iPhoto vs Aperture Question

kate2kate · Feb 16, 2013

Hi,

I have a quick question about Aperture. I have been using iPhoto for a little while and I am still trying to get out of the windows mentality. I am also a very organized person.

One thing that bugs me in iPhoto is that I can't just take a photo from one event and move it to another. (or admittedly so I can't find a way).

In Aperture can you move a photo from one event (not sure of the Aperture terms) to another? instead of lets say making a folder and album?

Also I think I am a little beyond the editing tools in iPhoto but Aperture maybe a lot. I think I am somewhere in the middle. I have used Photoshop Elements in the past and I have done some editing. I have found a PSE to have a pretty big learning curve but have gotten by. Does Aperture have a large learning curve?

Thanks,
Katie

Weaselboy · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
One thing that bugs me in iPhoto is that I can't just take a photo from one event and move it to another. (or admittedly so I can't find a way).

I have not used Aperture, so can't comment on that, but in iPhoto all you do is drag and drop photos from one event to another. Is that not working for you?

Apple fanboy · Feb 16, 2013

Have you considered Lightroom?

mic j · Feb 16, 2013

I have used Aperture and PS Elements for quite awhile now, and iPhoto a little in the past. The thing to remember about Aperture and iPhoto is that they both manage images the same. The master images are stored in a database and what you see in the displays are just images of your master. If fact, iPhoto and Aperture can share the database. You should be able to just drag the "images" to different locations in the display windows.

I find I do about 99% of my editing in Aperture and occasionally go to PSE for things like masking, panoramas, etc.

kate2kate · Feb 16, 2013

Weaselboy said:
I have not used Aperture, so can't comment on that, but in iPhoto all you do is drag and drop photos from one event to another. Is that not working for you?

Hi,

If I try to drag and drop a picture from one event to another in the events view (i think I have events highlighted under library) it asks if I want to merge the 2 events. I don't want to merge the 2 events just move one picture.

Can you please explain how you do it. Maybe I am doing it wrong?

Thanks,Katie

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Apple fanboy said:
Have you considered Lightroom?

Hi - Lightroom is a little pricey for me, but thank you for the suggestion.

mic j said:
I have used Aperture and PS Elements for quite awhile now, and iPhoto a little in the past. The thing to remember about Aperture and iPhoto is that they both manage images the same. The master images are stored in a database and what you see in the displays are just images of your master. If fact, iPhoto and Aperture can share the database. You should be able to just drag the "images" to different locations in the display windows.

I find I do about 99% of my editing in Aperture and occasionally go to PSE for things like masking, panoramas, etc.

So can you tell me if you think I understand this in my own words?

So your original picture (images) is stored in a database. And what you see in iPhoto or Aperture is a "copy" and you edit that. And since the original picture stays in the database that is how you can go back to the original picture if you don't like your edits.

Thanks to all,
Katie

Weaselboy · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
Hi,

If I try to drag and drop a picture from one event to another in the events view (i think I have events highlighted under library) it asks if I want to merge the 2 events. I don't want to merge the 2 events just move one picture.

Can you please explain how you do it. Maybe I am doing it wrong?

Thanks,Katie

Ahh... okay. That is where you are going wrong. You need to be in the Photos view to drag and drop between events. Just click where I pointed to Photos in my screen grab and that will show all your photos sorted within events. Just drag/crop from/to whatever events you want.

One issue I have is if the destination event for the drag is several pages up it can be a hassle. So what I do is first go to the Event view then double click the destination event. That will put it in the sidebar as the most recent event like Easter 2012 is in my screenshot.

Then go back to Photos view and grab the photo(s) you want and drag them over the the event under Recent like where Easter 2012 is in my example.

----------

kate2kate said:
So can you tell me if you think I understand this in my own words?

So your original picture (images) is stored in a database. And what you see in iPhoto or Aperture is a "copy" and you edit that. And since the original picture stays in the database that is how you can go back to the original picture if you don't like your edits.

Thanks to all,
Katie

Not exactly. What you are seeing when you double click a photo is at first the original, and if you do not edit the photo at all, you will continue to just see the original. However, if you edit that photo at all iPhoto creates another copy of the photo and saves that edited photo. So on your drive you will have the edited and the original photo.

