Hi,
I'm using OSX 10.8.2 and Aperture 3.4.3.
When I am using listview in the browser, I miss a lot of EXIF data in the listview, however aperture does seem to have this data, but it's not showing it.
When I set the inspector pane to 'Info' and in the dropdown menu I select 'EXIF Info' I can see the data I need: aperture, date, ISO etc. of the photo. However, in the listview these fields are empty…
Could someone explain me what I could do to make this EXIF data appear in listview?
Thanks in advance!
The actual contents of list view are set up in a different place. What you are doing only controls the information displayed in the info panel.
To change the columns in list view (and data displayed in other places) click “Metadata Display” on the View menu, then click “Customize”. The shortcut cmd-J can also be used. This will open a “Browser and Viewer Metadata” dialog. Select one of the list view options in the View drop down.
The fields that you can pick are on the left, and the display order is on the right. Simply check the Exif fields you want to display in list view, and change their order, if you want, on the right.
All of this is described in great detail in Chap. 10 of the “Aperture 3.4.2 User Manual”. It’s worth a read.
I’ve found that as useful as list view is, be aware that it is also pretty quirky. Like you can’t export what is displayed, only what Aperture thinks you need to have exported (big shortcoming, IMO). And list view won’t remember your column widths from one session to the next. And sometimes it doesn’t display information that you know is there, like keywords for example.
Jim,
I believe this is what you need to do:
1. Choose View > Metadata Display > Customize (or press Command-J).
2. In the Browser & Viewer Metadata dialog, choose a list view option from the View pop-up menu.
3. In the Metadata Fields column, click the disclosure triangles next to the main groups of metadata to reveal the options within them.
4. Specify the type of metadata that appears in list view by selecting the checkboxes corresponding to each type.
5. Deselect the checkboxes for metadata items you want to remove.
6. Each metadata item selected in the Metadata Fields column in the Browser & Viewer Metadata dialog appears as a column in list view.
7. When you are satisfied with your metadata selections and the order in which they will be displayed in list view, click OK.
If necessary, rearrange the order in which the metadata columns are displayed by dragging the metadata items up or down in the Display Order column.
The order of metadata selections in the Display Order column from top to bottom corresponds to the order of columns in the Browser in list view from left to right. Moving an item up in the Display Order column moves the metadata column to the left in list view.
Hope this helps.
First of all, thanks for your elaborate replies!
I have done what you have recommended, but the problem is still there unfortunately. I can pick all the fields and add them to list view, however for a lot of photos they are empty.
An example: In ‘View > Metadata Display > Customize’, I press the triangle left of ‘EXIF’, and select ‘date’. This adds the date column to my listview. But for many photo’s the column date is empty.
However, aperture must know the date, because in the inspector with the ‘EXIF info’ selected from the drop down menu, it shows the date.
Thanks again for further help!
You are describing one of the annoying behaviors in list view I mentioned earlier. Metadata is present, but doesn’t always show up in list view. Sometimes this is cured by restarting Aperture. What happens if you shut down and restart Aperture?
Does it do this will all the fields you select, or only date?
What kind of camera are you using?
If you look at the EXIF info using Preview, is it present?
Thanks again!
Restarting Aperture does not solve it unfortunately.
It does it for all fields, not only date, also aperture, ISO, exposure, shutter etc.
Now I shoot with a nikon d60 and this problem doesn’t occur, but with my older pictures e.g. 2009 the problem occurs for multiple camera’s used.
In preview all the exif info is there, so not really sure what goes wrong but the problem doesn’t seem to be with the picture.
thanks again if there’s still something i could try!
an update to my last post:
I just noticed that when i search for the name of the photo with the search function (still in list view), it finds the photo and it does show the exif data in list view. Very strange.
This happens for all photos of which I couldn’t see the exif data in list view before.
So as a workaround I could search for all photos of which the exif data in list view is missing i guess ;-) problem is that this would take very long.
Based on a couple things you said:
“In preview all the exif info is there…”
“when i search for the name of the photo … it does show the exif data in list view”
I am convinced the problem is with Aperture… it just doesn’t update list view properly.
I just did some more testing from a recent photo shoot… exif data doesn’t show up in a number of records. Then applying an adjustment to an image causes the exif data to show up in that record. I’ve also seen field content not updated properly when scrolling through a large list of photos. In my case, restarting Aperture usually cures the problem. List view is simply broken in this regard (as well as a few others).
It wouldn’t hurt to provide Aperture feedback (Aperture menu>Provide Aperture Feedback) and report your problem.
What are you trying to do with your list view of exif data? Maybe there’s another solution.
Hi
Yes I think you are right. I will provide them feedback like you said.
I think indeed the problem is that listview doesn’t update well. Also because I think its not always the same files where the info is not shown.
I was just revising some old holiday projects in aperture to make sure they all have the correct date, location etc. attached. For example in some projects i have a some pictures from other people and they didn’t setup their camera with the right date, so I wanted to select all photos with a wrong date and change it. I think I will use the search function for this now.
I will send feedback to aperture, and let’s consider it solved then :-) Thanks a lot for your help!