Hi Jon -- I see that others are offering excellent advice. I'll address your specific questions, and then read through the rest of the thread, but probably won't post unless you have additional questions.
hotwheels 22 wrote:
Hi Kirby.
Thanks very much. Also thanks for the link. OK. So it appears that I have a lot of Albums that I don't want or need.
1. Can I simply delete these with the assumption that the original images are stored elsewhere?
2. Can you help me a bit with getting rid of folders? I mean, assuming I see a Folder that I don't want to keep - can I delete the ALBUMS in the Folder and then assume that there aren't any original images in the folder because these /have/ to be stored in a Project? I mean, can I just delete the Albums in here and assume that there aren't any original anything assuming I know I don't need the Album - or assuming I have moved the Album to another Folder?
3. Can I basically have an organization as follows:
A. Projects with ORIGINAL IMAGES or VIDEOS
B. Folders with SLIDESHOWS, or ALBUMS
Thanks a ton.
- Jon
1. Yes. Images (which I greatly prefer over "slides" -- for reasons in addition to that that is what they are called by Aperture) must be in a Project and in only one Project. They can be in as many Albums as you want. As someone mentions below -- Albums hold just pointers to the Images in the Projects. If you delete an Image from an Album (Aperture will tell you your are "removing" it from the Album), all you have done is remove it from the Album. That Image must still be in one Project. If you delete an Image from a Project, it goes in Aperture's Trash. If you empty the Trash, it is removed from your Library.
2. Yes. Folders are just ways to group and hierachize (sorry) containers. Again, Images "live" in a Project. They only visit Albums. If the Folder contains Projects, deleting those Projects will "kill" the Images they contain. If the Folder contains Albums, deleting those Albums will only end the visit the Images were making to that Album.
3. Yes. I have written quite a bit about this -- a search might turn up something worthwhile.
Stick with what is simply -- especially as get used to Aperture. Make very shoot a Project. (Again, the mis-naming of "Project" is the single worst interface decision made in Aperture.) Images or Videos -- doesn't matter. You can think of Projects as bins that hold your originals -- just like those sleeves that used to hold your negatives when you got your prints back from the drugstore (if).
I separate my _storage containers_ from my _output containers_. So a shoot -- "CRJ: Mother/Child Portrait" will be imported into a Project of the same name, under a Folder called "Shoots". Then I'll copy to an Album the Images that are being published. In this case, the album would be in my Portraits Folder (and the name would start with the clients initials -- I don't group containers by client).
That's just a sample. The joy -- and part of the labor -- of Aperture is that it _is not_ a turn-key solution. You get to (and must) build a custom structure -- presumably to meet your needs.
The one dictum I strongly suggest following is "One shoot = one Project". The reason for this is that the Library is almost always confined to photographs taken by one person. One person can _only_ shoot sequentially. If you stick to "One shoot = one Project", you will end up with a life-long string of Projects, in sequential order. This can never become confusing -- and that is very useful to a user of Aperture. (But please note well that you don't have to store your Projects (or Images) by _date_. This is hard-wired into Aperture. Any time you want to view this life-long string of Projects, just go to Projects view, ungrouped, and sorted by date.)