Aperture 3 - What to do when Faces are not detected

by Dion Scoppettuolo

Faces is an Aperture feature that not only detects human faces in images (not dogs or cats), but it can also recognize the same face throughout your library. On occasion, your subjects won’t be looking into the camera, so Aperture may not find their faces. Yet, you still may want to identify them in the shot. Aperture has a way for you to manually identify a face and assign a name.

1, Scroll the Browser until you see an image where the person’s head is turned away from the camera.

2, Double-click the image to display it in the Viewer.

3, In the toolbar, click the Name button.

4, In the dialog, click the Add Missing Face button.

5. Drag the rectangle to position it over the person’s head.

6. In the face label, begin typing the person’s name.

If it’s a person who has already been identified in other images, their name and picture are displayed.

7. From the list, choose the person’s name to assign their name to the image.

8. Click Done.

This image is now added to the collection of photos of that person.


Read another great Aperture 3 tip from Dion - Creating Halo Artifacts

About Dion Scoppettuolo

Dion Scoppettuolo is an Apple Authorized Trainer, marketing consultant, and avid travel photographer who has taught classes on Aperture and other Apple products worldwide. Before starting his own company, he was a product manager at Avid technology, Autodesk and most recently at Apple Inc., where for over seven years, he worked as a Senior Product Manager on Shake, Motion, and iMovie, and was involved in the first release of Aperture.