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An Overview of Smart Albums
When you need to group certain types of photos, either temporarily or permanently, you can use
a Smart Album to gather the photos. Aperture comes with a number of preset Smart Albums.
You can also create your own Smart Album and specify search criteria that identify the photos
you want to be included; Aperture automatically searches for and displays the photos in the
new album. Whenever a photo meets the search criteria later, it’s automatically added to the
Smart Album.
Unlike a standard album that you drag photos into, a Smart Album’s contents are controlled by
the criteria you specify in the Smart Album’s Smart Settings HUD. When you change a Smart
Album’s search criteria, the contents of the Smart Album change.
Aperture comes with a Smart Album set up in the library for you that contains all photos
imported into Aperture over the last 12 months. Select a Smart Album to see its contents in
the Browser.
A Smart Album
has this icon.
You can also create your own Smart Albums. For example, suppose you want to create a Smart
Album that includes the best photos you took of a particular sports event. You select the project
containing shots of the sports event, create a Smart Album, show the Smart Settings HUD, and
search for photos rated Select (ve stars). All photos with that rating immediately appear in the
Smart Album.
You can also choose where to search for photos—across the entire library or within a specic
project or folder. For example, when you select the Projects item in the Library inspector and
create a Smart Album, the Smart Album searches across the entire library. When you select
a project and create a Smart Album, the Smart Album searches within that project. When
you select a folder and create a Smart Album, the Smart Album searches the projects within
that folder.
By instituting specic keyword schemes, you can create Smart Albums that are automatically
updated with specic kinds of photos.
Grouping Photos with
Smart Albums
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