Best structure in aperture for low volume of photos (1000 year)

[kudukudu]

Could anyone comment on whether one of these makes more sense than the other? I am an amateur who has about 30 shoots a year with about 1000 photos (vacations, snapshots, landscapes) and I want to come up with a fairly streamlined directory structure. I have thought of the following two and I am not sure if there is any practical difference between them since I am still struggling with some of apertures concepts:

<year> (blue folder)
--> <shoot1> (project folder)
--> <shoot2> (project folder)

or

<year> (project folder)
--> <shoot1> (album folder)
--> <shoot2> (album folder)

I plan to add keywords as I import and then create appropriate smart folders to easily get at anything I need.

[ChrisA]

Could anyone comment on whether one of these makes more sense than the other? I am an amateur who has about 30 shoots a year with about 1000 photos (vacations, snapshots, landscapes) and I want to come up with a fairly streamlined directory structure. I have thought of the following two and I am not sure if there is any practical difference between them since I am still struggling with some of apertures concepts:

<year> (blue folder)
--> <shoot1> (project folder)
--> <shoot2> (project folder)

or

<year> (project folder)
--> <shoot1> (album folder)
--> <shoot2> (album folder)

I plan to add keywords as I import and then create appropriate smart folders to easily get at anything I need.

Each shoot simply goes inside its own project and that is it. A "project" is a set of images all downloaded from the camera's memory card at once. Aperture uses the term "Project" to means what you are calling "shoot". In either case it means a related group of photos all shot near each other in time.

Then later if you like to organize by year you make smart folders such
that all the shots from 2008 go into a "2008" folder and the ones tagged
"2009" into a "2009" folder. This is painless because the camera
will automatically write the dates in to the files

The goal shuld be to eliminate even the possability of miss filling a photo. If you the user has to remember to put the 2008 photos in the 2008 folder there is a possibility for error but if it is done automatically as with as smart folder there is no chance of error.

So the way to go is to tag the files and then make smart folders and then let the files find their correct folder

If you must have the projects in date order then names them something like this: 2008-04-09-SeaBirds. (year-month-day sorts correctly)

[kudukudu]

Thx for the reply. I understand the concepts and definitions from what I have read in the user documentation and on-line, but where I am having trouble is applying the concepts. I have about 12,000 photos that I need to import into aperture and this will take long enough that I don't want to do it using a particular organizational structure that I realize has a bunch of limitations only after I have done all the work.

I am struggling with whether I should just go with a single project per year and break things apart into albums (e.g. christmas 2006, trip to the beach 2006, baby pictures 2006, etc.) or whether I should have a project for each one of these items.

[mac1civ]

I found this useful, it shaped my thinking on Aperture organisation:

http://speirs.org/2008/01/08/organising-projects-and-folders-in-aperture/

[pprior]

I found this useful, it shaped my thinking on Aperture organisation:

http://speirs.org/2008/01/08/organising-projects-and-folders-in-aperture/

Useful, but I can't remember how you create the top level folders (i.e one into which you can stick projects).

[mac1civ]

Useful, but I can't remember how you create the top level folders (i.e one into which you can stick projects).


I just added the folders by going >File > new folder > name folder 2008, or 01 January, 02 February etc.

Then when you import photos your created projects can be placed in the appropriate folder.

[pprior]

Ah, that's it, but you have to have your cursor selecting the "library" at the top or it will create a normal sub-folder under your current folder.

Doesn't work if you use the ""new" menu drop down, you have to go through file - new folder as you mention.

thanks - having those "blue" top folders allows for me much better organization of my photos.