Reference vs. Importing; Saving modified referenced files; Phanfare

I want to keep the modified picture and delete the less-attractive original.

Aperture is not the app for you. Period. Apps like Aperture (and that includes iPhoto, Lightroom etc) will never edit or discard your original. They are designed to protect that original in the way a film shooter protects the negative.

You need to go buy an editor like Photoshop Elements.

Aperture is way more complex that you are used to. For instance:

for any "versions" created by Aperture - can you access those through folders or can you only access them through Aperture.

There are no files. There are entries in a database. They can be accessed via Aperture or a Media Browser only.

Regards

TD

A lot of stuff here and i am out of time, Aperture has a steep learning curve. Have a good look round and dive in with just a few images then come back and ask some specific questions. A book would not cover your post so one thing at a time and steady as you go.

Allan

"Aperture is not the app for you. Period" Exactly.

Aperture is a useful, but complicated and power hungery photo app. You would never want to load valuable photos into Aperture's imperfect data base (or even into iPhoto). It's best to keep files in real, backed up, folders and reference them in Aperture.

The modified version you see on the screen in Aperture, iPhoto, Adobe Camera Raw or Canon DPP is the original with modifications displayed. There isn't an actual version in the form of an image file until one of those apps exports its work as a jpeg or tiff.

Speaking of DPP, whether you are shooting Canon raw or jpegs DPP offers a high quality yet basic photo adjuster that might work better for you. Work on them in DPP and export jpegs to load into iPhoto. If iPhoto blows up you can make more jpegs. Photoshop Elements is also excellent and has way more features. Follow the same workflow there as you would using DPP.

No matter what, DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR ORIGINALS (yelling required).

I have a different opinion. Aperture is exactly the app for you. The Finder is the worst way to manage your images, iPhoto and Aperture are image databases that let you manage, file, look at, organise and edit your images. You can organise by Year - Month - Event or any way you like. You can upload to Flicker, Facebook and other apps through the plugin system. And, contrary to what other people are saying - you can delete your Master images when ever you like. And I always delete images - some I just don't wont, or are similar to others that I don't need both.

Get the demo, check out some articles on www.apertureexpert.com and try it.

Aperture is a useful, but complicated and power hungery photo app. You would never want to load valuable photos into Aperture's imperfect data base (or even into iPhoto). It's best to keep files in real, backed up, folders and reference them in Aperture.

This is certainly not the case with iPhoto. iPhoto is quite poor with Referenced Images, lacking tools to reconnect with lost Originals or move then between volumes, especially. I would strongly recommend against running iPhoto as a Referenced Library. No such qualms about Aperture.

However, as iPhoto simply stores the files in the Finder anyway (albeit in a simple package file), there is no risk whatever to the files, even if the db goes west.

The modified version you see on the screen in Aperture, iPhoto, Adobe Camera Raw or Canon DPP is the original with modifications displayed. There isn't an actual version in the form of an image file until one of those apps exports its work as a jpeg or tiff.

This is not true with iPhoto. When you edit a photo with or via iPhoto an actual edited file is created. It's stored in the Library's 'Modified' folder.

Regards

TD

And, contrary to what other people are saying - you can delete your Master images when ever you like. And I always delete images - some I just don't wont, or are similar to others that I don't need both.

The OP doesn't want to delete images, s/he wants to delete Master and retain versions. Not possible without a complicated export/import dance.

Regards

TD

Welcome to the Mac and to Aperture.

Pay no attention to the snarfy posts above. Your questions are typical of many who come from a PC/pixel editing background. The real answer is:

-- Aperture is a great program for managing and adjusting photos.

-- Most of the steps you outline are simply no longer necessary when using Aperture.

-- It will take you a bit of reading either of the online owner's manual, the online tutorials, or a good paper book or two (start with Apple's own tutorial) to grasp the concepts behind Aperture. A visit to Rob Boyer or Matthew Bersma's websites is always instructive.

Once this clicks, you will never go back to doing all of the work you were proposing. I will happily respond to e-mails if I can be helpful.

Welcome!
--
DiploStrat 😉

merakyle wrote:

I'm new to Aperture, and I want to know if I should reference the library (and keep storing in Finder as files - so that I can continue to organize by YEAR - MONTH - EVENT. Or, will Aperture be better (for my purposes) for organizing?

