With the new Growl framework, notifications are supported even when the Growl application is not installed. This could be annoying as there is no simple way to disable those notifications (short of changing a hidden preference with a Terminal command). I have added the possibility to disable all HandBrakeBatch notifications, in case you don’t want to be annoyed; it’s in the Preferences.

Here is a summary of the new features:

• New icon
• Added support for multiple audio languages (check the Preferences)
• Added support for multiple subtitle languages (check the Preferences)
• Available audio languages and subtitles shown for each file in the main window
• Added full-screen support (Lion only)
• Updated growl framework (to v1.3.1), with support for “mist”

The update will happen automatically if you already have the application, otherwise check the main application page.

Enjoy!

Have a look at the screenshot at the top of the post, the idea is very simple: you configure your language preferences once, and they are respected for all movies. For audio, you can select to maintain all languages during the conversion, or just your favorite (if available). For subtitles, you can also decide not to include any. On the top of that, the program is now able to detect and display the available audio languages and subtitles when you add the video files.

I haven’t released the new version yet, but all the code is on github, on a separate branch. Feel free to download the code and play with it! If you are not familiar with compiling Mac applications, drop me a note and I will send you a test version, or wait till the weekend when I will have time to do some more serious testing and publish version 2.0.

Some changes on HandBrakeBatch

• I have started uploading some information on github’s wiki page (just requested features and release notes for now)
• I have just released v1.10, with a couple of small new features
• Added a check on the existence of the output folder
• Now possible to create a new folder when selecting the output
• Added a pause / resume button

I prefer not to say much yet, but I can tell you that it is about personal productivity (i.e. GTD), it’s a web application, and it I am developing it in Rails (which I am learning at the same time, another reason why it’s going pretty slow).

If all goes well, and the project attracts some interest when I release the first beta to the public, I will take it to the next level putting the necessary time & money investment behind it.

It is too early to set a timeline, but I will publish updates on the progress from time to time.

• Implemented a workaround to avoid an empty preset list; even if HandBrake preset file is corrupted, the program should fallback to the default presets;
• The preset list is now alphabetically sorted;
• It is now possible to change the frequency of the sparkle updates, and to enable or disable the automatic updates (in the Preferences).

You can update a previous version of HandBrakeBatch, or download the new version here.

Please do let me know if you find regressions!

In past trips I used to travel preferably with my iPad only, while this time I decided to take my laptop. This was mainly due to the size and weight of the MacBook Pro; now I have a MacBook Air 11″, which to be honest does not feel much bigger and heavier than the iPad…

This is the software I installed on the machine:

• Aperture 3: The keystone of the entire workflow;
• Photomatix Pro: I love HDR, and I have always been using this amazing application. To be honest I have not tried many other competitors in this area, I did choose Photomatix in 2005 when I started playing with HDR and the software always got me covered;
• Photoshop CS5: Mainly used to stitch multiple photos (i.e. panoramas, removing moving objects, etc.);
• DxO Optics Pro: I have a lot of fun with my Sigma 8-11mm ultra-wide, DxO makes it very simple to fix the geometry, distortions, and improve the images in many ways;
• Noise Ninja: I haven’t used Noise Ninja much since I bought the Nikon D7000, but it’s always handy when I need to shoot at very high ISO and heavy noise is visible (on the D7000 I only use it above ISO 12,800).

In addition to this, I use Geotag Photos on my iPhone, great application to get GPS data and geotag all my photos.

I need to say that I am amazed of what can be achieved with such a small machine as the MacBook Air (especially since I have the 2010 Core 2 Duo version); although the computing power is quite limited, I was able to do all post processing that I wanted, and the laptop kept the pace nicely, without generating much heat either.

Basic Workflow

After a day of visiting and shooting, I take the SD card out of the camera and import the photos using the Aperture importer. I usually shoot in RAW+JPG, to keep all options open in post-processing, although I must say that I really like the way Aperture develops RAW files, so I might stop shooting JPG in the future. As soon as the photos are imported, I go through all of them in full screen, to do a first quick rating: Aperture makes that very easy, you can simply hit the keys from 1 to 5 to rate a photo with the corresponding number of stars. In general I consider everything with at least a 3-star rating to be worth post-processing, I keep the 2-star “just in case,” and I delete the 1-star photos. During the first review of the photos, I sort them by date, and I organize the linked images in stacks (i.e. multiple exposures to be merged in HDR). After the review, I change the sorting method to show best rated photos first. In this way I spend the little time I have for post-processing focusing on the strongest shots.

Backup

Everybody who knows me would tell you that I am quite paranoid regarding backups. One of the things that scares me is when all copies of the data are in the same place: at home I use CrashPlan to backup remotely, but while traveling the amount of data is too big and good Internet connections too rare for that to be effective, so I have to rely on local hardware. I backup data in two ways:

• Apple Time Machine with an external USB hard disk: whenever possible, I do not store the Time Machine HD in the same bag as the laptop, in case I lose one bag;
• Aperture Vault on a USB thumb-drive, which I keep always in my pocket. I use a 32GB drive for this, and I have not yet shot more than this in a single trip.

Geotagging

Geotagging is very important for me, I like to know exactly where I was when I took a particular shot. As mentioned earlier, I keep “Geotag Photos” running on my iPhone, and when I’m back at the hotel in the evening I get a GPX file on the laptop, and I use that to geotag the photos with Aperture “Places” feature. If you need some more information on how to use Aperture to geotag photos, or other help on Aperture, I recommend you listen to this excellent tutorial by Don Mcallister.

Post-processing

To avoid taking up too much disk space, I try to do the maximum I can directly in Aperture: all round-trips in other applications take a lot of disk space, especially if you use expensive formats like TIFF-16.

I don’t think the plugin architecture is mature enough yet, or maybe it’s just the plugins that I am using which are not mature, either way when I like a photo I prefer to export it, process it out of Aperture, and import the result back. This is especially true for HDR: Photomatix standalone application gives many more options than the Aperture plugin; furthermore, whenever I shoot a lot of bracketed photos, I tend to group them, carefully process one set, save the settings in a preset, and process the rest in a batch. This is very convenient when I am traveling and I don’t have the computing power of my Mac Pro available. I can launch all the batches and let them run when I’m not around. A similar approach is also good with DxO Optics, which allows you to configure the work using a fast preview, and then to start the processing of all the photos.

Depending on the type of processing, I choose a different export format from Aperture. DxO works better with RAW files, while I don’t think Photomatix development module is as good as Aperture’s, so in this case I export TIFF-16 files.

Sharing

I tend not to wait to get back from a trip to share the best photos (unless I can’t find a good Internet connection). I usually share on flickr first, and from there to Twitter and Facebook. The exception is Google+, where I upload the photo instead of posting a link to flickr. For flickr, the Aperture exporter is usable, but very often I use FlickrExport, far more flexible.

Back home

When I get back from a trip, I simply import the Aperture library in my main library, and I usually group the various project in a single folder. Aperture is very flexible when it comes to importing and exporting projects and libraries, as it is on organizing your photos.

The bug has been fixed and the program should run correctly on Snow Leopard as well. If you are on Lion there is no harm in upgrading, and I have fixed another minor bug on the output folder selection dialog.

You can download version 1.6 here, or check for updates in the application itself.

Please do let me know if anything is not working for you, and apologies for the inconvenience.

New in version 1.5

• Preference window added
• It is now possible to select the extension of an MPEG-4 file (mp4 or m4v)
• It is now possible to maintain the creation and modification dates of the original video file

Again, if you find any issues please let me know on the support page!