If you decide later you don't like the edits, you can go to the Photos menu and click Revert to Original and it will put get you back to the original photo.

kate2kate · Feb 16, 2013

Weaselboy said:
Ahh... okay. That is where you are going wrong. You need to be in the Photos view to drag and drop between events. Just click where I pointed to Photos in my screen grab and that will show all your photos sorted within events. Just drag/crop from/to whatever events you want.

One issue I have is if the destination event for the drag is several pages up it can be a hassle. So what I do is first go to the Event view then double click the destination event. That will put it in the sidebar as the most recent event like Easter 2012 is in my screenshot.

Then go back to Photos view and grab the photo(s) you want and drag them over the the event under Recent like where Easter 2012 is in my example.

Image

----------

Not exactly. What you are seeing when you double click a photo is at first the original, and if you do not edit the photo at all, you will continue to just see the original. However, if you edit that photo at all iPhoto creates another copy of the photo and saves that edited photo. So on your drive you will have the edited and the original photo.

If you decide later you don't like the edits, you can go to the Photos menu and click Revert to Original and it will put get you back to the original photo.

Image

You are my new best friend.

I am hoping you can answer one more question. I think I know the answer but just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

If I have a folder of Vacation pictures on my hard drive and I imported them into iPhoto. Now if I delete them from I photo they will still be on my hard drive in that folder.

But if I import those vacation pictures into iPhoto and delete the Event they are gone forever. (although I do have a time capsule for back up).

Do I understand this correctly?

Weaselboy · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
If I have a folder of Vacation pictures on my hard drive and I imported them into iPhoto. Now if I delete them from I photo they will still be on my hard drive in that folder.

Yes, they will still be in the original folder as long as you never deleted them after the iPhoto import.

kate2kate said:
But if I import those vacation pictures into iPhoto and delete the Event they are gone forever. (although I do have a time capsule for back up).

If you dragged them from a folder into iPhoto that would still leave the originals in the initial folder and it would make a copy in iPhoto, so the originals would still be in the initial folder you dragged from.

But if you dragged from a folder into iPhoto and then deleted the photos from the folder... and then later still deleted the photos from iPhoto, then in that case they would be gone forever.

Like you said, they would be in the Time Capsule if you realized your mistake fairly soon. But over time as the Time Capsule drive begins to get full it will begin to delete the oldest data. So for example, if you went six months later to retrieve a deleted photo off the Time Capsule it may have been purged to make room for newer/current data.

Glad to help.

kate2kate · Feb 16, 2013

Weaselboy said:
Glad to help.

I am pretty new to all of this. I appreciate the help.

In the posts next to the quote icons there is an arrow point up and I can select a 0 or 1. If I select a 1 on your posts does it somehow help you?

Thanks again,
Katie

Weaselboy · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
I am pretty new to all of this. I appreciate the help.

In the posts next to the quote icons there is an arrow point up and I can select a 0 or 1. If I select a 1 on your posts does it somehow help you?

Thanks again,
Katie

It is kind of an informal "I agree" type thing. So if five people clicked the arrow there would be a number five there showing that. I don't get a free toaster or anything though. Hah!

mic j · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
So your original picture (images) is stored in a database. And what you see in iPhoto or Aperture is a "copy" and you edit that. And since the original picture stays in the database that is how you can go back to the original picture if you don't like your edit.

Exactly...sort of.

The image you see is not a true "copy". By that I mean, if your master image (say 5MB file size, stored in the database) is placed in 3 different "Projects", you don't take up an additional 15MB of storage. And yes, the edits you do are mathematical overlays. The master image is never touched. Now in PSE, once you hit "Save" those mathematical manipulations change the Master. You can never go back. You can always go back in Aperture/iPhoto.

