saving edited/adjusted photos from Aperture

[PBW70s]

Hi All,

I put off moving on from Aperture and now need to because as you know, the new operating system doesn't support it. I haven't changed OS yet. I plan to work in Lightroom going forward. From what I understand, there is no way to transfer existing photos from Aperture (and have them keep edits and adjustments)? So, I'm looking for recommendations on how to preserve key projects (which contain best and often edited photos) when I move away from Aperture. Should I export the projects to iCloud for storage and if so what format should I do that in (and will that preserve edits and adjustments)? Other advice?
Thanks!

 

[r.harris1]

This article is a good start: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/import-iphoto.html. Specifically, it lists what does and doesn't transfer over. "Editable edits" - meaning, stuff you can pick up in one tool where you left off in another (from an image editing perspective) - won't transfer. Each tool has a different idea of implementing noise reduction, exposure compensation and even raw processing, as an example. JPEGs and TIFFs will be the "baked" images. 16-bit TIFFs will have the most editing wiggle room if you want to edit them in the future. Obviously, keep the raw files too, or at least the important ones, but I believe the plugin in the article already does that (but backup EVERYTHING first!).

 

[PBW70s]

Thanks. So is it that photos will transfer with edits and adjustments but not be further editable/adjustable or that they will transfer in their pre-edited form?

My second question is, should I also save current edited versions somewhere else so that I have them permanently -- for example saving them to iCloud or something and if so, in what format? Thanks.

 

[r.harris1]

Lightroom and Aperture are what are known as parametric editors. They are camera raw files (if that's what you shoot) + the edits (these are the parameters - they can be undone or adjusted). These are always saved in a TIFF or JPEG format for viewing or printing (there are others but that's the general case). Each vendor handles edits differently. Most vendors handle converting the raw file to a viewable format differently.

Converting to Lightroom gets you the raw file and the attributes noted in the article. You can always redo the raw files to your taste in the new tool (Lightroom in your case). If you have JPEGs or TIFFs, those come over as is, with edits already baked in. You can't undo the edits. So yes, by all means, if you have images that you like the looks of, save those off (these will be TIFFs or JPEGs, depending on your choice).

16 bit TIFFs are the most flexible and are better to edit further.

I'd recommend an external drive that you can shove things to permanently, if needed. iCloud is OK but something that you can control would be better, for at least one of the copies.

 

[MacNut]

If you like the finished photos from Aperture, save them in the highest quality jpeg you can. I would make it as close to the master resolution.

 

[PBW70s]

Thanks so much. This is helpful!

 

[robgendreau]

Look at Aperture Exporter. It works within Aperture to export say Tiffs of your edited images.

I made the shift to Lr aeons ago, but what I found was that a simple JPEG as a template was often enough for many images, since it was better to rework them in either Lr or Ps anyway. But if you were say hanging on to a bunch of adjusted images for a client, I'd export them all as TIFF before importing into Lr.

 

[PBW70s]

Look at Aperture Exporter. It works within Aperture to export say Tiffs of your edited images.

I made the shift to Lr aeons ago, but what I found was that a simple JPEG as a template was often enough for many images, since it was better to rework them in either Lr or Ps anyway. But if you were say hanging on to a bunch of adjusted images for a client, I'd export them all as TIFF before importing into Lr.

Thanks!

 

[mtbdudex]

I'll actually keep a virtual machine using Parallels and OS 10.14.x so my Aperture files are always accessible as is. Way too many to move over en-mass, 600+GB over 11 different libraries.
I've stopped using Aperture for daily stuff, just ... Photos, works for me/us.

 

[PBW70s]

I'll actually keep a virtual machine using Parallels and OS 10.14.x so my Aperture files are always accessible as is. Way too many to move over en-mass, 600+GB over 11 different libraries.
I've stopped using Aperture for daily stuff, just ... Photos, works for me/us.

Thanks!