Marc P

Q: importing large aperture files into photo

I am considering importing a very large Aperture library (referenced) into Photo (close to 250,000 pictures, over 1T in memory) also by reference, but want to maintain the Digital Asset Management  (DAM) structure of my files. At the very top I have 15 projects which then break down into several hundred folders, albums and smart albums. I have at least 50 slide shows, linked to iTunes as well.

Based on your experience, should I just proceed to import, or should I use software such as Aperture Exporter. What has been your experience ?

OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), Mac Air + iMac + iPhone 4S + iPadII

Posted on Oct 7, 2015 11:23 AM

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Q: importing large aperture files into photo

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 7, 2015 11:30 AM in response to Marc P
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 7, 2015 11:30 AM in response to Marc P

    Photos cannot import an Aperture library, but open an Aperture Library and create a migrated copy.

    If you open a referenced Aperture library in Photos it will migrate the referenced files as referenced and the file/folder structure of the referenced files will remain.

     

    Photos does not have a projects structure like Aperture.  All your projects and albums will be mapped to albums. For each project an album will be created.

    See this support document:   How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

  • by Marc P,

    Marc P Marc P Oct 7, 2015 4:01 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photography
    Oct 7, 2015 4:01 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks, Leonie;

    I am still hesitating inasmuch as I read somewhere that I should be doing a lot of cleaning up in Aperture before attempting an export to Photos in order to have my file hierarchy maintained... Hence my query re Aperture Exporter. So let me rephrase my question in two parts:

    1a) What should I do in Aperture before creating a "migrated copy" of Aperture in Photo (all referenced);

    1b) Would Aperture Exporter be of any help; and,

    2) How long is it likely to take given the size of my library - 250,000 frames, 1T ? (Three days, a week, longer ?)

    MP

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 7, 2015 11:00 PM in response to Marc P
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 7, 2015 11:00 PM in response to Marc P

    I have never used Aperture Exporter, so I cannot comment on that part of your question.

    I posted a user tip with some notes on migrating, see:  Notes on Migrating an Aperture Library from Aperture to Photos for Mac

     

    The biggest problem when migrating will be the metadata you assigned to your photos.  Photos simply has a very limited support for displaying metadata. It will depend on which metadata tags you used in Aperture, if you need to copy these data to metadata fields you can access in Photos.

    • Titles and captions: Photos will show the titles and captions you assigned in Aperture, but not the version names, that are filenames. if you want to see filenames as titles, batch change your images and copy the filenames to the title fields.
    • Keywords:  If you used hierarchical keywords, rename them, so the hierarchy will be preserved. Keywords will be migrated flat, for example, if you have a hierarchy animal > bird > sparrow, a photo tagged with "sparrow" will have three keywords in Photos: animal, bird, and sparrow.  You might consider to rename your sparrow keyword to animal-bird-sparrow to save the relation.
    • Custom metadata tags: Any custom metadata tags will be lost. You could copy them to supported fields, for example the caption field.
    • Many IPTC tags will still be associated with the original files, but you will not be able to browse them in Photos, for example the copyright tagAll tags you want to preserve should either be copied to the caption filed or turned into keywords.

     

    I recommend, that you explore Photos before you migrate your large Aperture library. Export a small test library from your Aperture library and migrate it to Photos. Check for yourself, how the features that are essential to you, have been migrated. The biggest difference you'll notice will be that there are no projects. Photos creates "Moments" instead, based on the location and the capture date. Photos taken at the same place at the same time will be automatically grouped as a moment. It is essential, that all photos have location data, or your moments will not be very descriptive. You cannot name them yourself.

     

    2) How long is it likely to take given the size of my library - 250,000 frames, 1T ? (Three days, a week, longer ?)

    The largest Aperture library I migrated has 40000 images and it took about three hours to migrate.

  • by Marc P,

    Marc P Marc P Oct 8, 2015 1:00 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photography
    Oct 8, 2015 1:00 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you, Leonie; my work is spelled out for the coming rainy season! I do use keyword hierarchies and so will rename all my keywords as you recommend...

    All my frames are geotagged, so I trust I won't have an issue with Moments.

     

    Remains the question of hierarchy in files... IN PHOTO: I noticed I can't place a Folder in an Album, but that I can do the reverse. I can also place Folders in other Folders, thus creating a hierarchy. Given that Aperture's Projects are converted into Albums in Photo, I would have liked to manually change all my Projects in Aperture into Folders since I also can't place another Album into an Album in Photos. So I guess what I would need is to change my whole Aperture file structure into "Folders in Folders in Folders", and hope this will get properly passed on in Photos... But then in Aperture, I can't move pictures in a Project into a Folder (only way is to use an Album or a Smart Album - and the two will, in Aperture, of course be in a Project - which will then be converted as an Album in Photos... And then of course, in Aperture, I can' have several layers of Albums as they are all

    at the same level under a Project or a Folder. This is getting messy and confusing... I really can't figure out how to structure my Aperture files before moving to Photos without messing up all my hierarchies. An example of what I have in Aperture is a Project with, say North America and then three folders for USA, Canada and Mexico, and each one has folders for states or regions, then folders for Cities, then monuments etc...

