Stack Picks

I am organizing many images from a trip and I have many stacks created. I intend on posting images to the web and would only like the 'picks' from each stack to be part of the web album. Are stack picks the way to do this or am I better off rating my image preference and creating a smart album based on ratings?

psurgery wrote:
I intend on posting images to the web and would only like the 'picks' from each stack to be part of the web album. Are stack picks the way to do this
Stack Picks (or Album picks are the way to do this - you can't add a Version that isn't the Pick of a Stack to a web page, book or light table.
Ian

Similar Messages

Understanding Version Sets, Stacks, Picks, & Album Picks

Aperture's documentation is very good in most respects (adjustments being the major exception), but I found it very difficult to put my head around the whole version set / stacks / picks / album picks thingy.
While working on some images this morning, it all became clear.
1. Version Sets vs. Stacks
A Version Set is a single Master image with two or more Versions.
Version Sets have a light gray border around the contained images, and a single dark gray border around all those images in the Version Set.
A Stack is a collection of versions that do not use the same Master.
A Stack can contain single Versions or Version Sets (and Version Sets remain grouped within a Stack: you'll see a light gray border around the Version Sets and a dark gray border around everything in the Stack).
If you Stack two or more Version Sets, and then choose the Unstack command, all the Versions become separated--even if they share the same Master (i.e., UnStacking a Stack does not result in Version Sets, as you might expect--instead, it results in all individual Versions).
You can re-Stack these separated Versions that share the same Master, and you'll get a Version Set (light gray border surrounded by dark gray border) automatically (which is good, since there is no Create Version Set command).
From all these results, it appears that a Version Set is simply a Stack where each Version shares the same Master. It is different from other Stacks in that these Versions have a common light gray border.
2. Picks vs. Album Picks
Create an Album and add two separate images (i.e., two Versions with different Masters). Call it Album1.
Duplicate the Album. Call it Album2.
In Album1, create 3 different cropped versions of image1 (so you can tell the Versions apart). Likewise, create 2 different cropped versions of image2. You should now have 2 Version Sets in each album.
To help keep track of which Version is the pick, press 'T' to turn on image overlays so you can see the Version Title when you pause your mouse over an image.
Click on the number in the top left corner of each Version set to condense them. Notice that the left-most image (the Pick) is the image you se in the condensed Version Set. The same image will appear in Album1 and Album2.
Open the Version Set again, and click on the right-most image, then click the Pick button on the top toolbar (not the Album Pick button; the Pick button). Notice the rightmost image physically moves to the leftmost position. Close the Version Set and notice that this Version is now the one that displays when the Version Set is condensed.
Go into Album2 and condense the Version Set there, too. Notice that the same Version as in Album1 is the Pick. That's because we have not selected an Album Pick yet. The default Pick is the Pick for all albums until you pick an Album Pick for one or more albums.
While in Album2, open the first Version Set and select the right-most image in the Version Set. Now click the Set Album Pick button on the top toolbar. Notice no images move this time (compare that to clicking the Pick button on the toolbar). Instead, a black checkmark in a gray circle appears over the image. This means this Version is the Album Pick. Collapse this Version Set in Album2, and notice that the Album Pick image is what shows in the condensed Version Set. Now go back to Album1, and you'll notice there is no checkmark on any images. Collapse the first Version Set, and you'll see the left-most image (the default Pick) is the image that shows up on the collapsed Version Set. If you wanted to, you could open up the Version Set, select the middle image and click the Set Album Pick button, and the middle image would represent the Version Set in Album1, while the 3rd image would represent the Version Set in Album2. Version Sets can have no Album Picks, in which case the default Pick (the leftmost image) is what is selected for a collapsed Version Set.
OK, let's have some real fun now! Select the first Version Set, then command-click on the second Version Set to select both Version Sets. Now right-click (or control-click) on one of the images and select Stack. Both Version Sets should be combined into a single Stack, but you should still be able to see the light gray border around the two Version Sets within the Stack.
Click outside the Stack to deselect all the Versions. Now click on the left-most Version in the right-most Version Set. Click the Pick button on the top toolbar. Notice the entire right-most Version Set moves to the left to become the (default) Pick! Press command-Z to undo your change.
Now click on the right-most Version in the right-most Version set. Click the Pick button on the top toolbar. Notice that, not only does the entire right-most Version Set move to the left, but also the rightmost Version moves to the left-most position within the Version Set! You're not only telling Aperture to make the second Version Set the Pick for this Stack, you're also telling it that the right-most Version within that Version Set is the Pick for the Stack.
Play around with setting the Album Pick within each Stack and comparing Album1 with Album2 when you collapse the Stack.
This is a fun exercise that can really help you understand the difference (and similarities) between Version Sets, Stacks, (default) Picks, and Album Picks.
Please correct anything that I'm misunderstanding, or feel free to add anything you've found out about these topics.

