Only Import Flagged/Locked Files in Aperture 3 to Speed Workflow

Here’s how to use this to maximize your on-location shooting power. Let’s say you’re a photographer and you’re out shooting a sports event or wedding or some other subject that gives you a few moments between shots to review your images. Make a first pass of your photos on your camera’s LCD using the Lock or Flag button (depending on your camera’s manufacturer) to make selects. Ignore the out of focus shots, the shots that aren’t cropped well, blown highlights, etc.

Stick the card in a reader and begin to import your images with this checkbox set on. Aperture will only import the flagged/locked photos, which gives you a first pass edit to your files. Upload images to your clients or make slideshows or start adjusting your images in the field.

When you’re back in the studio and you have some more time, insert the card and turn off that setting, while also turning on Do Not Import Duplicates under the Aperture Library setting. Now you’ll be importing only the images that weren’t flagged/locked, in other words, your second tier images.

There’s an even cooler use of this if you combine it with the RAW+JPEG Pairs settings. Set Aperture on that first-pass import in the field to import JPEG files only for your flagged/locked files and you’ll have a super-fast in-field workflow that leaves your RAW on the camera. That’ll enable you to work with just the JPEG sized images on your laptop.

When you’re back from the shoot, change the RAW+JEPG Pairs setting to Matching RAW Files and the program will only import the RAW files for the JPEG files you already imported.