Picasa, iPhoto, Aperture

S

Skyholder01

macrumors member
I began with Picasa. Then, I began this adventure in "mac-land", I started using iPhoto. Now, I have "Aperture".

Here's the question...
As I have changed programs, and "imported" from the previous program, have I actually duplicated all my photos 3 times? Or do I have 1 set of photos, that all programs "point" back to?

If I now have 3 sets of images, how do I go about deleting the previous 2?

Thanks for the help.
 
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You probably have at least two sets now. If you started with iPhoto and then tried Picasa, you'd only have one set. Picasa just points to wherever your photos are stored, usually your iPhoto folder.
When you import photos into iPhoto, it creates it's own copy in the iPhoto library folder.
 
I don't think you have given us enough information to say for sure.

Aperture can, iirc, use either managed or referenced images.

With managed images it sucks all the photos that it knows about and tucks them out of sight where you can't mess with them. In this case it may depend whether it moved or copied the photos. If it moved the images into its library, then they were not duplicated. If they were copied, then .....

With referenced images Aperture merely knows where the photos are, and they stay in place. More dangerous to use, since if you move a photo with the Finder Aperture loses track of it. With referenced images the images are not duplicated.... at least not from iPhoto to Aperture.

Again, all of this from memory.

You will need to do some more detective work I'm afraid. The other thing is that some images may be duplicated 3x, others 2x, and some not - based on which program you were using at the time.

The other consideration is that some images may be nearly duplicated, but aren't really. For instance.... if you changed the white balance for an image and then merely tacked a '2' on the end of the name. Do you need both copies or not? And without knowing how you manage your images it is impossible for us to give you any meaningful advice.

Except one: Back up, back up, back up - and then verify the back -up.

Luck.
 
And I can at least tell you, using "Time Machine", everything is backed up to an external drive.

May just have to do it, and see what happens.

"Gulp" *Giggle*

So far, so good. I deleted the iPhoto library, and everything seems to have remains in the Aperture library.
 
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Personally - and this is just me - I would have a cloned backup to an external HDD as well. Photos are usually irreplaceable.

The question for you is.... how much would you miss those photos? Tomorrow? In a year? In 10 years? Only you know for sure....

Luck.
 
There are 12 people on earth who truly understand Ap3's organizational system.

There are programs like Duplicate Annihilator that can dump the duplicates, but make sure you look through the Aperture trash! There will be photos in there you want to keep.
 
As previously stated... A3 can have either Referenced or Managed master files.

Managed masters all live within the A3 library and are managed by A3
Referenced masters all live outside the A3 library and are not managed by A3

You probably have all managed master files, but here is a way to tell.

  1. Open A3
  2. Click "photos" in your library
  3. Select to "browser" view, so that you see thumbnails of all your photos
  4. Type command-A to select all of your photos
  5. Check the bottom of your browser and you should see xxxx photos selected, xxxx photos displayed. Ensure that it looks like all your photos are selected
  6. Click File>Locate Referenced Files

You should get a box that says "no referenced files located. If so, then you can safely delete any of the photo files outside of your A3 library... assuming that you actually imported them into A3.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
As previously stated... A3 can have either Referenced or Managed master files.

Managed masters all live within the A3 library and are managed by A3
Referenced masters all live outside the A3 library and are not managed by A3

You probably have all managed master files, but here is a way to tell.

  1. Open A3
  2. Click "photos" in your library
  3. Select to "browser" view, so that you see thumbnails of all your photos
  4. Type command-A to select all of your photos
  5. Check the bottom of your browser and you should see xxxx photos selected, xxxx photos displayed. Ensure that it looks like all your photos are selected
  6. Click File>Locate Referenced Files

You should get a box that says "no referenced files located. If so, then you can safely delete any of the photo files outside of your A3 library... assuming that you actually imported them into A3.

/Jim
Click to expand...

Roger that!
The result..... "No referenced files locate."
Thanks so much.
 
Skyholder01 said:
Roger that!
The result..... "No referenced files locate."
Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

Glad to help. Welcome to Aperture... it is a spectacular program once you know how to use it. I strongly recommend ebooks by Robert Boyer. Every time I re-read them I learn more about A3. They are inexpensive and you will probably learn more than you can imagine. http://photo.rwboyer.com/

/Jim
 
Have a look at the ApertureExpert web site, too - they have some great PDF ebooks to help you understand the beast ..

Aperture is a great app - you're going to love it
 
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