What is the best way to organize photos? iPhoto or Aperture?

Johan

Yes it is true and yes you did something wrong. Try using the Aperture Import iPhoto Library command.

Regards

TD

mtpaper pretty much explained it. referencing means that Aperture (or iPhoto) leaves the photos in their original place on a hard drive and does not copy or keep them in it's own file. Each method has it's pros and cons.

Allie

Terence Devlin wrote:
Johan

Yes it is true and yes you did something wrong. Try using the Aperture Import iPhoto Library command.

Regards

TD

If that's the ONLY way it works, I think it *****. I sure don't want to import my WHOLE iPhoto library (and that's the only thing I can do using Import iPhoto Library) just to get hold of some metadata for a few images.

Anyone got a better idea?

EDIT: I just found out that the metadata/ratings will be transferred if you drag&drop from the +iPhoto Browser in Aperture+; just what I was looking for, selective BUT complete import!

Regards,
Johan Rydström

Message was edited by: Johan Rydström

I have just bought aperture and am amazed at it's great little book which really does make the basics very clear. Like so many others I have spent most of my life with PC's, but recently had my first outing on the Mac system. So now I have iPhoto with nearly 1000 photos and am learning Aperture. I also have touch ipod and my photos were sent to it when I did a sync. They appear all in one lump!!
Any help out there of what is the best way of organising these photos on the ipod and also does touch ipod sync with aperture based photos or only those within iPhoto?
Help!

I just want to add my personal experience here and sorry if I'm not clear enough as I'm not English.
BTW : I've started using iPhoto and then switched to Aperture and imported the full library into Aperture. It is true you can do it, but it is not as smooth as expected. I had (and still have : I backup everything on at least 2 different HD) some 5.000 pics and most of them were edited in iPhoto. One of the biggest difference between the two programs is that when you edit a photo in iPhoto (no matter how deep is the edit) it creates a second file eaxctly the same size of the original and if you further edit the already edited photo it creates a 3rd file. Assuming you have a 1,1Mb Jpeg file, once you edit it you get to have 2x1,1Mb Jpeg files (unless you reduce the size of the original). Those files are stored in different areas (one called "Originals" and one called "Modified") of the iPhoto Library. Aperture works different : when you edit a photo it just create a few Kb file storing only the info required by Aperture to keep track of the changes you've made: so no duplicates are created. So Aperture is much more efficient in managing you disk space.
Now the big trouble : when you import the iPhoto library into Aperture you import ALL the files : both the originals and the modified ones and, therefore, your brand new Aperture library will show you all the duplicates and there is no automated way to fix it, unless you, as I did, go photo by photo and delete the one you don't want to keep. I've tried all the possible workaround to avoid this manual work (forum, discussions, Genius bar, One to One), but no way.
One more : the iPhoto hyerarchy is respected in Aperture, but because iPhoto uses "Events", while Aperture call them "Projects" (which at the end are small libraries) when you import the library in Aperture all the iPhoto events will be under a different folder called "iPhoto library" and to use all the Aperture potential you're obliged to move every single iPhoto event to a an upper level.
I don't want to discourage you, but Aperture is a much better software and you can do much more, so I would suggest you go directly with Aperture with no doubt, also because it makes no sense you first get used to manage efficiently iPhoto and then you have to re-adapt your "style" to Aperture.
One last comment on referenced images : if you use referenced images (which reside outside the Aperture library), you can't benefit of the Backup functionality Aperture provides you (called "Vault"), and you have to manually backup your files on an external HD.
BTW I'm now an happy Aperture user, but I had some bad days in the past !
Hope this helps.
Ciao.

Just put together a first draft of a PDF giving some guidance of Aperture's organizational features. I hope you find it useful. Feel free to offer improvement suggestions or comments.

You can find it here:

[url] http://www.rwboyer.com/RBDesign/Blog/Entries/2008/7/15_Entry1.html[/ur]

RB

One of the biggest difference between the two programs is that when you edit a photo in iPhoto (no matter how deep is the edit) it creates a second file eaxctly the same size of the original and if you further edit the already edited photo it creates a 3rd file.

This is not how iPhoto operates.

