Aperture Organization Question

[DCBass]

Hello Everyone,

I had a quick question regarding photo organization in Aperture.

I have all of my pictures sorted in folders with in my "Pictures" folder, and this is how I want to keep it. What is the best way to have Aperture reference the Pictures folder as I continue to add to it?

After playing around with the demo version, it appears that I have to manually import every new folder as I create it. The same goes for individual pictures if I put them in folders that are already referenced. Is there no way to get Aperture to do this automatically?

I'm looking forward to getting into post-processing, but I just want to make sure I have my organization down before I dive completely in.

Also, if you don't mind, could you share your preferred method of organization as well?

Thanks in advance,

DCBass

[Aperture]

Try this:

In Aperture, File > Import > Folder into Project

I got this from the video at Apple.com.

I let Aperture handle my files, I don't want to be bothered otherwise. After January rolls around I take all of last year's photos and relocate them to my external HD, referencing them in Aperture. It can help Aperture run a tiny bit faster and free up space on my HD.

[DCBass]

Thanks for that Aperture,

I did see this, and think it's great for setting up your library. But when I make any modifications to a folder that's already been "imported" into Aperture, the change goes unrecognized.

-DCBass

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by DCBass

Thanks for that Aperture,

I did see this, and think it's great for setting up your library. But when I make any modifications to a folder that's already been "imported" into Aperture, the change goes unrecognized.

-DCBass

Do you mean you import the photo and edit in an external editor and the changes go unnoticed, or do you import, then open say Photoshop, edit, and then Aperture somehow doesn't see the changes?

The latter from what I understand is not how you want to do it because Aperture technically stores your photos and never really touches the originals. (I may be misstating that a bit). That said, if you import into Aperture, then edit using the external editor (a choice you make within Aperture) then the changes will be recognized in Aperture. I only know this because it is how I did it. Otherwise, editing the original file in which I imported did not have the same results.

[robbieduncan]

Originally Posted by DCBass

Thanks for that Aperture,

I did see this, and think it's great for setting up your library. But when I make any modifications to a folder that's already been "imported" into Aperture, the change goes unrecognized.

-DCBass

The simple answer is that you can't do what you are trying to do. Aperture does not monitor folders and cannot reference folders, only individual images.

[DCBass]

Originally Posted by robbieduncan

The simple answer is that you can't do what you are trying to do. Aperture does not monitor folders and cannot reference folders, only individual images.

I suspected that that might be the case. Is this the same as Lightroom? It seems that Picasa is the only photo program that does this.

Does this not bother anyone else?

Since Aperture does not do this automatically, is there a simple way to have Aperture "refresh" or "rescan" a particular referenced folder?

DCBass

[Digital Skunk]

Originally Posted by DCBass

I suspected that that might be the case. Is this the same as Lightroom? It seems that Picasa is the only photo program that does this.

Does this not bother anyone else?

Since Aperture does not do this automatically, is there a simple way to have Aperture "refresh" or "rescan" a particular referenced folder?

DCBass

Unfortunately not. Lightroom doesn't do it either. The only way I know to do this is to tell Aperture where you want it before you import it. As an example, I organize my Baltimore City shots by date, not project. So if I shoot in the AM, then shoot in the PM they all go into the same folder.

(1) I have 20 images on my camera that I shot in the evening.
(2) I open Aperture and plug in my camera.
(3) When the App asks me what I want to do with my images I tell it to put them in the folder I already named (Baltimore X.XX.07) for that day. The App will make a new project in the sidebar, but the images will be referenced from the folder that I already created.
(4) Once it is done importing, I will just move the images from the new project in the Aperture pane, to the one I already created. That will put all the images together without doing too much more work

It doesn't bother me that Aperture doesn't have live updating of folders, but it would be nice. I'd rather have a much lighter Aperture Lite program just for browsing like Bridge, that links into PS, AI, InDesign, iWork, and other apps, and I really wish Aperture could edit the large previews it generates when my library isn't with me. It baffles me how Aperture can make preview almost as large as my D2hs files but I can't edit them when the referenced files are not available.

[robbieduncan]

Originally Posted by DCBass

Does this not bother anyone else?

No, not in the slightest. I don't bother trying to manage thousands of files, file by file myself. That's what Aperture is for! I simply connect my camera and either add the images to an existing project, or create a new project, whichever is appropriate...

[DCBass]

I was wrong about Lightroom, it does have the ability to "synchronize" with a referenced folder. Hopefully Apple adds this to Aperture in the next version.

After a lot of reviewing of the two, I've decided to go with Aperture for two main reasons:

1) On my 17" iMac, Aperture's interface gets much more out of my way than Lightroom's. Lightroom feels very cluttered on my screen in comparison.

2) Integration with iLife, iWork, and other areas in Mac OSX. It will be much easier for me to create a movie, slideshow, or presentation than with Lightroom.

There are a few smaller reasons, namely the free flickr plugin for Aperture works much better than exporting through Lightroom, and editing in Aperture appears to work more smoothly for me than Lightroom.

Although I have gripes about the lack of synchronization, it will force me to be more thoughtful about my photo organization, which is a good thing in the end.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

DCBass

[RBDesign]

What you are asking is pretty much what Aperture does when you use a managed library. The finder will show you if you don't believe me, just right click and show package contents. That being said you may find some of the stuff here useful:

http://photo.rwboyer.com/

RB