how to create album based on different logical combination (AND,OR) of properties in Aperture

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how to create album based on different logical combination (AND,OR) of properties in Aperture

I have created a project in Aperture which contains all photos from my vacation which I'd like to divide the project into multiple albums based on date, e.g. an album for the first week, another for the second week, etc. Smart albums are obvious choice for that.

Then, I'd like create more albums which would further differentiate these individual albums already created. For example have an album which would match pictures taken in the first week (this is the 1st smart album already created) AND are flagged OR contain a non-empty caption. The OR operator should have higher precedence.

I haven't found a way how to do that as smart album settings only allow AND or OR but not their combination. Nested smart albums would solve the problem as weel however Aperture currently does not support this functionality.

Any other idea ?

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 1:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Vladimir Kotal Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 21, 2013 1:43 PM in response to Vladimir Kotal

I found this trick here: http://archive.bagelturf.com/aparticles/metadata/metaimposs/index.php

i.e. to create smart album and then to apply a filter which is remembered by Aperture persistently for that album. I consider it as a rather clumsy workaround but still better than nothing.

I would appreciate if Aperture could contain proper logical filters or at least smart album nesting, hopefuly it will be added in one of the upcoming versions.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,743 points

Jan 21, 2013 2:16 PM in response to Vladimir Kotal

Another possibility are keywords:

Within a keywords rule you can use a different logical operator than for te other rules; so it is possible to combine the first level of rules by "any" and the nested keywords rule by "and" or vice versa.

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Vladimir Kotal

Hi Vladimir,

Some comments. I hope they are helpful.

Vladimir Kotal wrote:

I have created a project in Aperture which contains all photos from my vacation which I'd like to divide the project into multiple albums based on date, e.g. an album for the first week, another for the second week, etc. Smart albums are obvious choice for that.

It might be obvious, but that doesn't make it a good choice. An Album is an excellent choice for collections that are _static_. Smart Albums are excellent for collections that are _dynamic_. "Pictures from the first week of my vacation" is a static grouping. Use a filter to group the images, select them, and put them in an Album. Repeat for Week 2, etc. Done.

Vladimir Kotal wrote:

Then, I'd like create more albums which would further differentiate these individual albums already created. For example have an album which would match pictures taken in the first week (this is the 1st smart album already created) AND are flagged OR contain a non-empty caption. The OR operator should have higher precedence.

The question here is to what extent you need these groupings in the future. Flags should (imho) be restricted to short-term (per work-session) use only. Since you already have Albums for each week, it is only two clicks to filter the Album(s) for "Flagged". Filtering for "Caption is not empty" is slightly more complicated, but isn't (afaict) useful as a perduring grouping, and therefore not a candidate for a Smart Album. But if you do want Smart Albums, it's easy work to create Smart Filters for "Album = Week #" and for "Caption does not equal null".

You can readily select the two Smart Albums to show in one Browser their combined results. Imho, this is a more robust approach to an And/Or grouping than using a semi-permanent Filter on a Smart Album.

Once you have an Ablum for the static collection, it is simple work to create a Smart Album for the combined "or" conditions, using the "Any" operator.

Imho, a workflow that requires grouping Images that are either without caption _or_ flagged is prone to user error and should be avoided.

None of which is to imply that Aperture's filtering would not be enormously improved with full Boolean searches. I have requested as much, and suggest you do as well: "Aperture➞Provide Aperture Feedback".

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