Library larger than exported photos

Question

Level 2

220 points

Library larger than exported photos

Just last night I exported the contents of my Aperture Photo Library to a Folder. After the export, the size of the folder was roughly 25 GB.

My Aperture Library file is almost twice that size at 43GB. I went into the Aperture Library with "view contents" and the Master File directory in there is in the range of 35GB with the Preview Directory making up for the remaining space.

I have not made edits to enough pictures that would come close to accounting for the nearly double size between the exported files and the Master Photo library so I don't understand why theres such a difference.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Early 2008 Quad 2.8Ghz, 14 GB Ram

Posted on Dec 13, 2011 7:25 AM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Dec 13, 2011 8:17 AM in response to Tony Barone

Did you export your versions or your master image files? If you exported the master files, then your exported image files should have the size of the master file directory inside the aperture Library package.

If you exported the versions, then the size would depend on the export settings.

The largest files you will get with Tiff, original size, 16 bit,
Only half as much size with Tiff, original size, 8 bit,
varying smaller sizes with jepeg compression, depending on quality settings in the export dialogue.
And even smaller sizes, if you did not export at the original size.

If your original masters are jpegs, it would be a waste of disk space to export as tiff, but if your masters are raw, tiff would be the best option.

Regards

Léonie

Reply

Answer 2

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 8:32 AM in response to léonie

I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I exported the master files as JPG, but they are also JPG within the main Library.. so I don't see a reason for the huge difference in size.

Thank you for your help though.

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 13, 2011 9:12 AM in response to Tony Barone

Ae your masters RAW or JPGs? What is the quality setting for the previews (Aperture->Preferences->Previews)?

(Looking at your prrevious post again it appears the msters are JPG)

So are you asking because you think there is a problem with he library or are you just curious? Remember the library doesn't hold just the masters. There are the previews and thumbnails, the faces and places databases, and of course the versions. Are you doing any slideshows or books? All these things add to the library.

Reply

Answer 4

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 9:27 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks for the reply.

I think there is a problem with the Library.

I'm aware that the Library holds a lot more than just the masters, but looking inside the Library at the content, the Masters folder is at least 10GB larger than the exported images.

I wouldn't expect it to be that much larger since the Masters folder is just my images.

Reply

Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:02 AM in response to Tony Barone

Tony,

have you tried to set the quality slider for the jpeg export to 12? The default is only 10; that usually relults in a larger compression rate and reduction of file size.

Reply

Answer 6

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:12 AM in response to léonie

That is a possibility... I will definitely check that this evening and see what its set at!

Thanks for the suggestion, hadn't thought of that.

I really wish Aperture had an easier way to backup to DVD. It has that "Vault" option, but only good for HD. I'm trying to make a complete photo backup to multiple DVDs.

Reply

Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:26 AM in response to Tony Barone

To back up your Aperture Library a copy on an external disk would be much better than exporting your images. if you export the versions you loose the ability to revert your changes to the original masters, and if you export the masters you loose your edits.

Reply

Answer 8

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:33 AM in response to léonie

I use Time Machine to Backup everything. I want another backup of all my Master images on non-magnetic media... DVD. Far too risky to have just a HD backup, even if the DVD backup is only my Masters, I can separately backup my edited images as well.

Reply

Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Tony Barone

I want another backup of all my Master images on non-magnetic media... DVD

o.k., that explains what you want to achieve 🙂

even if the DVD backup is only my Masters

Now I am puzzled - if you export the masters with

File -> Export -> Masters

Then the toltal size of your exported masters should be exactly the size of the "Masters" folder inside your Aperture Library package, or did you export the versions?

Regards

Reply

Answer 10

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 10:49 AM in response to léonie

Now I am puzzled - if you export the masters with

File -> Export -> Masters

Then the toltal size of your exported masters should be exactly the size of the "Masters" folder inside your Aperture Library package, or did you export the versions?

Yes, it should, I guess thats what I've been trying to explain. It is not the same size.
It is possible I mistakenly exported versions, I will do it again this evening and see what happens.

Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 11

Dec 13, 2011 11:22 AM in response to Tony Barone

I just tried it on a small library. The masters folder in the library is 5GB the exported masters are 4.9GB

This is a combination of JPG and RAW masters.

How did you export the masters? How did you select the images to export? Perhaps you didn;t have you're whole library selected.

Reply

Answer 12

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 12:09 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

I had Photos selected in the list on the left while in Browse mode, had all 33,000+ photos listed, selected all (Command-A) then did Export with Command-Shift-E I believe it is.

On a completely different note. Would anyone have any sugestions how to break up my Library a bit into smaller Libraries?

About 6 months ago I switched from iPhoto to Aperture and have all 33,000+ photos in a single Aperture Library and was thinking about breaking them down into smaller ones, perhaps by year or something like that.

My photos go from around 1999, when I first went digital, to now.

Reply

Answer 13

Dec 13, 2011 12:13 PM in response to Tony Barone

comand shift E is exporting versions

Reply

Answer 14

Tony Barone Author

Level 2

220 points

Dec 13, 2011 12:33 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Ah, so that is most likely the problem. I should export Masters though the Export menu.

Reply

Answer 15

Dec 13, 2011 1:54 PM in response to Tony Barone

That could explain it.

As to your other quesion re: breaking up a library. Physically it i easy to do. Just use the command File->Export->{Project,Album,Smart Album} as New Library. So in this case you could gather up all images in a year and export those as a library.

The question however is, is that the best thing to do? There are many valid reasons for having multiple libraries but trying to keep the library size down is rarely one of them. There are other ways to attack this problem.

The problem with breaking up a library based on date is that you loose one of Apertures strongest features, the database management aspect. That i you will have no way to search across libraries so if you're looking for all birthday pictures of Aunt Sally through the years you won't be able to do it. You'd have to load each library in turn search and export.

If you're concerned about disk space then the normal way to address this would be to change your masters from managed to referenced ad relocate the masters to an external disk.

For multiple libraries to work they would have to contain images that are unrelated and would never be looked for together, say a work library and a personal library.

Reply