The key concepts are:

-- You use Aperture, not the Finder (Explorer on a PC) to manage your images.

-- You manage images, not files. As you manage images, not files, you are not limited to one organization; you can have several at the some time - thus you can organize your images by date AND subject, not just one or the other.

-- You can dump all of your FILES into a "managed" library (what I do) in which case your files will be neatly organized by date of import. Or, as Sierra Dragon strongly recommends, you can organize the files anyway you want in a "referenced" library. In any case, remember, the physical arrangement of files on disk has nothing to do with the logical arrangement of images in Aperture. Get this straight and you are halfway home.

Next - editing. I like "auto-enhancing" all of my pictures, cropping to best fit, and correcting red-eye. In the end, I want to keep the modified picture and delete the less-attractive original.

You can do this, but why? Aperture is designed to protect your original from ever being physically modified while still allowing you to create a virtually unlimited number of "versions" with only a tiny overhead on disk. AND, you can undo what you have done at any time.

For any photos that I "play" with by changing to black and white and using other aperture enhancement features, I don't mind just having aperture create a version and keeping the original. What do you suggest for me to do??? Can aperture do this??? I would prefer to use ONE method to manage/enhance pics - trying to streamline my life.

See above. Aperture does all of this, and more, automagically. You are worrying about physical file management; pay attention to the photos, not the files. And certainly, there is no reason to worry about red eye, etc., before loading into Aperture - Aperture's tools for this sort of thing are excellent.

Also, for any "versions" created by Aperture - can you access those through folders or can you only access them through Aperture.

An Aperture "version" is a tiny, 30 KB file; actually, the preview is likely to be larger. In any case, you see, manage, and "adjust" your images in Aperture, not the Finder.

Finally - for uploading to Phanfare - will Phanfare retain titles created in Aperture (I like to "title" all pictures - because again, I'm more of a documentary picture taker. I end up creating a sort of blog for family/friends to follow our life. The enhancements I do mostly for framing, creating scrap books, and other artistic products). And second, when I upload to Phanfare - will it upload only the masters or will it also upload the modified files???

I use PBase, not Phanfare, but I suspect that the concept is the same:

-- Load image into Aperture.

-- Adjust as desired.

-- "Export" a low resolution JPEG for the web to your Desktop or similar folder. (An export creates a copy.)

-- Upload those JPEGs to Phanfare.

-- Once the image is on Phanfare, DELETE the exported copy. Aperture still has your original and any versions you created. With Aperture, you save the originals and dump the copies; you can always make more.

ANY ADVICE IS MUCH APPRECIATED! I'm new to MAC, Aperture/iphoto, and Phanfare - but I THINK those are the best way for me to go for what I'm looking for.... Thoughts??? THANK YOU!

My workflow is very similar to yours. The key thing is that Aperture protects your originals (and your edits) against re-compression or any other form of damage. Web images need only be relatively low res and there is no reason to garbage up your disk with them - export 'em, upload 'em, delete 'em. Repeat as needed.

Hope this is clear enough to be helpful.
--
DiploStrat 😉

Have you watched the videos on the apple site they give a great overview and introduction to the workings of the program.

http://www.apple.com/aperture/how-to/

Tony

Lots of good advice here but some rubbish too, but i am sure you can filter this out.

My advice is:

One of the main concepts of Aperture is Efficient Organisation, and a Managed Library will probably be best, and almost certainly to begin with. Switching later is easy, especially if your external HD is well structured and yours probably is from what you say.

Sharing on line is a breeze, i use Mobile Me It is almost but not quite one click publishing once set up.
Very easy to control and access. All the family and friends can join in. You can send the masters for back up, archive, so in a sense have some, or all your masters and versions backed up on line, if you so wish, (i don't the connection is too slow). By default Aperture sends an optimised image. Titles, You can even turn the photo's round like a Print to see what is wrote on the Back.

A Referenced Library just now, is only going to raise more complications, to get your head round what is going on. To switch over later is easy, i import in to Aperture on trips, and Reference them when i get back.

No point in having all this good equipment to scrap the masters, this is not the idea behind Aperture or raw, and when you fully understand the way it all works, hopefully you will no longer want to do this. So for now. Import Raw Masters not adjusted versions.

Hope that helps clear a view, in to some of the Scenery in Aperture. But tread carefully the ground can be very rugged, but the view from were i am, part way up is stunning.

Allan