When you have an image imported into Aperture, you get the first version shown in the project. If I create a new version via alt-v, I would have two versions in my stack. If I then delete the first version, what happens? Do I lose the original? Or version 2 now becomes the last version?
Also, I've noticed that if I delete all version of a file, there's no warning? Does aperture keep the master file somewhere secret and how do I get to it?
It is important to distinguish between "the first Version" and "the last remaining Version". Aperture doesn't privilege in any way "the first Version", but it does, in a very important way, "the last remaining Version". Please see Frank's excellent User Tip for a brief explanation.
For me, this was an important reason to always use Adjustment Stacks, and to store and develop Images in Projects, but to prepare for publication, and publish Images in Albums
Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger -- clarification added.
It is important to distinguish between "the first Version" and "the last remaining Version". Aperture doesn't privilege in any way "the first Version", but it does, in a very important way, "the last remaining Version". Please see Frank's excellent User Tip for a brief explanation.
For me, this was an important reason to always use Adjustment Stacks, and to store and develop Images in Projects, but to prepare for publication, and publish Images in Albums
Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger -- clarification added.
But just to clarify, is there a difference between the first version (imported from the camera) and the duplicated version? Does it matter which one I delete? Someone I always imagine the first version is the "true" original but I suppose it's all the same?
And just to confirm, if I delete both, basically I would lose the entire photo correct?
Deleting the "first" version is the same as deleting the "second" version if you have two versions. No difference; the original image will still be in your librayr.
If you delete them both, your photo will be moved to the Aperture trash. If you then delete the Aperture trash, the photo will be moved to the OS X trash. If you then empty that trash, your image is gone, and unless you have a backup, it's gone forever. If you have a vault, then the next time you update the vault (if the image was in the vault) the backup will be moved to the Vault (deleted images) folder.
So it's really hard if you have a reasonable backup plan to unintentionally delete master photos. But people still manage to do it somehow :-/
Ok that makes a lot of sense William, but then I'm just curious. If the "first version" presented to me is not really the original anyway. Where exactly is the original file? It's just completely hidden from the user point of view?
You're overthinking it ;-)
But yes, you could think of it like that. The original files are in Aperture, and if you have 1 version, it's still a version that's representing the original. If you have 2 versions, it's 2 views of the original.
Aperture never modifies the original RAW file, so it's basically versions all the way down, like photo turtles ;-)
aapl.crox wrote:
But just to clarify, is there a difference between the first version (imported from the camera) and the duplicated version?
No, there is not. The "first-born" has no special rank in Aperture-land.
Does it matter which one I delete?
No, it does not.
Someone I always imagine the first version is the "true" original but I suppose it's all the same?
There is no "true" Version. They are all just Versions based on the same Original. ("Original" is what Aperture calls your image files once you import them.) They are all of equal rank within Aperture. None is special.
The first Version created is often a "null Version" -- it contains no instructions for adjustments or metadata changes. If you added adjustments or metadata on import, then your first Versions are not null. Null-ness, however, is just a description that carries some meaning for us: to Aperture they are all just Versions that contain instructions. In the case of a null Version, the instructions are: "Do nothing".
And just to confirm, if I delete both, basically I would lose the entire photo correct?
Yes. When you put the last Version of any Original in the Aperture Trash, and then empty the Aperture Trash, Aperture removes the record of the Original from its database (the Aperture database is called "the Library") and puts the Original in the system trash.
But let me insist on specificity. "Photo" has no fixed meaning to Aperture; its use may cause confusion (and potentially data loss). You import files. On import, Aperture lists your file in its database, creates a Version (this is, in actuality, a text file), and creates an Image, which is the result of the instructions in the Version text file being applied to the file you imported. What you see in the Browser and the Viewer are Images created on-the-fly by applying the instructions in the Version file to the data in the Original. Every Version file corresponds to exactly one Image, but each Original can have as many Versions (and thus Images) as you want. When you put in the Aperture Trash the last remaining Image for an Original, and then empty the Aperture Trash, Aperture deletes the record of that Original from the Library, and puts the Original (unless, in the case of Referenced Originals, you tell it otherwise) in the system trash.
HTH?
--Kirby.
What happens when you delete the first version?
