Moved from iPhoto to Aperture; now what?

[vince]

<p>For years I managed my image files in old school hierarchical folders the Microsoft Way. A few months ago I finally moved back to Apple with a MacBook Pro. I installed Photoshop Elements 9 and did things the way I always had in Bill's regime, but finally succumbed to the allure of iPhoto. It was slick and easy and clean, but going in and out of Elements was a pain. Aperture 3 was getting good reviews, so I upgraded.<br>

I read Apple's guide(s) to migrating from iPhoto to Aperture and followed their path. Now, after a couple months of working in Aperture 3 I have a chaotic jumble of events, projects, folders, albums and libraries that makes virtually no sense to me. Here are some details and questions.</p>

<ol>

<li>I still have a ton of RAW and JPEG files in folders in my Photos directory</li>

<li>I moved the iPhoto library to Aperture, but I still have a folder called iPhoto library in Aperture?</li>

<li>Like most of us, my images are captured at events (Mothers Day, tennis tournaments, Christmas, etc.) and it would be nice to retain that event-based organization, but I would also like to move versions of the top keepers to broader groups like daughter or sports. Are those broad groups projects or albums?</li>

<li>If I imported an image file and it created a new event within my iPhoto library folder in Aperture because I failed to add it to an existing project or album, how can I move that master and its versions back into somewhere meaningful?</li>

<li>When is it too late to start over? I have created dozens of versions from masters imported over the past few months. Can I somehow prevent the loss of those versions if I start over with a fresh import?</li>

</ol>

<p>The editing and display capability of Aperture 3 is outstanding, but the organization leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully I just haven't figured it out yet and it will soon make perfect sense. Thanks in advance for your insights and advice.</p>

[george_ghio]

<p>Vince<br>

<em><strong>I moved the iPhoto library to Aperture, but I still have a folder called iPhoto library in Aperture?</strong></em><br>

Double click on the name and change it. Or if you want to remove it click on the folder and then File - Delete Folder<br>

<em><strong>Like most of us, my images are captured at events (Mothers Day, tennis tournaments, Christmas, etc.) and it would be nice to retain that event-based organization, but I would also like to move versions of the top keepers to broader groups like daughter or sports. Are those broad groups projects or albums?</strong></em><br>

In the tool bar choose: New - project<br>

Name this mothers day. Drag and drop the required photos into this project. Or, Select the photos you want and then: New - project, name the project and tick "Move selected items to new project" and click "OK"<br>

<em><strong>If I imported an image file and it created a new event within my iPhoto library folder in Aperture because I failed to add it to an existing project or album, how can I move that master and its versions back into somewhere meaningful?</strong></em><br>

Edit - undo should work<em><strong><br /></strong></em><br>

<em><strong>When is it too late to start over? I have created dozens of versions from masters imported over the past few months. Can I somehow prevent the loss of those versions if I start over with a fresh import?</strong></em><br>

If you are going to re import to start fresh create a new library and add a project at a time, thus organizing your photos into their events as you go.<br>

I have tried these on my mac and they seem to work. Unfortunately my library is currently as organized as yours. Thank you for your post. I now have no reason to put off a good clean up.</p>

<p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>

[vince]

<p>I have used hierarchical file structure since my "modern" computer life began back in 1985 (on a Mac 512) and I have a clear vision of how I want topics to nest together. In the cumbersome world of Windows I would (and have) just used folders to organize files into topics and sub-topics. In Aperture 3, there are not only folders, but also albums, projects and libraries. How are these different and why did Apple add three additional levels or definitions for organization (albums, projects and libraries)? </p>

[peter_mounier]

<p>The library is what opens when you click to open Aperture. You can have more than one library, but when one library is open, you can't have another library open. Projects are where the original master files are permanently kept. If you want to select some pics from your event project, and have them elsewhere also, like those of your daughter, then you create an album, call it "Daughter" or what ever you want and drag the original into the new album. The original doesn't actually move from the project when you drag it, but rather, a version file is created and stored in the new album. The project stays intact. </p>

<p>George got it wrong when he answered your 2nd question (#3). If you move an image from a project by selecting it and dragging it to another project, you end up moving the master and separating it from your event based organization. You have to create a folder and then drag the master (Aperture creates a version) to the new folder. That keeps the master in the original project, but puts a version in the new folder. </p>

<p>I haven't imported an iPhoto library, so I can't help you with the specifics of that, but if your newly imported iPhoto library is really a folder, rather than a project, then the files are versions, and the masters are still somewhere else. The masters are either referenced files kept somewhere on your hard drive, or they're in the Aperture library depending on whether you told Aperture to move the files, or copy the files when you imported them. If you copied them, and kept them in their original location, you can move them all into the Aperture library by consolidating the masters. Click on consolidate masters (file > consolidate masters). </p>

<p>Peter</p>

[davidfarquhar]

<p>The library is the highest level in the organisational hierarchy. As Peter says you can have more than one library, but in most cases you probably want to only have one. Think of it like the database of all your photos, or perhaps it is similar to the very top directory in your old file structure e.g. "My Photos"</p>