Aperture's documentation is very good in most
respects (adjustments being the major exception), but
I found it very difficult to put my head around the
whole version set / stacks / picks / album picks
thingy.
While working on some images this morning, it all
became clear.
<...>
I thank you for the clarification on those matters, while I have used stacks quite a bit I have not yet explored in full detail the Version Set concept (though I had a rough idea of what it did). That was a great job of investigation.
To help bring a similar level of understanding to others regarding the Aperture adjustment tools (which as you note are not well documented), I have published an Adjustment Tool Guide (2 MB PDF) that covers all of the Aperture adjustments - you can find it at:
http://www.InsideAperture.com
Just follow the Adjustment Tool Guide links.

Stack picks are lost when duplicating a book - any ideas?

Hi everyone,
I've noticed that when I duplicate a book in Aperture 2, my "picked" image settings/choices from each stack are lost and i have to go back and re-pick the images I want to use. With the 100 page books this becomes very time consuming and annoying - is there anyway around this so that duplicate book means exactly that (not duplicate-most-of-the-book-but-not-the-important-bits)
The only workaround I've found so far is to extract the versions I want to use and then delete the old stacks - which works but is still a chunk of time to have to spend.

I've discovered that the solution to this problem is to pull the "picked" image out of the stack, and then delete the stack (to keep the album tidy and straightforward). That way there are no options for Aperture to revert to when duplicating a book/light table.

Relocating photos that are not stack picks

My current workflow plan says -
1) import photos from camera as managed masters
2) grade each photo up to 5*.
3) Keep the 5* photos and sync to iPad/iPhone.
4) Relocate the masters that have less than 5* onto a backup disk
The problem I have is that if I create additional versions during the grading process (to crop or tweak levels), then I may have a 5* version and a <5* version of a photo.
If I select all photos <5* and relocate, this moves the master for the 5* photos that share those masters.
Is there any way to select and relocate only version for which NO version has 5*?

Given your current workflow I don't see anyway of doing it via ratings. When you create two versions of an image there is no connection between them apart from having a common master. So even if the filters had more options for the ratings section I don.t think you could come up with a combination that would do want you want.
So if not ratings what? I think stacks are the way to go. Set up Aperture to stack new versions. Aperture->Preferences->General select *Automatically stack new versions*.
Now when you create a new version of a rated image it will be joined to the old version. When you're all done select all images with a rating less then 5 stars. Those not in stacks you can archive.
If while you were rating when you create a new version that doesn't get 5 stars if you also flag it then you can search for all images less than 5 stars and not flagged and only the none stacked version will come up. If there was a way to search for images in.no in a stack you wouldn't need this last step.
Of course after thinking about this and writing it out I can't help but feel there is a fundamental problem with this workflow being used in Aperture.

Stacks lose pick if put in an album and then undone

If you put a stack into an album and then undo the move, the stack loses its pick if it's not the first image in the stack.
I just lost a lot of work by moving a couple dozen stacks into an album and then hitting Command-Z.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior? (Aperture 1.5.2)

If you put a stack into an album and then undo the
move, the stack loses its pick if it's not the first
image in the stack.
I just lost a lot of work by moving a couple dozen
stacks into an album and then hitting Command-Z.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior? (Aperture
1.5.2)
I am a little confused by exactly what happpens when you are doing this - the stack pick is always the first image of the stack.
Are you referring to Album Picks for the album you have moved a stack into? Then it would make more sense to have those picks go away.
I did try changing the master pick in a stack, dragging it into an album, and then undoing the move into album - my stack stayed ordered as I had put it. Can you give an example of how exactly you add stacks to the album and how the picks are being set?

