Aperture - RAW Best Practices

jdag · May 19, 2012

I've used my D7000 and Apple Aperture for over a year now. In the past, I've always shot JPEGs exclusively, but as I've read more about the virtues and flexibility of RAW, I've been considering the change. I know you can shoot RAW+JPEG, but I'd like to avoid that practice.

Since the camera is not applying it's picture control touches to RAW files, what are some best practices for batch settings on import?

Is there anything special I should be doing on RAW import?

I understand that there are presets that can be applied on import. Are presets suggested beyond the default "RAW Fine Tuning" settings?

Thanks in advance, John

Garbz · May 23, 2012

One of the benefits of RAW is that someone doesn't pick the settings for you. Best practice is to find out what settings suit your pictures most, and then make those your default preset.

jdag · May 23, 2012

Thanks

Patriot · May 23, 2012

Its hard and almost impossible to say there is a best preset for each picture becuase every picture is different. Some you might want high contrast while others more color and punch. Onething might work for one picture but not the other.

jdag · May 23, 2012

I had that "ah ha" moment yesterday. After reading more about the differences in RAW processors, specifically Nikon vs. any other, I installed ViewNX2.

When looking at the JPG and RAW versions of the same photo in ViewNX2, and seeing that the Nikon software in fact rendered the JPEG and RAW identically, I finally understood that it wasn't any issue with my RAW file, but in how the software interprets and presents the RAW file.

I do think that I will backtrack and use the RAW+JPEG option and keep the pair of files. This way I can use Aperture and compare the "Nikon way" (ie - JPEG) vs. the RAW. Whether I like the Nikon processing or not on a particular image, at least then I can decide and have the RAW file to manipulate.

Garbz · May 27, 2012

Exactly. The engineers who wrote the algorithms that sit in your camera also wrote the ones in CaptureNX and ViewNX. That is their take on how a picture should look. The result is quite different from taking a Canon camera and opening the RAW with DPP. However if you take a Canon camera and a Nikon camera and open both their RAWs in Lightroom for instance, they will suddenly look very similar because now you're no longer processing the way Canon/Nikon think best, but rather the way Adobe think best.

TCampbell · May 27, 2012

Actually... Aperture will have a RAW profile for your camera. As you import, it'll automatically apply a certain amount of de-noising and/or sharpening, etc. but it's based on the camera profile and the settings for that exposure. It's also non-destructive (everything in Aperture is non-destructive.)

If you've got a lot of shots in the same light, learn about the use of "lift & stamp". I apply full adjustments first (I don't use any brush-on adjustments straight away). These would be things like white balance, highlights & shadows, curves/levels, etc.. You can then "lift" those global adjustments and "stamp" them onto the remaining images as long as those images were shot in the same light and would thus need the same adjustments. It's part of the whole point of Aperture is to be able to speed the workflow. I then go through and apply any brush-on effects (dodge & burn, repair/clone, etc.) You obviously wouldn't want to copy localized adjustments to other photos because they wouldn't need the same tweaks in the same positions.