When you import a photo to iPhoto it creates a wee thumbnail and copies the Original. If you edit the Original then a modified version is created. This is never the same size as the original as it's a re-compression of a jpeg. It never creates a "third file". With iPhoto 08 if you subsequently edit a modified file the sum of the edits are re-applied to the Original, so you never go lower than one generation from the original. In earlier versions re-editing meant generational loss.

Regards

TD

This is what I meant : if you edit an Original it creates a modified version stored in the iPhoto Library under the "Modified" folder and even if the size is not 100% the same it is very close. You should admit this is a waste of disk space (especially if your camera is 5+ Mpixels) and that Aperture is much more efficient just tracking the changes without duplicating files.

I wasn't arguing with you, just correcting a mistake for the benefit of others who may read the thread. Why should I admit it's a waste of disk space? It's how iPhoto works. Of course Aperture is a much better application. It's a Pro level app, iPhoto is a Mom and Pop photo organiser aimed at point and shoot photographers. There's a price difference between the two too.

Regards

TD

I've got a complicated Aperture+iPhoto workflow, so I won't confuse the issue of a long explanation, but I did want to chime in on the subject letting iPhoto/Aperture organize files for you or not. I've noticed a lot of PC switchers hate this about Apple software (iTunes anyone?), because people get used to organizing their own files their own way. I'd like to point out two important things: First, you can always right click on your iPhoto library file in Finder, "Show Package Contents" and you'll have a date based file hierarchy of all your photos, very similar to what it sounds like you have now (this isn't the case for Aperture. I like date sorting, which is why I use iPhoto for final organizational purposes). Secondly, if you ever need to work with a file or group of files (for backup purposes, for instance) you can always drag them out of the iPhoto/Aperture window into finder to create new ones, or right click and select "Show in Finder".

I know it's a little daunting to walk away from your painstaking organization, but honestly iPhoto/Aperture/iTunes do a really good job of keeping your files straight and tidy. I highly recommend it, or maybe just trying it after you've backed up a copy of your file structure.

@jollyllama -

Good timing - I have, indeed, recently switched from pc to mac
And I was having the exact angst you describe over letting Apple software organize my files

And I had just come to the realization that I should give it a try.
Thanks for posting this - it was very reassuring!

Hi Marion,
I am doing a very similar project to yours. The question I have for you is how did you think about organizing keywords?
1- I'd like to be able to create a list of keywords and import them for use.
2- Also, I'd like to be able to rely on the fact that if I say London, it will also be picked up in UK or Travel.
3- For some pictures where I don't know the dates, I'd like to put in 1970s or 1962-1965 for example.
Have you dealt with these issues?

Thanks!
Mass

mass,

I am not Marion but the couple of issues that you bring up are easily managed in Aperture.

1) Keywords - Aperture can arrange keywords in a hierarchy so for instance you can put London "under" UK and if you searched for UK all of you London images would show up even without tagging them with UK. You could do the same thing by putting UK under travel and then if you searched for travel all of your UK images including London would show up but personally I would add another keyword for travel (just my thinking but that is why Aperture is so flexible) You can rearrange the keyword hierarchy later as well if you change your mind.

Typically I use the most specific keyword possible and then any new ones that I create I just move them around to the appropriate place in the hierarchy.

2)The date search functions work the way that you would expect them to work - before a date, after a date, a particular date of any resolution, between dates, etc. The issue you may face is getting the correct date in the appropriate metadata field in the first place unless you have that solved already.

RB

RB,
Many thanks for your comments. Can I infer from what you say that a particular keyword, or class of keywords can be part of two (or more) different other classes? so it is not just a parent/child relationship?
EG: I write London (somewhere else, London is part of UK); I can also write UK which shows up in UK search. London can also be part of Travel at the same time?
- your issue with date: Are you saying that date is effectively not a keyword but a separate metadata field? Is there a way to add a similar date (or range- eg 1950s) to multiple images at the same time?; Will it work effectively in the same way as a keyword?
Thanks a lot
Mass

My 2cents:
The key point in my choosing Aperture over iPhoto was iPhoto's inefficiency with editing and modifying images. iPhoto doesn't even do a lossless rotation of JPEGS! All those landscape images that come off your camera that you need to rotate to portrait, iPhoto creates a duplicate lossy copy!
Stick with Aperture.