Have any of you chaps sought fit to use the widely ignored Command Editor to make and use your own keyboard shortcuts?
Apparently you can edit the shortcuts and export those settings to use on multiple computers - or share with other Aperture users…
If you have used this feature I'd love to hear about it.
I have asked this question in other forums but so far no luck.
Thanks in advance.
Nigel,
Absolutely!
I set up my own shortcuts so long ago that I don’t necessarily know which ones are default and which ones are mine, but here are a few I know are custom:
q — toggles the “view hot and cold area” on and off. I do this ALL THE TIME so having the option-shif-h-taptoes-blinktwice command was too complicated. One keystroke — the letter q — toggles mine. I think what q is supposed to do is bring up the Library list, however w toggles through Library > Info > Adjustments, so at worst I have to hit w twice to get back to the Library.
Shift-Return — generate previews on demand
Command-/ — Set stack pick. The default is Command-\ that conflicts with 1Password, so I changed it.
\ is flag, so I added Control-\ to filter by flagged [screenshot]
Command-S — in most apps that’s Save, but we don’t have Save in Aperture. So to me it’s the closest thing to Save — it calls up my plugin SmuginProForAperture, a Smugmug publisher. S for Smugmug, S for save. Works for me!
Those are the ones that come to mind
@PhotoJoseph
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I’m like Joseph, I’d be lost without the keyboard shortcuts. I have PS and all my plugins as two key commands, i.e. Shift + 0 for Color Efex, Shift +1 for Viveza, all my Aperture brushes are Command + a number, various basic enhancement presets are the press of one number key (on the key pad to the right of the keyboard) bump exposure by one third increments are one key commands, etc. Letter B is lift adjustments and N is stamp. I’ve had a Wacom tablet for 18 months now and just cannot get used to for many things because of the speed I can make aperture do things using the custom keyboard shortcuts. Vignetting, edge sharpening , highlights and shadows are all done via keyboard.
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
I really love that feature but I’d like to take it to the next level.
This is important to me: If I can get this to work I’d switch back to Aperture in a New York minute, and I would guess a lot of people would too.
I’ll tell you what I’m doing and then tell you the problem:
Ok, first choose a cool preset as a good starting point.
Now ordinarily we’d begin using the mouse to change all the sliders around to get the shot just right, but I’d prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to do all that.
So we pick one of the Quick Fixes, say, Exposure (+1) and using the Command Editor we can assign Option-Command-+ and save a lot of time down the road.
All is well, so far. But there’s a (huge) catch.
If you go into the Effects drop down menu and click on Exposure (+1) the exposure is indeed boosted by one stop.
BUT, if you use the keyboard shortcut you just created to trigger that same Effect the entire Adjustment palette is wiped and replaced with JUST the Exposure brick, dutifully up to 1.0.
So the keyboard shortcut works, but is rendered utterly useless unless you want *only* that effect applied.
It’s the craziest thing and it’s driving me insane! I’m **this** close to dumping Lightroom but thwarted at the last step.
Can you please give me any ideas? I have posted this around the web and can find nobody that even knows about the Command Editor. Being a wedding photographer, I can go through hundreds of images, this could seriously save me and a lot of others a ton of time.
Nigel,
I’m not sure what you mean. I just tested this, and assigned the keyboard shortcut control-] to Quick Fixes > Exposure (+1), and hit the shortcut after adding Enhance, Curves, Highlights & Shadows and Color to an image, and no effect was changed other than Exposure.
True the entire Exposure brick itself will be replaced, but I’d think that by the time you’d made changes to the sliders there, you’d be past wanting to just go +1.
Maybe it’s the shortcut you’re using? Which one did you set, and try mine to see what happens.
@PhotoJoseph
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It worked for you? Maybe it is just me.
I *really* hope so.
Let me try it….
Craig,
I re-read your post five times and tried it myself, so either you know something really really huge that I don’t, or I’m just misunderstanding you.
I actually hope it’s the first, because that would be oh-so-sweet.
You said: “bump exposure by one third increments are one key commands”…
In my experience, the only way to change exposure with the keyboard is to apply a preset. Presets are fixed, as in +1/3 or +1, but applying them repeatedly will only reapply the same thing — not actually add another stop, another stop.
Please tell me you actually have a solution to this??
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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Ok, I just aded the Enhance brick, moved the contrast up a tad and then hit my usual shortcut of Option Command + and it behaved as before, replacing the Enhance brick.
Then I changed it to your shortcut and it works!!
Maybe using Option is the problem?
Who knows.
Whatever. This is a big deal.
Thanks a bunch for the help.!.!
Nigel, that’s great news!
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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I’d like to know what Craig meant too!
If he can do what it looks like he says he can, that would be trippy.
This is one of the stupidest misses and trivial fixes Apple could implement - the fact that Lightroom has it working right out of the box should have Apple engineers and designers permanently red faced.
I’ve researched using Applescript, Shuttle Pro and X Keys to add this simple functionality but bottom line the necessary API controls are just not exposed as far as I can see.
Has anyone else found a solution ?
---
Andrew Mumford
Joseph, sorry I didn’t make myself clearer on this point. Yes it is a preset I’m using where I simply set the exposure slider up to + .35 and make it a preset and assign a number key to it. In my case it is 4. If I press 5 it boosts exposure to +.70 as I made a preset for that and assigned 5 to it . If I want +1.05 I hit 6 and the numbers 7,8, & 9 will reduce exposure by basically third increments (stops) respectively. I assigned the enter key on the far right of the keyboard to a 0 (zero) exposure for when I’m lifting and stamping. If I happen to stamp settings that include an exposure change upon a file that had proper exposure SOOC , then I just touch the enter key to get back to zero exposure. I find tweaking exposure to be one of the more time consuming things after a wedding shoot so anything that makes it a little quicker is great. I know, I know, you’re supposed to get it right in camera!
I'd much rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Craig,
Thanks for clarifying. Still your solution is great, considering the limitations you have to work with!
@PhotoJoseph
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