Aperture Tutorial: Total RAW Control

Step 5: Using Levels to make image adjustments is all about being able to separate the image out into sections, thereby giving you close control over how the image is being affected. Aperture gives you two avenues by which to do this. First, rather than only having highlights, midtones and shadows to play with, you can bring in Quarter-Tone controls by pressing the button in the top right of the Levels section. The difference this makes to your capacity for subtle adjustments is marked.

In the three images below, the left-hand picture is the original. In the central picture, the highlights have been pushed across in standard mode, so affecting the whole look and feel of the image. However, in the right-hand picture, Quarter-Tone mode has been used, allowing the overall feel of the picture to remain, whilst emphasising the highlights of the subject and the horizon.

Step 6: Similarly when it comes to shadows, the Quarter-Tone control can be used to equally good effect. Again, working from left to right and starting with the original, the central image shows what happens when the shadows control is pushed across in standard mode, but when the Quarter-Tone controls are used the shadows can be given more strength without affecting the rest of the image.

Step 7: The second route to making adjustments via the Levels section is to make changes on one channel at a time. Go to the Channel drop-down list and select one of the three colours to see the histogram sepcifically for that channel. You can still use the Quarter-Tone facility in the same way as in RGB mode and fine-tune your image colour by colour, giving you extremely close control of a file.

Step 8: Because Aperture holds all the information about adjustments you make as layers of metadata, you can start to think about adjustments in terms of groups of images rather than working one image at a time. This approach can improve your workflow by letting you apply the same adjustment information across multiple files.

Once one image has been adjusted to your satisfaction, your next move is to select the Lift and Stamp tool from the toolbar and click on the image as the pointer turns to an up arrow to bring up the Lift and Stamp head-up display. Now select the information you want to “pick up” from the list by clicking or unclicking the tick boxes.

Step 9: Your final move is to click the down arrow in the toolbar and move over images in the Filmstrip that you’d like to “drop” this adjustment on to. As you click each thumbnail in the Filmstrip, it gets the adjusted badge to show that it’s no longer in its original state.

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