Using tethering in Aperture

Question

When using tethering in Aperture, is it possible to have the shots appear behind a pre-designed layout for composition control?

Answer 1

Allen -- Frank and Neil have giving excellent answers.  Personally, I found Betty Edwards lessons to be better than her science.  You might also look for Harold Speed's book on drawing (was available in a Dover edition), as well as (in a different vein) James Watrous' excellent "The Craft of Old Master Drawings".  But the _very best_ advice I can give you is:  don't read; draw.  Just get a bunch of #2 pencils (with erasers, they have always been used), and _draw every day_.  Drawing is a skill.  Skill increases through repetition and active engagement.  For adults, the biggest hurdle is accepting that they draw with the skill of someone who has rarely drawn (hence the exercises to "short-circuit" the squelcher in your brain).  Start with ... carrots.  Peel them, cut them into 1/2 to 3" lengths, set three or four pieces before you, and copy their outlines and the edges between the flat faces left by the peeler.  Concentrate on the angle of the lines on the paper (vertical, horizontal, by how much), and how they correspond to the 3D forms of the carrot pieces.  This is hard, but your drafting skills will have given you the (invaluable) ability to imagine forms in space.  Set in the corner of your eye a meter gauging when the paper is _activated_.  I'm not going to define that -- you'll have to feel for it.  Learn how to tingle this awareness, and tingle it constantly.
When you feel comfortable with this, set the carrots up on a piece of paper, and after your first drawing, rotate the paper 30° and do a second drawing.
Other variations will occur to you.
And in the meantime, carry a sketchbook with you and when you see an interesting leaf, draw it.
When you're ready to try plants you'll know.
Drawing animals is hard.  Start with sleeping ones.
Drawing people is _very very very hard_.
To repeat the important parts:
- draw _often_.  Frequency is more important than duration.  As Michelangelo said to his students: "Not a day without a line!"
- be kind with yourself.  No-one was born drawing well (drawing prodigies are extremely rare -- Durer was one).
- carry a sketchbook
- stick with one tool for a good bit.  Pencil is great.  If you prefer something else, use it.
- learn to create form (the effect of 3D) with line.  Shading comes later.
- _activate_ the page on which you draw.  Red-line that little meter in the corner of your eye.
When you have schooled your hand and judgement by such diligence, you will acquire rapidity before you are aware of it.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Above all else, have fun.  Post back at some point.  .