Tracking Photos
Creative uses of
Keywords and Smart Albums When I do my first pass flyby (as I like to think of it) I usually look at all of my images and do the following:
1- Add metdata
2- Rate images (especially rejects)
3- Flag with high-level keywords
4- Apply batch edits (spot removal, white balance correction, etc)
5- Stack images (sometimes...)
My high-level keywords help me to direct my next round of edits and to flag images for particular usage. I use a Keyword preset for this:
For this article, I'm going to call your attention to #7 in my Keyword Preset above: Print. I print images for various reasons and using various means but I want to make sure that I print images tagged for printing. If I tell Uncle John I'm going to print something for him I want to make sure it gets done. The trick is figuring out which pictures still need printed versus the pictures that have already been printed.
I came up with a way to track this that admittedly only works for 1 print of each version, but that's usually what I want. I set up the following Keyword hierarchy:
Any image that is tagged with 'Print' needs to be printed. Any image tagged with one of the 'Printed...' Keywords has already been printed and the following Smart Album helps me to track this:
Using this method, I can be quite sure that I print everything that needs printing but am not required to remember what has already been printed. Once an image is sent off to the printer, I flag it with 'Printed' and it is out of my way.
I could also have just removed the 'Print' Keyword, but then I would have no way to track whether an image had been printed or not and it is possible that someday I'll care whether an image has been printed.
This exact same methodology can be applied to all kinds of final purposes. I do something similar with images that need edited (too bad you can search on whether or not images have had adjustments applied!) or need externally edited (HDRs, panos, lens correction).
Remember that Keywords are only as powerful as you make them and you can build a lot of power into Aperture's keyword hierarchy.