Smart Album with Only Favorite Pick of Stack Rather Than All Stack Picts

I am trying to create a smart albums where i would have only my favorite pictures. most of my pictures are in stacks and when i create an album with my favorites, i get every pictures of the stacks rather than the favorites.
do anyone knows a way to single out the favorite picture of the stack and have it in a (smart) album, without all the other pictures part of the same stack attached to it.
thanks for your help

Sorry, edited (one sentence was incomplete):
... for each album, you can define an album-specific stack pick which is different from the "overall" stack pic.
Let's say you have a project "client 1" with a stack containing images A, B, C, D. Let's make B the stack pick.
Now you can set up an album (or website, or book, or whatever) "client 1 my choice" and set image D to be the album pick. You can then set up another album "client 1 their choice" and set image C to be that album's album pick.
If you then view the album "client 1 my choice" you'll see image D. If you view the album "client 1 their choice", you'll get to see image C. If you view the project "client 1" in which your stack is residing, you'll see image B.
All this can be achieved without unstacking since the image (and stack) in the album is just a pointer to the original stack which resides in your project "client 1". I find this quite comfortable.
Cheers,
k.
powerbook G4 17 1.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) German system

Alternate picks with same stack in different albums?

I've got a question I haven't been able to find an answer for. Say I have a stack of two images: one is the color original, one is the black & white conversion. Then I have an album called "Black & White picks" and another called "Color picks".
If I move the stack into the "Color picks" album, and the color image is selected as the pick, there's no problem there. But then over in the "Black & White picks" album, the color image will show up as the pick. Not good.
Is there any way to have alternate picks with a given stack in different albums? Or do I just need to unstack the photos and put them in the albums individually (this is a pain, because I'd like to keep the images together).
Thanks,
Chris

<...>
If I move the stack into the "Color picks" album, and
the color image is selected as the pick, there's no
problem there. But then over in the "Black & White
picks" album, the color image will show up as the
pick. Not good.
Is there any way to have alternate picks with a given
stack in different albums? Or do I just need to
unstack the photos and put them in the albums
individually (this is a pain, because I'd like to
keep the images together).
<...>
That is exactly what the "Stacks->Set Album Pick" command is for. Inside of any album (even web galleries or a book) use that command (shortcut Cmd-"|") to set some other image in the stack as a pick for that album.
Inside of a smart album such a concept makes no sense, but you can have smart albums that are able to "peer" into stacks and pull images out that are not the current pick. But be warned - dragging stuff out of smart albums that are thusly found can be a problem as any images that are not the current stack pick will not be found in the dragged-to album!

No way to make selected photos the picks of their stacks?

I found myself wanting to select one image from each of a number of stacks then make them each the pick of their stack. Apparently the Pick command operates only on the most recently selected image, even if several are selected. I can see where making multiple images the pick of their stacks would be a UI problem if some of the images were in the same stack, but is there a good reason not to allow setting picks for multiple images when only one per stack is selected?
I thought maybe I could do this in AppleScript, but (a) the picked attribute of an image version is not writeable, and (b) "stack" is not mentioned anywhere in Aperture's AppleScript except in the description of that attribute. I'm thinking of doing a hacky thing where I save a list of the selected image versions, then tell Aperture to select one, issue the cmd-\ keystroke to pick it, then select the next, etc. Anyone have any better ideas?

You're right Make Stack Pick only works on the primary selection most likely because of the issues you bring up. If there were multiple selections in a single stack what would the command do?
As for AppleScript you'll find that it is severely limited in its ability to get at low level items in the Aperture library.
As for you're proposed solution it seems to me that you're going to a lot of trouble to solve a not very frequently occurring problem. As you will have to go through and select each image you want to make a stack pick to add to your list, why not just make it the pick then? You could use the keyboard shortcut for next or previous stack to go from stack to stack and then once in the stack use the arrow keys to get to the image you want to pick than then use the ⌘-\ to make the image the pick.
good luck

How can I sync ONLY the top photo in the stack?

I sync various Aperture photo albums to my IPad and iPhone. The problem is that when I have 'stacked' images (eg. one image showing in the album and two other copies 'hidden' underneath), all of the photos in the stack are copied to the ipad and iPhone. So instead of seeing just one version of an image, I see as many as are in the stack. How can I sync ONLY the top photo in the stack?
Thanks for your help!

