I'm going through an exercise to improve my Aperture file management strategy. The two key issues involve previews and vault location and is being driven by the fact that I'm maxing out my drive space. I'm using a Quad Core G5 and Aperture 2, hoping to move to a Mac Pro and Aperture 3 this year. My current drive configuration is 2 2 TB drives with a raid mirror internally and an external 2 TB for off site storage.
Optimizing preview size: I recently learned that previews can take up a lot of space, so I just changed my settings for my previews to both a smaller size (1/2 size -> 1680 X 1680) and lower quality (10 -> 6). My cameras are 18 and 21 Megapixels. After updating my previews I got a ton of space back (yea), but noticed that some of my pictures on my Apple TV I have major artifacts. I also use an iPad 1 and iPhone 4 to share my photography work. I'll probably get an iPad 3 within a year as well. I'm an avid photographer and doing some work for money now, so being able to display my work in the best possible light is important. Based on these requirements, what would be the best setting for preview size and quality to display the best quality on these devices and minimize the space that the preview files take?
Moving the Vault: I currently keep my vault on my main drive and want to move it to an external. After reading the manual and doing searches I still haven't found a way to move a current vault. Can I just copy it to the external drive and Aperture will find it or do I need to manage that move somehow? The only way I can see to do this now is to attach the external, create a new vault then delete the current one, am I missing something?
Thanks in advance.
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Library and Vault management/maximization
#1
Ransome,
My personal recommendation on previews is to generate them on the fly, as needed, instead of having a preview that you probably won’t ever need for literally tens of thousands of photos. This topic will actually come up in the “ten tips” series that we just started running this week, but basically I turn preview generation off for everything and set a keyboard shortcut of Shift-Return to generate them as I need them. I often change the preview size in the preferences depending on what I need, but given the resolution demands of things like the iPad 3 these days, I have been doing most of them at full size.
If you’re syncing photos to an iPad or Apple TV, presumably you’re sharing just an album or two, and not ALL of your photos. So select all the photos in that album, and generate previews for them.
It’s also worth noting that if you change the size in preferences, the size of existing images won’t change until you force them to regenerate (or make a change to the image, if auto is turned on).
If you go this way, remember you’ll have to delete the previews you currently have. Go to the Photos view, select all photos and delete previews from the Photos menu.
As far as vaults, you can just move the vault in the Finder, then point to it again in Aperture. I think the next time you try to run it it’ll ask where it is, just point to it, and go.
That said, if it’s an old vault, it can’t hurt to just create a new one on another drive, and once that’s successful, kill the old one.
When you do move to Aperture 3, you will need to do this anyway. I’ve heard lots of issues with legacy vaults and always recommend people start clean.
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi Joseph,
Thanks for the response. I’ve heard you on TWIP. Impressed that a star like you is answering the forum. ;-}
Yes, I do keep a lot of pics on my ATV, iPad and iPhone. Whenever I’m out and about, I get into a conversation with someone and want to show them some pics. I’ve found that if I don’t keep a lot on there, I’m always missing what I need. Also why I always get the largest config of memory on iOS devices. As for the ATV, everyone loves the screen saver mode, where it moves a dozen or so pics across the screen, we always get surprised by a picture we haven’t seen in a while and go look at the gallery.
As to the the redo on the vault, I will take that advice, thank you. I just got a new 4 TB drive for my off site storage, so I can reuse my old 2 TB drive as the new home for my vault. Just have to get everything backed up to the new drive. That will buy me the room I need until either a new Mac Pro comes out or I settle for a MBP with a NAS drive.
www.ImagesbyRansome.com
Ransome,
*star*?! LOL if you say so ;-) But this is my site, so I do tend to respond quite a bit!
If you do need to keep ALL of your photos as previews but are concerned about size, then for the iPad 3 just ensure that they are 2048 or bigger. You won’t be able to pinch into the file without seeing it get blurry, but you’ll at least see it at 100%.
If you do get a NAS drive, there are some precautions for using it with Aperture. For the vault is perfectly fine, but as a location for photos it’s sorta OK, for the library itself is a big no-no. Just search “NAS” using the search window at the top of this page and you’ll see lots of discussion and posts on it.
@PhotoJoseph
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I probably knew at one point this was your site.
Good to know on the NAS. I’m at a point that I need to get a new system. Been watching MacRumors avidly, and becoming convinced that Apple isn’t going to continue the Mac Pro. I hate to buy the current one, almost two years into a cycle, so I’ve been investigating a MBP. I know that a lot of photographers use them, what’s their solution for storage? The new Promise TB solution is very expensive. I’ve heard concerning things about the drobo etc….
Thanks, I’ll do the search.
www.ImagesbyRansome.com
I think for photographers the iMac is an awesome solution. I use a 27” iMac with a second 24” screen and a promise RAID. I’d like to move everything to the newer gen with thunderbolt but that’s a lot of $$
I use an 11” Air for portability.
Not a fan of Drobo; go to my photo blog www.ConfessionsOfATravelJunkie.com and search or dig and you’ll find my rants on it.
