Introduction

I have a Canon 5D Mk II and a Macbook Pro. This blog will set out to document how I manage my workflow and why.

I use Digital Photo Professional as my RAW converter and Aperture 3 for managing the files.

The workflow is:

1. Import photos into the folder Temp RAW Inbox on an external hard drive (WD My Book) using EOS Utility.
2. Open DPP and use Quickcheck to mark rejects for deletion and rate the rest.
1. Bad e.g. out of focus. Only keep because the subject matter is interesting e.g. baby's first shoes
2. Technically okay but boring. 
3. Snapshot. Might want to print as is. 
4. Good. Definitely want to tweak.
5. Excellent. Would consider posting to 500px.
3. Select rejects and delete.
4. Open Edit window and apply basic corrections.
5. Batch convert 4 & 5 as 16-bit TIFF, 1-3 as JPEG; save to Aperture Masters folder on My Book. 
6. Open Aperture 3 and import JPEGs and TIFFs.
7. Tweak as needed.
8. Export to Flickr, Facebook, email as required.

Obviously, it would be a lot easier to do all this in Aperture 3. So why don't I? Originally, I just followed the advice of someone I thought knew what they were talking about but it recently occured to me that it might be a good idea to check. I'll explore that in the upcoming blogs.

While I'm on the subject, being an Aperture user can be pretty lonesome. Every photo magazine and website seems to assume that everyone uses Adobe Photoshop. If you're looking for tips & hints on how to use Aperture or just confirmation that you're not crazy, that other smart people also use Aperture check out the following sites:

A good place to start is The Aperture Blog by Thomas Fitzgerald. He covers pretty much everything you need to get into using Aperture seriously.

ApertureExpert by Joseph Linaschke is great for discussions on the latest updates/bugs/work-arounds.

Robert Boyer is a photographer from the East Coast of the US who has the nice habit of explaining stuff that probably seems obvious to a pro but is arcane to the like of me.

Patrick LaRoque is moving from Aperture to Lightroom.

And, of course, the Aperture Digital Photography Fundamentals Handbook and Aperture 3 User Manual