I solved my own problem.
The sync problem seemed to only occur on smart albums. There is a new check box option in Aperture 3 when making a smart album: "sync stack pick only." One click and the problem is solved!

How do I copy only the flagged image in a stack to an album?

Within a project containing many stacks, I want to make an album showing only flagged images from some of these stacks. But when I try to do this, I end up with the stacks in the new album - which is not what I want.
For example, from a small gathering I have 94 photos in 24 stacks. (Among other things, I auto-bracket.) The correct image is the "pick" in each stack. I flagged 8 photos and uploaded them to a Picasa Web Album, for people to see. I want to make an album inside the project showing only the photos I uploaded, but I have not found how to do this.
I can view the 8 flagged photos by filtering, and though each has a badge showing the number of photos in its stack, the remaining photos do not appear if I click on the badge or press Shift-K or select Open/Close Stack: all that happens is that the badge toggles between the number of images in the stack ("x") and "1 of x" - say, between "4" and "1 of 4", if there are 4 images in that stack.
But when I put a flagged image into an album, I get its whole stack. It does not matter whether I drag it or choose New > Album and click the "Add selected items to new album."
This seems like such an obvious task that I feel I must be missing something.
Any help?

Just to expand on Frank's answer: that's how Aperture works. Stacks travel together. You will see the same behavior regarding filtering in the Album that you see in the Project. (Album is a container. As with a Project, you can filter the Album container to show only items that meet your filter criteria, but the contents of the container don't change by being filtered.)
This is why Album picks are so useful. In Projects, the Stack Pick is the left-most Image in the Stack, and is the Image that shows when the Stack is minimized. In Albums, you can specify an Album Pick. (The default Pick is the Stack Pick.) When a Stack in an Album is collapsed, the Album Pick is the Image that shows on top.
Added the following paragraph:
So you could have a Project with Stacks of bracketed exposures (an excellent use of Stacks), you could make the best of these the Pick, and then you could make an Album showing, say, the second best ones by putting them in an Album and designating the second-best Images as the Album Pick of each Stack.
You should have no trouble creating an Album of your selected Images (in this case, you are selecting by "is flagged"). With Stacks collapsed, you should see what you seem to want, which is a group of the Images you selected to be in the Album.
denke wrote:
I want to make an album inside the project showing only the photos I uploaded, but I have not found how to do this.
That the rest of the Images in the Stack are there shouldn't be a concern. Why is it?
Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

Book Non-Pick Images confusion

I am totally confused and frustrated. I am trying to create a photo book for the first time and am working on one within a particular project. I have an edited color and black and white versions created from every master shot.
When I try to place an image on the photo book I get a bizarre message that tells me I can tried to use a "Non-Pick Image." What difference should it make?
If I select the image I want and make it the pick in the stack, it moves to the top of the stack, but the little check mark icon doesn't change and it STILL won't let me use the image I specified as "the pick" on the book.
Why do I need to use strictly "the pick" image from a stack? Makes it impossible to use the same image from a stack more than once. Nothing I seem to do allows me to use anything but the master image.
This shouldn't be this hard. I see the image I want, I drag and drop it where I want and I'm done. How do I get around this bug/feature?
Thanks.

I experienced another side effect to this 'feature', and in figuring it out, I think I have the answer to your question. The quick answer is to unstack everything, or create new versions. If you want to understand what's going on, and learn the third way, read on...
There is a tiny mention in the manual that Stacks contain a series of related images, and one pick. This 'one pick' fact is very important. Stacks allow you to group images, but you can only designate ONE IMAAGE from the stack as the one to use. (The 'Pick'.) All the others in the stack are preserved in case you want to use one of them later instead, but they are basically hidden and can't be used in albums or books (I think). So, one pick per stack, and that is the left-most image (the one that stays on top when the stack is closed).
There is one confusing exception to this. You can designate another image in the stack as the 'Album Pick'. This tells Aperture that for this album only (or book), use the image in the stack with the check mark instead of the stack pick. You can set an Album Pick by selecting the image and choosing Stack > Set Album Pick (or something -- don't have Aperture open right now).
I haven't tried this yet, but I think if you make one image in the stack the Album Pick, then you can use two images from the same stack: the Stack Pick, and the Album Pick.
I still don't really get why.
Here is the scary side effect with books. BEWARE! So, I spent hours and hours building a 40 page book. I wanted two versions of the book -- both mostly identical, but a few pages were to be different in the second one. So, I got the first book perfect, adjusted all the images, proofed it, etc. Once I was satisfied, I duplicated that book and intended on making the few minor changes to the duplicate. Well, after I while, I noticed in shock that some images in the duplicate book did not have adjustments applied to them. After more investigation, I discovered that these 'non-adjusted' images were actually DIFFERENT IMAGES! Whereever I had used images from stacks in the first book, the duplicate book used some other images from the same stack!! This was disturbing!!! Such a major change, and NO NOTIFICATION.
I don't fully understand this, but basically, if you unstack the images, or use the Stack Pick and Album Pick, or create new versions of the images, you will avoid this problem.
So, Stacks are powerful and can be confusing. They are more than neat little organizers as I found out -- not at all like iPhoto's Events.
Does anyone have anything to add? What am I missing here?
Thanks

