Aperture Workflow - need help creating workflow for photo management

Take a look at this and then decide what is best for you but there is no need to have two libraries at all.

[Aperture Organization|http://photo.rwboyer.com/2008/07/apple-aperture-21-organization>

RB

No need to maintain separate libraries for raw and JPEG files or for originals and finished photos. Aperture non-destructive editing takes care of all that for you.

There's not much difference between raw and JPEG files once you pull them into Aperture other than the raw fine tuning brick not being available for JPEGs.

My organizational structure involves having a folder for each year (e.g., "2008") and dated projects within those folders (e.g., "20081108 California") for each event. On the fun side, a project may be a vacation, trip to the botanical gardens, day hike, etc. All the photos I take for that event go into that project. This will be a mix of raw and JPEG files, often from multiple cameras. Everything gets sorted by the time the images were captured. I'll then create smart albums and anything needed to organize and display the photos within that project. One of the smart folders will be for photos to post to my web site.

I do maintain separate libraries for fun and paid photography.

Also check out these Aperture articles.

Cheers,

Andreas

jnap818 wrote:
1) Should I separate the RAW and JPEGs in Aperture (two libraries)? One library for finished photos and one for negatives? I am interested to hear how others do this...especially if you use both point & shoot and SLR cameras.

No, use a single Library. Aperture will have no problems with the various formats or with various different cameras.

2) What folder structure should I use? Since I am not a professional photographer, I won't be shooting projects. I think something date or event driven would be best (preferably both).

Actually those date or event driven batches of images are very logically "Projects" in Aperture. Simply name each group of images as you import into AP as a new Project.

IMO it is not good to import camera-to-Aperture (or direct to any app other than the Finder). Best is to use a card reader and use the Finder to copy images from the camera card to a folder on the computer hard drive.

Below is my Referenced-Masters workflow:
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• Remove the CF card from the camera and insert it into a CF card reader. Faster readers and cards are preferable.
• Finder-copy images from CF to a labeled folder on the intended permanent Masters location hard drive. I label that folder with the Project name suffixed with _masters, that way I can always find the Masters if Aperture forgets where they are. 🙂
• Eject CF.
• Burn backup copies of the original images to DVDs or to hard drives (optional backup step).
• Eject backup DVDs/hard drives (optional 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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I strongly recommend that every Aperture user spend $35 and work through the tutorial CD Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2 (Apple Pro Training Series) by Ben Long, Richard Harrington, and Orlando Luna (Paperback - May 8, 2008), Amazon.com. Note that the value is in working the tutorial, not in using the book as a manual.

Good luck!

-Allen Wicks