Rating in Aperture

Rating can be done many different ways. I have formed my ways from reading lots of material on the internet. Hopefully this will be a good place for you to start in your own rating system.

Aperture gives you the ability to rate images with up to five stars and a reject. Some things to know before I begin.

• by default aperture’s projects only show images that are rated at ‘unrated or higher’
• images with a reject rating will not show by default
• ‘select’ and 5 star is the same thing

I only use a three star rating for my photos. five is just too much. here is how my ratings compare to each other:

1: photos I want to keep
2: photos I want to show other people, or edit
3: photos that I can say “I Made That”

Shortcut keys are, well, key. My shortcut keys are as follows:
all numbers are on the keypad on the right side of the keyboard.

1: Rate 1 star
2: Rate 2 star
3: Rate 3 star
4: Previous photo (same as left key)
5: +1 and go to next photo
6: Next photo (same as right arrow)
7: NOT USED
8: Reject and move to the next photo
9: Reject

Here is my Rating workflow:

• Go through all images in a project and find the rejects. A reject to me is either a photo that is completely underexposed, totally black, or completely overexposed, totally white.
• Once those are rejected they will disappear (not trashed).
• I rate the remaining images with a single star, select all and press 1
• I then go through in another pass and find any images that are worthy of editing or sharing and rate them 2.
  

That’s all. From here I do edits and any image that I am totally stoked about I will re-rate to a three once it’s finalized.

I will cover on another post about how I organize my projects to take advantage of having images rated. Check back for it sometime soon.

--Jesse

Baggage Claim

In the past three or so years I have traveled more than in the 22 years prior. Something I have noticed and wanted to bring to people attention is baggage claim etiquette. It really makes me mad at how people act at baggage claim. They walk right up to the conveyor and stand there waiting for their luggage. Meanwhile anyone that doesn't fit, has to wait behind them and usually can't see the oncoming luggage.

Here is how I think it would be the most efficient and pleasant:

• walk up to the baggage claim and stand five to six feet away from the conveyor
• watch for your bags to come down the line
• when you see one step forward and pull it off
• when you pull one off do not place it right in front of the conveyor, place it behind where everyone is waiting
• wait five feet away for your next one
• once you have all your luggage leave the area to make room for everyone else waiting
  

If everyone was to stand five feet away, it would not only give a view for everyone but make room for even more people to see. I hate to rant about stuff on this site, but would love to see this implemented in the future.

--Jesse

Vacation

Gonna be gone for a week to Guam. I might have internet access and have time for a post or two, but probably not. See you all in a week or so.