So...Should I Continue Using Aperture's Library?

Aperture 1.5 includes two new commands -- Relocate Masters and Consolidate Masters -- which will automatically move images out of or into the Aperture Library bundle, so you have the choice of locating them wherever you want...and you can change your mind at any point and relocate them again, as the need arises. In any case, they will always remain linked to your Library.

Joe Schorr
Sr. Product Manager, Aperture
Apple

sheesh, i guess if you've got a lot of free time, you could reorganize your entire library. personally, i don't see much gain from it.

and let's say you have a folder full of RAW images that are tied to Aperture's library, but not stored inside of it. how will you know when you're trying to clean up and free some disk space whether those images are stored inside Aperture's library, or if its just duplicates of something you've got laying around that could be trashed?!?

the way that i look at is, you've just bought this nifty filing cabinet for all your negatives, but you've also got empty drawers in other parts of your house. your question essentially becomes, "do i put my negs in the filing cabinet or sprinkle them around the house?" my answer would always be, no keep things where they belong -- put them in the filing cabinet.

but that's just my thinking about the concept.


scott

PowerMac G5 2.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) MacBook Pro 2.0GHz

Nice analogy. Being paranoid, I have everything in my Aperture library, backed up on a vault, duplicated on another hard drive, and burned to DVD. Overkill? Well, it's all over if the house burns down. I should keep some offsite!!! Talk about sprinkled negatives....

This is great news, Joe! Thanks, and well done!!

With 1.5's new feature to not contain all my photos
within a single library file, should I leave my
library as it is (after importing tonnes of photos)
or should I move them all out into folders again?

Just curious, what are you going to do with YOUR
library?

I'm still going to keep using the images stored in the library, because I like having all my master image data along with versions and edits in a single place.

What I am really curious about is just what will happen when you edit an image externally if you are using a master outside the library. Currently Aperture makes a new master which is a TIFF or PSD file it sends to the external application. Will that master be placed alongside the master held outside the library, or will it always go in the library? Neither answer is really that great, and so I prefer to keep things inside the library outself for Aperture to manage.

If the mechanism for offline storge is that you migrate master files onto a DVD, then I would probably make use of the external storage in that way.

An interesting thought is that you could have virtual masters. Currently as my camera is not supported by Aperture I import 16-bit TIFF files. I could do desired adjustment and other work based on these TIFF files, then migrate them outside the library and simply delete them - I can always recreate the exact same TIFF files later from my RAW versions in case there was a future need for the ful-size version, so it would save some space (especally for images I am iffy about but do not dislike enough to remove).

I think that now photographers have an OPTION to use the managed library or keep their images elsewhere and reference them more will choose the managed library and it's associated benefits such as the Vaults.

Being forced into the library system got a lot of people's back up, but now they are presented with an open choice I think many will see the benefits of the managed library and choose to go down that road. Especially as we can now rename the Master Files that reside there.

I just need this v1.5 update to fix the IPTC caption import bug and I can start using the programme again.

v1.6 I need code replacement (type /lm/ and have "manager Rafael Benitez" written for me), larger IPTC window with all fields showing and pop-up menus for each field with saved text, and a built-in FTP export command and I'm a happy snapper.

Just how difficilt would an API be to write? I could do with writing one for my workflow's export... but seeing as I can't fathom Automator there is no chance of that!

Ok, let's follow your analogy (good one, btw). What happens when my drawer of negatives gets full? Say they are all stock photography and I want to be able to search them all at once. With 1.5 I can keep each year on a removable disk (I have a tray that I put 300GB disks on, hence a 300GB removable. No I have have all my pictures catalogued but not have them all on the same disk.

OK, I deviated from the analogy, but you get what I'm saying.

Good job Apple.