(Updated from the original Feb 9 post, as reader John Crosby found the solution to the “unreliability” problem I was having. “In quotes”, because it turned out to be user error!) 

By now most of you have discovered that if you zoom into multiple images simultaneously in Aperture, then hold the shift key while dragging them around, the images stay aligned. This is a perfect way to compare the same area of different photos of the same thing—for example to pan around several shots of a group portrait looking for the one where the fewest people are blinking or making a funny face.

If you hover the mouse over any part of one of the images when you tap the Z key, Aperture will zoom into that point—but only for that image. If you are careful to have the mouse not pointing at any part of any image when you tap the Z key, then all images will zoom to the center. Great.

Aperture 3, four images selected, normal view, before zooming…

Aperture 3, four images selected, zoomed with z key while pointing at nothing—all zoomed to the center

But I just found, quite by accident, a way to align them up even when they are zoomed in—automatically.

All you have to do is hover the mouse over the zoom navigator window (that little window that pops up when you roll over the zoom square), and hold down the Shift key while clicking in that navigator—suddenly all the images will pop into the exact same spot!

Here’s the thing to watch out for. If you shift-click-drag on the white square inside the navigator, alignment will stay as-is. If you shift-click-drag outside the white square, then all images will align to the spot you clicked on. Perfect!

Here’s a (new) video of this in action. And yes… you’re some of the first to see the new ApertureExpert podcast format. I’ll talk about this more later, but here’s a sneak peek!