So here is a quick and dirty tip for Aperture users wondering how to selectively brush away saturation. Select the saturation quick brush. It will brush saturation in by default so clicking on the little cog at the top right of the adjustment brick will allow you to selectively desaturate parts of your image.
I’ve just made a really useful Automator workflow for fans of Aperture. The workflow allows me to select any number of .NEF raw files (either managed or as referenced masters) and with a single click perform the following actions:
This is important to me as it allows me to use all the power and flexibility of Apertures photo management and retain the use of ALL the brilliant non-destructive editing tools of Lightroom (which are all available in the ACR interface). Further heavy pixel pushing from ACR straight to Photoshop is a further button click away.
There is a little basic setup required.
You should see something like this:
The workflow should open in Automator. Replace the areas in the image above which say Adobe Photoshop CS4 with the version you have (if you don’t have CS4).
You can now either run the workflow directly from Automator or (from Automator) click: File > Save as plugin. Select ‘Script menu’ under the plug-in for section and choose a name. The script is added to your scripts folder in your taskbar and you can access it really easily when you’re in Aperture.
Done! The best of Aperture goodness with the heavy lifting of ACR and Photoshop for when you want it.
I often find that when I put a camera in the hands of my eight year old son I am blown away by the results. It’s not about great photography by any stretch of the imagination but rather about seeing the world in a fundamentally different way; a young mind is relativity unfettered by convention, he doesn’t know about the rule of thirds and phi is something you bake in the oven. Sitting flicking through his photographs I stumble across a few real gems taken of a subject I would never have thought to photograph or from a perspective that is completely original.
The lesson I take from this is that sometimes just the act of taking a photograph, even when the potential is not immediately apparent is worthwhile in and of itself. Forcing myself to change my perspective to try and see the world around me as fresh and interesting – even when the muse is stale – to in some respects unlearn the conventions and rules frees me to be a better photographer and react to the light and the moment when it arrives.
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