You can do some amazing stuff in Aperture, but it does take some routine use to get really familiar with the workflow. It has a lot of flexibility, but with that come more complexity.

kate2kate · Feb 16, 2013

mic j said:
Exactly...sort of. The image you see is not a true "copy". By that I mean, if your master image (say 5MB file size, stored in the database) is placed in 3 different "Projects", you don't take up an additional 15MB of storage. And yes, the edits you do are mathematical overlays. The master image is never touched. Now in PSE, once you hit "Save" those mathematical manipulations change the Master. You can never go back. You can always go back in Aperture/iPhoto.

You can do some amazing stuff in Aperture, but it does take some routine use to get really familiar with the workflow. It has a lot of flexibility, but with that come more complexity.

Thank you.

Arelunde · Feb 16, 2013

Normally, I do professional work on a PC using Adobe's Creative Suite 3, including regular Photoshop. I have my images stored in a vast filing system by account (customer) on an external drive.

I'd like to use my iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, Aperture and Lightroom apps on my MBP late 2011. But I cannot deal with the alleged "filing" system of Apple-based apps. If I edit the entire collection (which was imported automatically from a copy of my external drive) in iPhoto and then open Aperture or Lightroom or PSE - none of the organization or deletes are there. It appears I have to do deletes and organizations for each app.

I'm wondering if I am stuck in the PC filing mentality and cannot grasp the Mac Way. Is there a secret, or is this a real problem with only one solution - use only one app to handle photos on a Mac (or iDevice).

mic j · Feb 16, 2013

Arelunde said:
Normally, I do professional work on a PC using Adobe's Creative Suite 3, including regular Photoshop. I have my images stored in a vast filing system by account (customer) on an external drive.

I'd like to use my iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, Aperture and Lightroom apps on my MBP late 2011. But I cannot deal with the alleged "filing" system of Apple-based apps. If I edit the entire collection (which was imported automatically from a copy of my external drive) in iPhoto and then open Aperture or Lightroom or PSE - none of the organization or deletes are there. It appears I have to do deletes and organizations for each app.

I'm wondering if I am stuck in the PC filing mentality and cannot grasp the Mac Way. Is there a secret, or is this a real problem with only one solution - use only one app to handle photos on a Mac (or iDevice).

Aperture and iPhoto can share the same library, but edits done in each are unique to each app.

As for the PC filing mentality, I was there also after using Windows for lots of years. I am just starting to come around to the idea of putting all of my photo's in a big unorganized folder and letting the program organize them for me. Aperture offers lots of organizational options (projects, albums, etc) but the real key is assigning keywords and titles to the imported images. This allows for very powerful search options. Also, think of it this way, folder organization is rigid and sometimes an image may fit into different folders (do I file it by date, customer name, subject, etc) but you can only put it into 1 and have to remember where it is located. If you throw everything into a big bucket but assign detailed image attributes you never have to remember where it's at and can find it with simple searches. I'll admit it takes some getting used to.

flynz4 · Feb 16, 2013

kate2kate said:
Hi,

I have a quick question about Aperture. I have been using iPhoto for a little while and I am still trying to get out of the windows mentality. I am also a very organized person.

One thing that bugs me in iPhoto is that I can't just take a photo from one event and move it to another. (or admittedly so I can't find a way).

In Aperture can you move a photo from one event (not sure of the Aperture terms) to another? instead of lets say making a folder and album?

Also I think I am a little beyond the editing tools in iPhoto but Aperture maybe a lot. I think I am somewhere in the middle. I have used Photoshop Elements in the past and I have done some editing. I have found a PSE to have a pretty big learning curve but have gotten by. Does Aperture have a large learning curve?

Thanks,
Katie

Katie,

First of all, I recommend that you do move to Aperture. It is an incredible program. Both iPhoto and Aperture are Digital Asset Managers (DAM). It takes a bit of time to get used to a DAM... but it is a very powerful tool.

In iPhoto... You should consider your "Events" as places where your photos get imported... all of them... the good, the bad... even the ones with your finger over the lens. Events are NOT the place to organize your photos. Each photo should be considered living in just one "event".

Albums are the place to organize your photos. You can create as many albums as you wish... and placing a photo in an album takes up essentially zero space. So for example... if you were to take a surfing vacation to Hawaii with your friend Bill... you could make "albums" for surfing, Hawaii, Bill, Beaches... and you can drag your best pictures into one of more of these albums. When you do this... you are not duplicating pictures... you are just creating interesting collections of your pictures.

