Aperture Tutorial: Total RAW Control
By Jonathan Briggs
Capturing images in RAW mode puts you, the photographer, firmly in charge of everything that’s necessary to create a great picture. RAW is the gateway to the true realisation of a digital darkroom, and Aperture offers you all that flexibility and functionality on your desktop.
A RAW file hands the photographer amazing potential to get the very best from all the time, effort and skill that goes into any shoot. Jonathan Briggs explains why Aperture’s non-destructive environment is the perfect place to fine-tune and enhance your RAW images.
Step 1: The Adjustments Inspector is part of Aperture’s default view on the right-hand side of the screen. Alternatively, pressing the H key in full-screen mode turns the Adjustments head-up display on and off. Either way, this is where all the refinements and fine-tuning to your RAW files is carried out.
Step 2: You can control which adjustment options are contained in the HUD by clicking the + button in the top right corner, which gives you a full list of adjustment options. The options you see in the HUD are assigned image by image, and your choices live with the file you are working on. Each part of the Adjustments HUD can be expanded or collapsed using the arrow on the left-hand side, or activated and de-activated using the adjacent tick box. What’s more, each individual part can be re-set to its original state by using the Reset button on the right-hand side of the display.
Step 3: Aperture offers a number of quick solutions to adjusting exposure and levels by means of the three buttons placed immediately below the histogram. Working from left to right, the first button provides an Auto Exposure setting that optimises the data within the file. Right next to this is a Reset button which takes you straight back to the original RAW. Next along is the Auto Levels Combined option. When the histogram is grey, you’re viewing it in luminance mode — the three colour channels are combined. Adjustments based on total luminance work in the same way.
Use this option when you’re looking to correct the contrast but don’t want the colour cast of an image to change. Next is the Auto Levels Separate button. This brings correction of colour cast into the equation by adjusting the levels based on individual evaluations of each channel — red, green and blue. These four images (left to right from top) show the sequence.
Step 4: As soon as changes to the original RAW file are made — either by making auto adjustments or by using any or all of the individual controls — the image file gets a badge that tells you you’re not looking at the Master, but a Version. Similarly, you are able to remove all adjustments at any stage by clicking the actions button and selecting Remove All Adjustments from the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Jonathan Briggs is a former MD of The Association of Photographers (AOP). Now a director of Magic Bean — a company set up to offer technical training and event logistics for companies working within the creative industry — Briggs has over ten years’ experience working with Macs and associated software across the design, imaging and photographic sectors. This series of guides offers a real-world user perspective on how you can get the most out of Aperture.
All the images seen here are by Colin Prior — one of Britain’s leading landscape photographers. His spectacular images capture the beauty of the world’s wild places — from Alaska to Greenland, to New Zealand and back home to the remote areas of his native Scotland. Prior is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers. To find out more about how he uses the Mac and Aperture, 