<p>The most important thing in Aperture is Projects. A Project is like an Event, or perhaps a group of events over a series of time (akin to a photo Project). As Peter said (it is worth repeating), a photo can only ever live in one Project. Drag it to another Project, it moves to that Project. Sort of like dragging a photo from one folder in your old file structure to another, it moves the photo.</p>

<p>Albums, Smart Albums, Books, Slideshows can contain lots of images from one or more projects. Think of them as containing virtual pointers to where the photo is. You can move the photo to another project and it won't change any album etc where the photo is also located, because the pointer just points to wherever the photo is. You can modify / edit the photo when you are viewing it in the Project, or in the album etc.</p>

<p>Folders help you organise your Projects, Albums, Smart Albums etc. Without them, you would just have a big long list of Project. Everyone has different ways to set up folders, the way I do it (may or may not work for you) is to have a General Photos folder. Under this is one folder for each year. Under this is one Project for each set of shooting - see this picture for an example<br>

I also have some other top level folders e.g. Other People's Photos, a folder to collect Smart Albums etc.</p>

<p>Inside a project or folder you can have albums, smart albums, books etc. So you might have a folder for 2012, in this a Project for this weekend's sports event. Under this you can create an album with your favourites, a book for printing etc. In this respect the Project is also acting like a folder - see the "Untitled Album" half way down the above picture</p>

<p>The nice (or confusing) thing about folders is they can also be setup underneath a Project to help organise all the different albums, books etc in that Project. I use this only rarely, usually with big projects such as my trip to New Zealand - see this photo<br>

I had several different books for this so I created a folder called Books in the Project. Under this I created a folder called Backups - every now and then I would duplicate the book and drag it into the Backups folder so I had multiple copies stored</p>

<p>One final thing to learn about for you is probably Smart Albums - these really help as you get to leverage the metadata about your photos to select photos dynamically. These will always have a "scope" - the set of photos they are searching. If you create a Smart Album in your 2012 folder, it will always look in the 2012 folder (and every project / album etc under it), perhaps pulling up your favourite (3*?) images, all your landscape images, everything you have applied keyword "dog" to, anything in a range of dates etc. Very powerful, and this means you don't have to worry too much about the finer details of setting up a project, because you can effectively subdivide the project up with Smart Albums - see the 15 or so I have under New Zealand holiday project above.</p>

<p>Hope that helps if you have any questions please ask</p>

<p>David</p>

[vince]

<p>Wow, very thorough replies. Thank you. I now have a clear vision of where I want to go, but remain confused about how to get there (perhaps a common theme in life?). It seems like the right approach is to export everything and re-import it, thus trashing my fairly short term rookie Aperture organization mistakes and starting fresh with a new and smarter organization. Short of googling that idea, is there a shortcut somewhere?<br>

I have a project called Colorado 2011 with 1 version in it, another project called Colorado 2011 nested inside a folder called Events within a folder called iPhoto Library with 646 versions, and lastly a book (I assume it's a book; the icon is a blue thing that looks a bit like a book) called Colorado 2011 with 536 versions. Which of those versions are masters? And where did they come from? The project with just one version I know I created out of ignorance because I have several others each with just one version. I should have created a project (or folder?) called Calendars and put them all in that, right?</p>

[davidfarquhar]

<p>I wouldn't delete anything, but then I'm always a bit paranoid. Best to take a big deep breath and have a poke around.</p>

<p>Firstly to find where a photo's real project is, you should be able to right click on it and choose "Show in Project". This should take you to the Project (yellow icon I think it looks a bit like a storage box) where the photo lives</p>

<p>Second to know what an icon is, right click and see what the Duplicate option says. if I right click a Smart Album it says "Duplicate Smart Album", ditto for Books (orange & white for me), and Albums (blue coloured book)</p>

<p>My guess is Aperture tried to help you out by setting up two nested folders called iPhoto Library -> Events, and put a Project under this for each event. The Album (blue icon) is just a container of pointers to the original images which are in the Colorado 2011 project. Not sure what the blue icon represents, perhaps you created a set of images in iPhoto, or a slideshow, or perhaps that was the last import you did? </p>

<p>Good luck, remember if you have a new Mac (using Lion) then Cmd-Shift-4 will take a screenshot you could upload it here for us to look at your library structure</p>

[vince]

<p>Thank you David. I am slowly getting my act together. What I'm finding is that I leapt before I looked and ended up with many projects titled as the import date and corresponding albums with the descriptive title I should have applied to the project. As I find them, would it make sense to re-title the project with something like Arizona 2007 and delete the album? And am I correct in assuming that deleting the album is okay because they are just pointers to versions created from masters located in projects? Yeesh!</p>

<p>On a semi-related subject, suppose I have many projects with names representing specific tennis tournaments. Would it make sense to pick the few winners from each project and put versions of those masters in an album with a title like Best of Tennis? Or would it be easier to rate them with stars and use the smart albums to display all the, say, four star tennis versions? Thanks again.</p>