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Move from Aperture?

Hello,


I have a 10000 pictures library in Aperture, most of them retouched. How can I move the library to some other software (I was thinking Lightroom) when Apple will release an OS that will not support Aperture anymore without losing all the adjustments?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 30, 2015 2:49 AM

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72 replies

Apr 30, 2015 3:03 AM in response to Filippo1

The new Photos.app in MacOS X does open Aperture Libraries losslessly. Photos will show all adjustments and does migrate places, faces, keywords, titles, captions.

Only it is not a professional application and does not support the advanced features of Aperture.


To migrate to lightroom, export the original photos from Aperture with "File > Export", and export the edited versions.

There is no lossless transition.

May 2, 2015 4:58 PM in response to Filippo1

After thinking about this for awhile, my plan is as follows:


Export all of my Aperture originals to an external drive

Export all of my Aperture versions as high res JPEGs to the same drive

Put an Aperture vault on the same drive

Put the drive away in a safe place to hopefully never be touched again


Use Photos to convert Aperture library

FRom now on I will use Lightroom for every photo I take

Iwill use Photos to do everything with the old photos and if I need to make an edit that is beyond its capabilities then I will use an external editor


The downside is that I will have 2 separate libraries but if that becomes a problem then I suppose I can export all the photos to Lightroom using one of the export options.


Does anyone see a downside to this solution?

May 4, 2015 9:17 PM in response to Red Robin

I add another recommendation for Capture One Pro 8. If you migrate to Lightroom, you will find that none of your adjustments to your Aperture images come across, you will have to export your versions to save your work.

In migrating to CaptureOne Pro some of the adjustments are copied across, still a good idea to export your Aperture edited versions as a reference to your CaptureOnePro work.


Capture one imports the color labels properly, Lightroom imports the color labels as keywords.


Both CaptureOne and Lightroom ignore the Aperture version names; I renamed my files with the Aperture version names before the migration.


CaptureOnePro does not have stacks for images from different masters but Lightroom apparently has some stacking ability; Lightroom converts the Aperture stacks to some kind of keyword system whereas Lightroom ignores stacks entirely.

May 5, 2015 12:08 AM in response to ericnepean

With regard to stacking in Capture One Pro 8, currently one way of stacking versions is to Clone Version/Original but it's not quite the same.


However, the Filters in Capture One (CO) are very powerful and also Sessions have Selected and Output subfolders which you can use such that stacking ceases to be so important.


I gave up the Trial software and bought a licence after 7 days - I haven't opened Aperture since except to export some individual unedited RAW Originals for editing in CO. There's a learning curve but there always is and that's more to do with unfamiliarity. I can still use Photoshop in my workflow.


I sympathise with those who have zillions of files in Aperture but you only have to Reference them rather than throw the baby out with the bath water. And why wait for Aperture to be groaning on its deathbed? - The sooner you move on and get used to another RAW editor, the better off you are. I love Apple products generally but sorry, Apple, you shot yourself in the foot on this one!


P.S.- Perhaps the most important reason for not migrating to Adobe Lightroom is that, like Apple's, its RAW Converter engine is inferior to Capture One Pro's - That's a very fundamental starting point when editing RAW files.

May 5, 2015 11:57 PM in response to Filippo1

It is likely that Aperture will continue to work for some time to come.


A possible replacement for Aperture might be "Capture One". A possible replacement for iPhoto might be "Lyn".


However there is no rush. I would also recommend that any photo editing/organizing program you buy have the ability to show keywords under the thumbnails. (Photos cannot do this.)

May 6, 2015 6:42 AM in response to Filippo1

I love Aperture.. honestly


I've been using Aperture since the first version came out about 10 years ago.


It's really hard for me to switch. I tried LR but it just doesn't work for me. I can't get my head around it. Adobe software is so complicated.


It's very sad to see Aperture's day is numbered.


I was always, waiting for a complete new version of Aperture for Yosemite, but here we got the bad news.

May 7, 2015 5:38 AM in response to léonie

Annoyingly, I seem to have lost all my adjustments on importing my Aperture library into Photos. Anyone know what I've done wrong?


(I'm more generally annoyed that Aperture is no longer appearing as an option to sync pictures with my iPhone in iTunes; and that while my projects and albums are findable in Photos, they're not available as sync options or appearing as "albums" in the app. This transition feels very poorly done...)

May 7, 2015 9:49 AM in response to MondoApple

I beleieve that's the way Apple intended it to work. I understand that many of the Aperture adjustments, such as any brushed adjustments and levels and curves are not available in Photos. Plugins are also missing.

MIgrating to Capture One Pro will save some of your adjustments, and will also give you some tools Aperture never had. Including plugins, and a really good raw converter.


I've migrated to CaptureOne, it's not painless, but it's better than staying with Apple.

May 31, 2015 5:49 AM in response to MondoApple

Annoyingly, I seem to have lost all my adjustments on importing my Aperture library into Photos. Anyone know what I've done wrong?

How did you import the library to Photos? When I migrate an Aperture library, all adjustments are applied. Only, they cannot be modified or removed selectively, because Photos cannot reproduce brushed adjustments for want of brushes. I just can revert to original and start over, if I want to edit the photo further, losslessly.


See this link: How Photos handles content and metadata from iPhoto and Aperture - Apple Support

Jun 5, 2015 12:56 AM in response to Filippo1

Let me be another one here recommending Capture One Pro 8 over Lightroom as the best (current) alternative for Aperture.


If you or anybody else here have been using Aperture a long time and got used to the flexible and adaptive user interface and workspace, you are in a world of hurt when looking at Lightroom. Especially if you have two screens running. Lightroom is extremely deadlocked with its user interface, you can't change ANYTHING at all, not even assign new keyboard shortcuts. Second screen options are terrible and completely useless, it seems they never had this in mind when designing the application. On top of that it makes very bad use of available screen real estate. It is totally hardwired to using the folder structure from the finder and does not offer any way of managing your library by itself and so on.


And finally when you get to comparing the image quality of the three, you will be hooked to C1 within minutes. It leaves both Aperture as well as Lightroom in the dust, it is not even close actually.

Move from Aperture?

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