Processing with Aperture

I have just returned from my first outing with my D7000 and am about to embark on some post processing in Aperture and wanted to get as many hints and tip as possible to enable the learning curve to be a bit steeper/quicker.

I currently just import my images in using the aperture functionality, they are all organised by date and then moved to folders for trip or other categories.

My latest images are shot with a D7000 and imported as raw files, this is about as far as I have got.

What I want to know is how to proceed from here?

Is there a certain workflow people go through to manipulate their raw files? What processes doe this include?

It seems there are posts that look at using LR and photoshop but not so much for Aperture. (Should I persevere with Aperture?) If there are also some good tutorials on the web that people have used then please point me to them.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I use Aperture and get very good results. For tutorials, I think it would be worth the 1 month price subscription price to check out the video tutorials on Lynda.com, they are excellent.

For a starting off point to make your photos look better I suggest this... When you go to Adjustments look in the Effects drop down, go to Quick Fix and then use Auto Enhance. If the photo looks better then fine tune it with Levels, Highlights and Shadows and all the other toys. If it doesn't look better then undo and just use all the manual stuff. Usually just Auto Enhance and Levels can get me some very nice looking photos. You can get rid of backscatter and spots with the retouch tool.

Many thanks for this

I take it all these adjustments will effect the quality of the photo with each different adjustment, or is the fact that's it's a raw file it will retain its quality?

It doesn't matter if it is a RAW or jpeg, the original file stays intact. Aperture and Lightroom both do non-destructive editing meaning they just create a very small file that says what adjustments you have made but they don't change the original. When you make adjustments that you like and export that "version" you will find it is still very high quality unless you have done massive cropping or adjustments to that version.

Many thanks for this, I will post up some example soon to get some feedback

I use Aperture and get very good results. For tutorials, I think it would be worth the 1 month price subscription price to check out the video tutorials on Lynda.com, they are excellent.

For a starting off point to make your photos look better I suggest this... When you go to Adjustments look in the Effects drop down, go to Quick Fix and then use Auto Enhance. If the photo looks better then fine tune it with Levels, Highlights and Shadows and all the other toys. If it doesn't look better then undo and just use all the manual stuff. Usually just Auto Enhance and Levels can get me some very nice looking photos. You can get rid of backscatter and spots with the retouch tool.

Thanks for recommending the Lynda.com tutorials, i've been using Aperture for a couple of years but thanks to the tutorials i've found some great tools and shortcuts i didn't know about !!!

Lynda.com has been a great resource for me to learn programs over the years and there is some interesting videos on things like photography techniques and inspiration.