Understanding Previews and Thumbnails in Aperture can greatly enhance your experience. This is one of those “the more you know…” topics. Do you need to know this? No… Aperture is designed so that you don’t have to think about it. But if you do know it, then your overall understanding of Aperture will go up several levels.

Lately I’ve found that I’m spending more time responding to questions in the forums than I am to writing posts in “Tips & Tricks”—which in itself is fine, except that unless you’re digging through the forums (which I’d imagine you’re not unless you posted a question there), it looks largely like I’m ignoring the site—which isn’t good!

A while ago I mentioned on TWiP that I was looking at a possible solution for wireless tethered shooting with Aperture and the Eye-Fi card. Basic “just shoot wireless” is easy; that’s what the Eye-Fi card does. But we still have to get the photos from the desktop into Aperture, and we all know that transferring RAW files over the WiFi is painfully slow, so my goal was to utilize Aperture 3’s ability to match JPEG to RAW files, and to shoot wireless-tethered and have just the JPEG files transfer, then match the RAW files later on when you can connect card over USB or Firewire. Got it? Good!

Good news is, it works! Less than good news is, it’s a bit complicated. But here we go. (If any Adobe Photoshop Lightroom users have found this page, there’s a special note for you at the end, too.)

It would appear that Aperture 3.0.3 is out. I’m traveling today and just landed so can’t list the specs but if you haven’t seen it yet, run Software Update. And as always, back up before any update! (You are running Time Machine / File Vault / Backblaze or a combination of, riiiight?!)

Oh there’s a good tip post topic. Backup strategies.

Dear ApertureExpert readers,

It would appear that I’ve been targeted by some smarmy disgusting spam-bot creature. Unfortunately those of you that have subscribed to updates all got emails about it (and believe me, I heard about it, too).

If you’re into photography (and, um, if you’re using Aperture, odds are you are ;-) head on over to my ConfessionsOfATravelJunkie photo blog where I just posted a series of entries on my trip to Singapore, including some photo evolution sequences, and a Screenflow video of a large photoshop composite.

If you’re shooting tethered (or wish you could), I’d love to hear about it. How well does it work for you, and what methods are you using?

This has been up for a while now, but I never managed to promote it here! I created a 2-1/2 hour “What’s New in Aperture 3” video exclusively for MacCreate. Check out the promo video below, and buy it here.

I’m very happy to announce that the Adjustment Presets Pack #1 for Aperture 3 is finally complete! It includes a series of exciting “looks” that are customized in ways I believe haven’t been done before… as well as a series of gradient tints that again have a unique twist to them. These masks are all generated outside of Aperture, meaning that with Aperture alone it would be impossible to create these looks.

Back before Aperture 3 was announced (it seems so long ago now, doesn’t it?!) I posted this article, What Do YOU Want in Aperture 3? in which I offered a free copy of my next eBook to whoever got the closest in their guessing. I just read through the lot, and there are some GREAT responses in here. Before we get to the winner though, here’s my three favorite features that did NOT make it in…

Well that was weird… let’s see if anyone else saw the same thing.

I updated to Aperture 3.0.2 last night, and as you can see from the previous post, just imported some images. I did two imports to two new projects, and when I went to look for the projects… they were missing!

(I had imported to a New project, named in the Import window, and that new project lived in a 3rd level sub-folder.)

Here’s a small but very useful update in Aperture 3.0.2. When importing files (or presumably at any stage of processing), the Activity Window now shows you exactly what file it’s working on. This can be very handy if Aperture is stuck on a corrupted file; you can now see exactly what it’s working on.

Many have noted that Aperture 3 is lacking the YouTube and iTunes share features that you find even in QuickTime Player. Curious for sure, but here’s two (not exactly ideal but better than nothing) solutions.

For Managed Libraries

If you are working Managed, meaning your master files live inside the Aperture 3 library, you can take advantage of the “Open in Editor” function. However this also means you’ll have a duplicated movie that you’ll likely want to delete when you’re done.

Hi all,

Thanks for your patience while I’ve been busy in Singapore and Hong Kong. I’m flying home tomorrow, and will finally get to catch up on this site! In the meantime, a little housekeeping…

Reader and contributor Pablo Yanez has posted a detailed “help me Obi-Wan” solutions-list over in the forums. If you’re still fighting a problematic upgrade from Aperture 2 to 3, run don’t walk and check this post out. You just might save your sanity.

Article is here. Thanks Pablo!

A new update hit today, Aperture SlideShow 1.1 Support. According to Software Update…

This update addresses an issue affecting the playback of HD video clips used in Aperture 3 slideshows on Snow Leopard. Audio and video tracks now remain properly synced in video clips that have been trimmed.

The update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.