Aperture structures ... thinking through workflow ...

Hi. Many will find this +too much+. I am setting up an Aperture database for the first time, merging several tens of thousands of images from five different sources -- a process which I am likely to only do once, and which will in many ways set in concrete the channels through which my work is likely to flow for some time. So I'd like to get it right -- or at least pretty good -- at the start.

I now think of Aperture as having three different structures which are good to keep mentally and physically separate. One should design each structure:
• The storage structure (where things are filed on one's HDs)
• The access structure (how the Library is set up; used to group, find, and pick images, as well as thorough but not output-based image editing)
• The production structure (I'm separating "making and optimizing picks" from "producing output for specific uses")

I have arrived at a file-naming convention and a referenced-Masters HD tree with which I am satisfied. Importing files has gone well. I'm starting to work my way through the next two structures.

There seem to be two areas creating confusion. One is the (imho bad) decision to use the term "Project" as the name for the standard +access structure+ bin. (I can see where this makes sense, but my work rarely involves wholly bounded projects such as weddings and product shoots. I'd offer "Sheet" as an alternative (like slide sheet, or spreadsheet), but I haven't tested that out.)

The second area creating confusion is that the +access structure+ and the +production structure+ are jumbled together in the Library. I've begun to set up two separate root Folders: one for my +access structure+ and one for my +production structure+. The +access structure+ is organized in a way which makes sense to me, and contains all my Projects (and therefore all my Masters and Versions). It is there that I develop images from raw files, stack and group them, and make picks. This, too, seems to be working OK.

The +production structure+ has one folder for each Client and contains all the output (production) runs: albums of pics specially prepared for print (or whatever), slideshows, web galleries, books, etc. Every image here is, of course, simply a pointer back to Versions in Projects in my +access structure+.

Does that make sense? Do you (fellow Aperturist) use and/or recommend a different organizational concept and structure?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it.

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger