5 Gigs of pictures, My library at 3.3Gigs..why?

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Level 1

8 points

5 Gigs of pictures, My library at 3.3Gigs..why?

Hello again, could anyone describe what is really include in Aperture Library? I cannot believe that my librairy is already at 3.3G when I only have 5G of RAW pictures on my MBP.

I was sure that only a "preview", keywords, captions etc was in Aperture Library and the space taken would be ridiculous low.

Anyone knows if there is a setting I should modify or it's just normal ?

Thank you in advance.

MPB 2.4G, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 18, 2008 6:45 PM

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Answer 1

Tony Gay

Level 4

1,638 points

Nov 18, 2008 7:06 PM in response to Zembla

Guessing that your library is a referenced library.

In your preferences panel you have the option to choose the size and quality of the previews that Aperture is creating for you, it is possible that this is set to the highest quality and size.

Another possibility is that some of the images you imported are actually stored in the Aperture Library and not referenced.

Tony

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Answer 2

Zembla Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 20, 2008 5:19 PM in response to Tony Gay

how can I make sure I do not exporte any files in the library ? I know in the import settings I setup that the Store files is set to remain in their current location but I remember that in the beginning I didn't do this.... can I clean my library? Or maybe it's just the files already included in Aperture?

🙂 Thanks for replying!

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Answer 3

Nov 22, 2008 8:54 AM in response to Zembla

No problem. You probably have some of your Masters as "Managed" in the Library and others "Referenced." Easiest and IMO generally most useful to help keep drives underfilled and fast is just to continue on managing by Reference as in the workflow outline below.

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I feel pretty strongly that card-to-Aperture or even camera-to-Aperture handling of original images puts originals at unnecessary risk. I suggest this workflow, first using the Finder (not Aperture) to copy images from CF card to computer hard drive:

• Remove the CF card from the camera and insert it into a CF card reader. Faster readers and faster cards are preferable, and Firewire is much preferable to USB2.
• Finder-copy images from CF to a labeled folder on the intended permanent Masters location hard drive.
• Eject CF.
• Burn backup hard drive or DVD copies of the original images (optional recommended backup step).
• Eject backup hard drive(s) or DVDs (optional recommended backup step).
• From within Aperture, import images from the hard drive folder into Aperture selecting "Store files in their current location."
• Review pix for completeness (e.g. a 500-pic shoot has 500 valid images showing).
• Reformat CF in camera, and archive DVDs of originals off site.

Note that the "eject" steps above are important in order to avoid mistakenly working on removable media.
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-Allen Wicks

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