This is the first step to creating nice picture collections that interesting to your viewer... rather than just a pile of junk pictures that bore people to tears.

Aperture does everything better than iPhoto... so it you are going to do a lot of organization... I would suggest you make the switch.

In Aperture... the terms are all different... but the concept is the same.

/Jim

mic j · Feb 17, 2013

flynz4 said:
Katie,

First of all, I recommend that you do move to Aperture. It is an incredible program. Both iPhoto and Aperture are Digital Asset Managers (DAM). It takes a bit of time to get used to a DAM... but it is a very powerful tool.

In iPhoto... You should consider your "Events" as places where your photos get imported... all of them... the good, the bad... even the ones with your finger over the lens. Events are NOT the place to organize your photos. Each photo should be considered living in just one "event".

Albums are the place to organize your photos. You can create as many albums as you wish... and placing a photo in an album takes up essentially zero space. So for example... if you were to take a surfing vacation to Hawaii with your friend Bill... you could make "albums" for surfing, Hawaii, Bill, Beaches... and you can drag your best pictures into one of more of these albums. When you do this... you are not duplicating pictures... you are just creating interesting collections of your pictures.

This is the first step to creating nice picture collections that interesting to your viewer... rather than just a pile of junk pictures that bore people to tears.

Aperture does everything better than iPhoto... so it you are going to do a lot of organization... I would suggest you make the switch.

In Aperture... the terms are all different... but the concept is the same.

/Jim

Nice summary of DAM. I haven't used iPhoto much lately, but if I remember correctly is does have some features that Aperture does not put as much emphasis on, like borders around pictures, slide show formats, etc...more the finishing stuff. I think that is where having the shared library is nice because you don't have to duplicate something in iPhoto to take advantage of something it offers.

flynz4 · Feb 17, 2013

mic j said:
Nice summary of DAM. I haven't used iPhoto much lately, but if I remember correctly is does have some features that Aperture does not put as much emphasis on, like borders around pictures, slide show formats, etc...more the finishing stuff. I think that is where having the shared library is nice because you don't have to duplicate something in iPhoto to take advantage of something it offers.

Yes, iPhoto has different templates for books and slideshows. I think there are a few other projects that you might be able to from iPhoto such as greeting cards. You are correct that being able to open your Aperture library from iPhoto (and vice versa) allows you more choice.

/Jim

Arelunde · Feb 19, 2013

Thanks to both Mic j and Flynz4 for their input here. I hadn't thought about the positives involved in iPhoto and Aperture photo organization. You are right - it would take a different mindset, but I can see the advantages thanks to your comments.

Because I'm working between a PC and MBP with my (huge) image collection, the photos on my MBP are an organizational nightmare. I would take the time to get it under control if I had Creative Suite 3 (or whatever # is current) for Mac. As it is, I have it for my PC, with custom color profiles across a scanner and printer as well. I'd have to buy a Mac-based CS (can't just transfer, I discovered) and then coordinate color profiles (again). The cost involved is prohibitive, not to mention the "down time."

So, for now, I'm essentially stuck in the PC world with photo processing and design/layout with the rest of my activities Mac-based. Oh well.

flynz4 · Feb 19, 2013

If you need to work cross platform... you could get Lightroom which is moderately priced. I think it is $150 or so. That would let you have a powerful DAM on your PC and easily migrate to a Mac at a later date.

If you think that you will be sticking with Mac for the long term, another option is to switch to Aperture and do your organizational work on the Mac. I have found that using Aperture along with plug-ins from NIK software is ideal for >99% of my photos. The total Nik Software suite is about $250. For the last 1% (or fewer) of my photos... I do use Adobe CS6 which is about $2000. I do not think I will ever buy that again.... it is almost never used. If you need Adobe photoshop... you could always export out of Mac into a dropbox folder... then edit with CS3 on your PC, then import back into Aperture. It would not be that inconvenient.

Take a look at some of the Nik Software videos on their site. I suspect that you will be impressed and determine that you may not need Adobe very much.

/Jim

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