Mobile me gallery and stacks

When I drag a stack pick to a mobile me gallery the entire stack shows up in the gallery and none of the pictures in the stack are selected as the stack pick. Once I have all my pictures in the mobile me gallery I have to go back and re-select the picture in each stack I want published.
Is there a way to drag the stack pick from an album to a mobile me gallery without having to go back and re-selecting the stack pick
Thanks

Not that I am aware of. I drag the pic to the mobileme gallery. Then click on the version I want to display in the gallery, and "shift-\" to make that image the "album" pick. This keeps my project "stack" pick intact. Every album or gallery can have their own picks, designated by the check-mark on the thumbnail.
Would be nice if the album pick was designated by which version is dragged to the album, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
angioman

MobileMe galleries and Aperture stacks

I'm using MobileMe galleries to share and display some photos. It seems you can't upload images from within Aperture projects when they're stacked, at least only the images on the top of the stacks. I often want to upload a whole project, without unstacking, so I just want to selec-all and create a new album. But all I'm uploading are the top images of each stack. Does anyone know what the solution might be?
Many thanks,
Richard

Richard,
This is expected behavior when using Stacks. The purpose of a stack is to stack groups several images of which you only intend to use one, known as the pick.
One solution to allow you to keep your stacks but use all the images in MobileMe Gallery, is to create a Smart Album within the project and use this Smart Album for your MobileMe Gallery.
Smart Albums you create offer the option Ignore stack groupings by unchecking the "Include stack picks only" from the Smart Album criterion. If this option is deselected (the default for a Smart Album), then all images that meet the criteria for the Smart Album will be available in the Media pane, regardless of stack pick status.
See: Working with Stacks - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2940
See: "Handling of Stacked Images" in Tips on Sharing with iLife - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1056
Hope this helps

Unable to Select Pick

For a reason unknown to me, I am no longer able to select a pick for an album. The shortcut results in a 'boink' sound, and the menu item is greyed out when I attempt to select a pick.
Is there something I'm missing?
Additionally, I'm not aware of any way of filtering by pick. Is filtering by picks possible?

Just to make sure ... "Album PIcks" are for Stacks which are in Albums. If an image is not in a Stack, or the Stack is not in an Album, you cannot make it a pick.
When you filter an image container, you can set the Filter to only select from amongst the Picks in any Stacks in the container (other images within the Stack are ignored). This is (to me) confusingly shown in the Filter as "Stack Picks Only". (See http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=2%26sec tion=16%26tasks=true for Apple's explanation.)
If you cannot set an image that is in a Stack that is in an Album to be the Stack Pick, something is wrong. Have you tried the usual voodoo (close, reboot, relaunch, let Aperture run, try another Library, repair or rebuild you Library, repair permissions on your system disk)?

How to sort and filter all images when using stacks?

I have a project where all images are arranged in stacks. I have also gone through and given each image a rating or rejected it. Now I want to sort out and display only a certain selection of images, i.e. rejected images for deletion or four star images etc. But the selection filter only seems to work on the stack pick. Can I change this so that the filter works on all images, even if they are part of an open stack? If not, how could I else single out all the rejected ones and delete them? I don't want to break the stacks.

The only current way to do this is via Smart Albums, as there is a checkbox at the bottom of the settings HUD: 'Ignore Stack Groupings'.
Ian
P.S. If you'd like to see this added to the regular search HUD (I know I would), please leave feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/aperture.html

Stack Picks

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for