When I import my iPhoto library into Aperture, it sometimes creates duplicate photos in Aperture - I believe because one is “edited” and one is “original”.
However, I haven't edited ALL photos, so it's not like I can search for “iPhoto_Originanl” and delete all of them.
Any suggestions on how to handle this? Can I flatten the files in iPhoto before the import?
Eric,
No flattening, sorry. I haven’t done this in a while… do they come in as stacks?
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
Yes, they come in as stacks of two when processing events via Aperture’s iPhoto Browser. Keywords: a=iPhoto Edited / b=iPhoto Original
Problems:
1) doubles even “minor” edits like rotated-clockwise photos;
2) “edited” JPG files (if no RAW) don’t include all the Photo Info (Lens/White Balance/Exposure Mode/Focus Mode);
3) plus duplicates I swear that I never edited in iPhoto.
I also tried exporting events from iPhoto into a folder, then importing from folder into Aperture, but then images don’t include all the Photo Info or Faces/Places data (as mentioned elsewhere in these forums).
I suppose will try importing the iPhoto library (~5000 pics) whole hog. Should I at least put it into a separate Aperture library, instead of dumping straight into my functional Aperture library, for safety? I want to rename files (Joseph thanks for my new filename standard as discussed in your 15 Tips e-book) and projects anyway.
Would it be better to have 1) functional Aperture library + 2) new Aperture library containing everything from iPhoto, clean up #2, then merge them? Or rename and clean event-by-event? Or is the whole “separate library” thing a waste of time and I should just go for it – “Import iPhoto Library,” clean break, do some reorg and renaming after. Are there any special settings recommended re JPG/RAW as master, or Current vs. Original, when coming from iPhoto?
(BTW, I really like how the ApertureExpert info covers these real world problems, unlike several books and manuals I have looked at, which don’t mention iPhoto or give simple directions like “Follow these four steps; all your iPhoto information will be maintained in Aperture.” Boom you’re done—what could go wrong?!)
Bonnie Bouman
http://365project.org/bonniebouman/365
Bonnie,
Thanks for the complements. I use the app nearly every day, so I certainly run into the same problems everyone else does—and me being me, I manage to find entirely new ones quite often :)
Unfortunately I haven’t spent nearly enough time doing iPhoto to Aperture imports to know all the ins and outs. I keep promising to write an eBook on it, and I started it nearly a year ago, but somehow it just hasn’t happened yet.
Importing into a clean library is actually a pretty good idea. That way if you get super frustrated, or realize you did something totally wrong, you can just trash it and start over. I like that workflow, actually. It makes sense.
I think too that unless you’re really dedicated to cleaning up the library, you may never get it fully cleaned up from iPhoto. But, to be honest, is it really a problem? Storage is cheap, and yes it’d be nice to get rid of the duplicates, but is it critical? As long as the original/modified come in as a stack with the modified on top, I’d say just leave it there. And if you ever want to re-edit an iPhoto imported photo, just open the stack and be sure to edit from the original.
You can spend days or weeks cleaning up an iPhoto import, and largely, to what end—saving a 20GB or 40GB or even 100GB of space? Consider the cost of storage vs. the value of your time, and you may reconsider bothering at all.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?
I think the ‘issue’ with some being duplicated, and others not is related t the version of iphoto you had when you edited. Iphoto was being iterated in a yearly basis, and the way it managed its library was also being changed. When they introduced true non-destructive editing, I think that’s where I get a difference in the images I I ported over from iphoto.
But I agree with Joseph on ‘not worrying’. The biggest reason I love iphoto and aperture is the file management aspect. Computers are powerful today, and I expect them to deal with stuff I don’t want to, file management being one of those things.
For the record, Aperture 3 was my first Aperture. I got it on release, and referenced my iphoto library into it. More recently, I consolidated all masters and made a single aperture library and deleted my iphoto library (after making a backup of it, of course). My photo library was in the region of 20-30,000 images.