Tips

A recent post in the forums asked a very specific workflow question, but I’m sure many others have or will come across similar workflow needs, so I wanted to respond to the question as a tip.

You can read the complete question here, however the simplified need is to:

1. Import only the best photos
2. On import, label them sequentially with a custom name
3. Export the photos, keeping the custom name intact

1. Import Options

You have basically two choices when you import—to import all, or to import some. And there are several tools to help you import just the ones you need.

The first is easy, of course. To import all, it’s as simple as inserting a memory card into the reader, selecting (or creating) a Project to import them to, and clicking the Import Checked button.

However he’s asked about importing selects. That means there’s two stages to importing; viewing the photos to choose which ones are worth importing, then selecting only those images for import. Aperture 3 added some really great features to the Import window to facilitate this, so let’s take a look at those.

Register now for this limited seating event… get your Aperture 3 questions answered and meet fellow Aperture users at the “What’s New in Aperture 3” seminar on Wednesday, June 09 from 6:00 PM—9:00 PM at the 

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.)