a section as many times as necessary. I highly recommend that you take the time to try out each tool or technique as I cover it. That way you'll know when you're ready to move on.