@PhotoJoseph
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OK, now I remember, we met at the TWIP/SmugMug user group meeting where you showed your Seal pics. Good inspiration for me. I just got back from New Orleans and spend most of my shooing time on the performers, in the bars and the street. Not Seal, but…
www.ImagesbyRansome.com
Awesome ;-)
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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Your setup sounds good. I wouldn’t go with a NAS. I think they’re overpriced and work poorly as a Mac experience. I have a couple of OLD headless Mac Minis which are waaaayyyy more versatile, can be used for endless amounts of stuff (internet tv, music server, MacOSX server (so cheap now) and of course … backup. Gigabit ethernet is as fast, on a good switched system, as FW800 (actually faster if you just plug an ethernet cable directly between 2 Macs). I also think RAID mirror is a waste of drive space. It’s good if you’re a bank and need stuff to be online 24/7 and have to cater for sudden drive failure, but I’ve been doing digital imaging for almost 25 years, day in, day out and I’ve yet to have a situation where a RAID Mirror would have been any use whatsoever. Better off to ‘stripe’ those drives and create an identical mirror as backup, using something like Chronosync. Currently … as I understand it, you have 2 identical mirrors … so you’re only actually using one quarter of your HD space. A stripe would give you much higher read/write and double your space. Mirror weakness is that any blunders you make are instantly mirrored to your mirror drive. Stripe weakness is that if either drive fails, you loose it all, but that’s why you have a backup running something like Chronosync that can keep it up to date ever minute if you want. Every hour might be more reasonable and every day more realistic. :)
Vaults are good too. They don’t keep previews, so that space is saved. If you are doing all of your imaging in Aperture, then I would just make 2 vaults. One next to you and the other as off-site. If off-site proves hard to keep up-to-date, then Joseph is a big fan of cloud based off-site. :)
(BTW. I have the same QuadG5. I have it dedicated to an old piece of imaging software. Great Mac and still pretty fast compared to todays machines. I love not having to update it all the time. :) )
I see your point on the mirror, will rethink, but I don’t think I have explained my setup well, it’s not as inefficient as you describe.
Apps, other data, original pics, library, vault = 1.6 TB I also had to move about 200 GB to my wife’s machine to give me some head room, shhhh she doesn’t know ;-} I also have about 100 hours of family video still on tape which I want to start editing, plus my photography pace has picked up and current cameras are putting out 20 - 30 MB files. So I’m going for a big jump in storage.
As Is
Inside Power Mac: 2 TB <- Mirror -> 2 TB Total disk size 2 TB
External Drive: Carbon Copy Cloner of everything 2 TB (I store this off site)
To Be (Current Thinking)
Inside MacPro: ((3 TB <- Stripe -> 3 TB) <- Mirror -> (3 TB <- Stripe -> 3 TB)) Total 6 TB
External Drive: 2 TB Vault Drive (Stays in office)
External Drive: 4 TB partitioned as 3:1. The 3 for my CCC of my main drive and 1 TB for my vault. (This is my off site drive) I’m starting to think that taking up space on this drive for a Vault backup isn’t necessary.
If Apple EOL’s the Mac Pro, I’ll either get a current model or move to iMac or MBP, in which case I’ll need a whole other plan. Thanks for your insight.
I’m planning to revise my library strategy, so after I read your two eBooks, spend more time on your site, I’m sure I’ll have some more posts.
Great site for my needs, definitely worth a contribution.
www.ImagesbyRansome.com
Ransome,
Glad you’re enjoying the site. I don’t know that the Mac Pro will EOL, I think there’s a big enough market for that, but clearly the focus is on the iMac and portable line of Macs. If you’re splashing out money on new systems though, including new drives, I’d definitely be buying thunderbolt. I wish I had personal experience with them, but at least on paper the speed difference is very enticing. And if your’e attaching to a fast RAID, then file transfers and access of masters on external drives will be that much faster. Plus if you ended up with a desktop and portable that both have thunderbolt, the transfer of files between the two macs would very fast.
-Joseph
@PhotoJoseph
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I find the TB options limited right now, but the 4 TB drive I got comes with a removable interface stand. Today the interfaces are USB and FW. The are coming out with a new one that will have TB. Take the old one off, clip on the new one and your are upgraded. Seems cool, hope it works in practice.
www.ImagesbyRansome.com
Considering the Mac Pro is the platform of choice for video editing and large project management (12 core, 64 Gb Ram,4 hard drives), it’s not going to be phased out by a laptop or an iMac any time soon.
That said the MBP or iMac with additional screens can be a good solution. Be aware that laptop screens are angle dependent for color rendition. It is best to be exactly perpendicular to your screen when making color adjustments. Use Aperture in two screen mode and put your browser and adjustment inspectors on your laptop screen and your working image on your large second monitor, if you choose the laptop route.
John
John Waugh, Photographic Images • Apple Certified Trainer• Sport Action Lifestyle Photography
Thanks John,
Maybe I’ve been reading MacRumors too much and/or waiting too long. I hope to be getting a new Sandy Bridge Pro soon.
Ransome
www.ImagesbyRansome.com