Aperture project files storage method

[meget]

Hello all,

I was wondering. Whenever i create a project and lets say have 100 photos, and drop them in batches there for example 20 + 50 + 30, it would create 3 folders with them. It ruins work for something else i do. Is there a way to tell Aperture to no matter how many times i drop photos in project that they be kept in one folder per project on my hard drive?

Thanks

 

[flynz4]

Hello all,

I was wondering. Whenever i create a project and lets say have 100 photos, and drop them in batches there for example 20 + 50 + 30, it would create 3 folders with them. It ruins work for something else i do. Is there a way to tell Aperture to no matter how many times i drop photos in project that they be kept in one folder per project on my hard drive?

Thanks

Are you using managed, or referenced masters? If you are using referenced... then the files reside exactly where you put them. So... I assume that you are using managed (that is what I use too).

With managed master... they get put into projects. Unless you go looking into the application package, you do not know what folders they are actually located within... nor of course, should you possibly care.

Within the application... each master lives in exactly one project (maybe you are confusing projects with folders). You can move master from project to project by dragging them. Also, when you import your pictures into aperture, the import dialog lets you specify the destination project.

I strongly recommend that you buy and read robber boyar's ebooks on A3 organization and A3 File Management. They are inexpensive, and you will quickly become unconfused. Most importantly, you will truly understand how powerful a tool A3 can become.

I think it is http://photo.rwboyer.com/

/Jim

 

[meget]

Probably managed method as i want my photos moved into aperture. Here is how it looks for one project for instance when i show package contents on aperture library:

20120428-181846
20120428-184012
20120428-191322

As you can see i dragged three batch of files into Aperture, and 3 folders got created. What i want to achieve is no matter how many photos i drag into aperture and how many times, i want them to be in one folder. In other words not time specific...

Something tells me it is not quite possible, makes my work a mess for a website for example where the website needs to take images from one folder, instead i have to specify 3 or more...

 

[flynz4]

Probably managed method as i want my photos moved into aperture. Here is how it looks for one project for instance when i show package contents on aperture library:

20120428-181846
20120428-184012
20120428-191322

As you can see i dragged three batch of files into Aperture, and 3 folders got created. What i want to achieve is no matter how many photos i drag into aperture and how many times, i want them to be in one folder. In other words not time specific...

Something tells me it is not quite possible, makes my work a mess for a website for example where the website needs to take images from one folder, instead i have to specify 3 or more...

I also use managed masters. Personally... I think that it is a mistake to be mucking around inside the database. With Aperture... you should never think of "finder windows". All of your masters are in "projects"... and each master lives in exactly 1 project. That is the most basic unit if organization... not finder folders.

From there, your work flow can (and probably should) migrate to "folders" which have collections of "versions". A version takes almost no space... but referrers back to a master. Highly efficient A3 users carter their workflow around folders... and they are one of the most powerful features of A3.

I suggest you read the ebooks I mentioned. I think it will give you a lot of insight. Boyer is a very unique writer. Extremely opinionated (in a great way)... and really goes through the "why" vs. the "what". I think you will find that a few hours of reading will make you really understand the potential of A3... and if it isn't for you... allow you to move on to something else.

/Jim

 

[meget]

I understand how Aperture works more or less, the thing is for example if i want to use a website building software, i would normally simply select a folder with photos i need for a particular album, but since they are so spread, i will have to probably just live with an idea of exporting photos i need to a separate folder and keeping it there for upload purposes. sigh...

Thanks for helping buddy

 

[meget]

P.S. Does exporting versions option for files with no adjustments export the master instead then? I know the answer is obvious but wanted to check.

 

[flynz4]

P.S. Does exporting versions option for files with no adjustments export the master instead then? I know the answer is obvious but wanted to check.

One way of thinking about Masters and Versions (as described by Boyer)... is that you never really see a Master. When you import a photo into A3, the Master is stored... and version is created which is what you see. You can create as many versions as you wish... and store them in a variety of albums, books, slideshows, light tables etc)... and each version consumes approximately zero space. You can make modifications to each version (ex: color correction, change to B&W, crops, etc) and all that is being saved is the modifications... not the actual image.

So the answer is no... the master is not exported. Masters can only "live" in a project... and furthermore... only a single project. Versions can live anywhere.

When you export a version of a master with no adjustments... you are simply exporting a version... but in that case, it is the real picture, per the setting that you have set up for export formats.

I think that is a good idea to export pictures specifically for your web page... rather than point anything to within the A3 library structure. Those are not really meant to be touched.

One last thought. If you web application supports the Apple APIs for media data... you might be able to have your web application get the data directly from A3. Aperture integrates well in Apple's infrastructure... so applications that let you get media from iPhoto... would probably also let you get the data from Aperture.

/Jim