Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie, we're going to talk about setting the Preferences in Aperture. Many software programs have preferences. Taking the time to get familiar with the options they offer and choosing what works best for you is well worth the small investment in time that it takes because the result is that you'll end up working more efficiently and taking advantage of all the software has to offer. To access the Preferences in Aperture, go up to Aperture, Preferences and click. You'll see a dialog that contains a number of different tabs. We'll begin with the General Tab. The first option is which library to use. Many users have just one library, but you can actually create multiple libraries. For example, you could create a New Library each year. I have two libraries; my main library and a test library that I had set up when Aperture 2 was first released. If you use a laptop and a home computer, you'll have at least two libraries as well. If you store one or both of these libraries on external hard drives or if you connect the two computers together in target-disk mode, you can access the other libraries from this pop-up menu. When you do so, you'll need to quit and re-launch Aperture. To open Aperture using a different library, hold down the Option Key while launching it. We'll talk more about this in another movie that specifically deals with Aperture on two computers. The next Preference is whether or not to have Aperture automatically launch when a memory card or camera is connected. If you specify Aperture, then the Import Interface will automatically appear whenever a new card or camera is detected. The Auto-Adjust Black Clip and Auto-Adjust White Clip Sliders allow you to determine the amount of clipping you want any of the Auto Commands, such as Auto Levels, to use. I recommend setting these to zero. That way you can use an auto function if you choose without incurring unexpected clipping. And yes, there are some cases where auto functions can be handy, although normally I do prefer to make all my adjustments manually. Let's take a quick look at the difference it can make. I have the Clipping set to zero and I'm going to choose to use Auto Levels. Actually, I believe that this was already done, so we use the other form of Auto Levels that separates the channels. We'll talk more about that later. And now I'm going to adjust the Clipping and set it up to ten percent for both the highlights and shadows and click that adjustment again. Notice the dramatic Clipping that occurs. So I'm going to set this back to zero and I'll re-click Auto Levels to get the image back to the way I had it initially. I recommend leaving the Option to Create New Versions When Making Adjustments unchecked. If you check it, you're likely to have a lot of unexpected versions of your images. Besides, it's very easy to see the master file at any time by simply clicking the Master File Icon and it returns you to a quick view of your master file. I checked the warning to Show Warning When Deleting Masters because you don't want to accidentally delete a master file. I prefer to keep Show Alert When Import is Finished checked so that I know when I can remove my compact flash card. But that preference is optional. Reset All Warnings is there so that if you decide that you've eliminated certain warnings that appear in the dialog and then you later decide that you might like to have them back, you can reset them here. Let's move on to the Appearance Tab. I'm going to get rid of the Inspector right now. Notice the first two choices here, Control the Viewer Background Brightness and the Browser Background Brightness. Initially they're set to slightly darker gray for the Viewer and slightly lighter gray for the Browser. These are very, very functional in helping you separate the different areas and accurately judge the tonalities in your images. While viewing images against stark black or stark white can provide a lot of visual impact, it actually makes it more difficult to make careful judgments about tonality and contrast. So the middle grays are usually more effective. I would urge you to adjust these cautiously and conservatively. The Hot and Cold Display Options refer to the Visual Clipping Previews. These warnings can appear if there is any clipping in any channel. The idea behind this control is that not all printers have the same white and black points. Some actually max out before the white or black that is displayed on your monitor. So Aperture allows you to change the Clipping Display Threshold to more accurately reflect the white and black points of your printed output. For most instances, the default behavior will be all that you need, but if you want to make extremely accurate and refined adjustments to the very brightest highlights and the darkest shadows in your images, then you might want to change this parameter. I leave the Clipping Overlay set to Color because I find it easier to see any clipping. Let's just get an example of the clipping. I'm going to go up to View, Highlight Hot and Cold Areas and I'll bring my Inspector back and make an exposure adjustment, bring in clipping and you'll see that even on red, using the Color Overlay shows up very, very clearly. We'll put that back. We'll continue talking about the other Preferences in the next movie.