    Thoughts anyone ?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 8, 2015 1:20 AM in response to Marc P
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 8, 2015 1:20 AM in response to Marc P

    An example of what I have in Aperture is a Project with, say North America and then three folders for USA, Canada and Mexico, and each one has folders for states or regions, then folders for Cities, then monuments etc...

    Thoughts anyone ?

    Create a folder for each of your projects, name it like the project and move the project with its child albums and folders  into this folder. Photos will migrate the subordinate albums as albums in this folder. and maintain the folder hierarchy.

     

    The problem with your library are the gigantic projects with many photos - probably because of the unfortunate name of "project" for these library items.  None of my Aperture projects has more than a few hundred photos. The projects are my film rolls with the shoots from one day. And they are the leaves in the hierarchy of folders, not the root - I have folders for decades "2010-2020", then subfolders for each year, for each travel destination, plenty of smart albums, and at the bottom are the projects. This structure migrated seamlessly to Photos.

  • by Marc P,Solvedanswer

    Marc P Marc P Oct 8, 2015 4:45 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photography
    Oct 8, 2015 4:45 PM in response to léonie

    Hi Leonie;

    Thanks for your valued input. I tested your advice re creating a folder for each project with a small library (1500 pictures in 12 Projects - 12 days in Ireland). It works out nicely and I was able to create two higher level folders - Europe and Ireland - and it actually looks pretty good.

    So now I need to work on the keywords of my Master Aperture Library as you suggest and then move all my Projects into Folders (I have hundreds...). I guess that by next spring I'll be ready to convert my Master Aperture File to Photos (250,000 frames...). If only I could charge Apple for the frustration and amount of time this is taking ! But then they changed my Video Card on my iMac free of charge this afternoon...

    By the way, I have stopped using Aperture for RAW conversion (I use Capture One) and for important editing I use Affinity; I then send the JPGs or TIFF into Aperture...

    Cheers

    Marc

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 8, 2015 11:38 PM in response to Marc P
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 8, 2015 11:38 PM in response to Marc P
    By the way, I have stopped using Aperture for RAW conversion (I use Capture One) and for important editing I use Affinity; I then send the JPGs or TIFF into Aperture...

    Affinity Beta already provides an Photo Editing Extension "Affinity Retouching".  It is available in Photos, if you install Affinity Photo Beta in addition to Affinity Photo. It makes Photos quite versatile.

    Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 08.37.55GMT.png

  • by Marc P,

    Marc P Marc P Oct 9, 2015 1:51 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Photography
    Oct 9, 2015 1:51 AM in response to léonie

    Affinity 1.3.5 is now out of Beta and includes Affinity Retouching. It is in the Apple Store ! Great tools !

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 9, 2015 2:20 AM in response to Marc P
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 9, 2015 2:20 AM in response to Marc P

    Thanks, Marc. It is good to know, that the current version should come with the Photo Editing extensions.

    I have Affiniy 1.3.5 installed, on four different Macs.  But the update from the previous version did not install the Editing extensions, on none of my Macs. I had to install the Beta as well, and only then did Affinity Retouching show in Photos.

    Perhaps this is different, if we install Affinity from scratch and not as an update.

  • by freediverx01,

    freediverx01 freediverx01 Oct 9, 2015 3:20 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2015 3:20 AM in response to léonie

    Am I correct in my understanding that iCloud Photo Library and the Photos app do not provide any control over which images are stored in the cloud? I realize you can choose which devices download the full resolution files, so this is a separate question.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 9, 2015 3:29 AM in response to freediverx01
    Level 10 (108,070 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 9, 2015 3:29 AM in response to freediverx01

    freediverx01 wrote:

     

    Am I correct in my understanding that iCloud Photo Library and the Photos app do not provide any control over which images are stored in the cloud? I realize you can choose which devices download the full resolution files, so this is a separate question.

    It is really simple - you cannot upload selected items only. The whoe library will sync with iCloud, with a few exeptions:

    • All image files and videos in your Photos library that are compatible with iCloud Photo Library and have been imported as managed into the Photos Library will upload to iCloud Photos Library.
    • Incompatible items will not upload and may even cause the upload to hang eternally.
    • Referenced files are not eligible for iCloud. Only items imported as managed will upload to iCloud Photo Library.