I’m about to convert my fully managed library (170GB) in Aperture 3.6 to a referenced library. I understand I select the files and then relocate the masters. What’s the best way to do that if I want to maintain some semblance of the Aperture files/folders structure in the Finder environment? What’s the best way to select all files- just go to “Photos” folder and select all or do I need to export one folder at a time?
I understand that the file structure inside Aperture should remain unchanged. What I don’t want to happen is for all my photos to just be dumped into a folder on my hard drive with no organization. Within Aperture they are primarily stored in folders (years) containing projects (months) which have albums (various shoots in a given month). If I select all photos in the Library, does Aperture recreate its internal folder, project, album structure as folders in Finder?
As I recall, there is an option when relocating masters to put them in various folder structures. Is there an option to keep the internal Aperture folder structure? I’d like to make the managed to referenced conversion in as few steps as possible and ideally maintain the same or very similar folder structure.
Thanks, Steve
Steve, Last yearI moved all of my 2013 pictures from managed to referenced to make room on my then MBP’s HD (I have new computer this year). Looking at the files on my external HD, the projects that had folders or subprojects carried over, but my albums and smart albums w/i the project did not, i.e, all of the pictures in the albums are all located w/i the project but in no file structure. At least a quick cursory look through the files seems to indicate that. I can’t remember what I did specifically when relocating them, sorry.
Florian
Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com
Yes, I’ve started exporting one folder (year) at a time project (month) by project. The albums in the projects don’t convert. I may try using the relocation option of year/month/day folders which would get me pretty close to what I had in albums. Each album was a shooting event that rarely exceeds a day.
Part of what I’m doing is setting up for the conversion to Light Room. So I’d like as much structure as possible to carry over. If I was staying in Aperture, no sweat. But I’d like to tee things up with a structure that will convert to folders and/or collections in LR.
Thanks for the feedback.
Steve
Actually there is an app from apertureexportert.com in the Apple App Store that runs about $15 that will move all of you albums and smart albums over to Lr along with your projects and folders„ metadata, keywords and especially flagged photos regardless if they are managed or referenced. I think they just create folders in Lr but at least it’s in your hierarchical system. You have the option of burning your adjusted photos as JPEGs as well. Adobe makes a transporter but it ignores flags, albums and smart albums. Both systems ignore andy books or slideshows that you created. Any adjustments in Aperture will not be transferred to Lr unless you “bake” them as a JPEG. Aperture Exporter does that for you, I believe. I’d still hang tight and see what q1 2015 brings with Photos, but arranging you referenced library the way you might want it in Lr seems prudent if you are really thinking of going that route. BTW, you will have to create a separate folder for all of the pictures so it would mean duplicating all of your photos which obviously takes up a lot of HD space. But you do have all of your Aperture photos stored in the same place as always and can keep Aperture active and running should you want to go back to Photos.
Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com
I understood the Aperture to LR converter in LR brought over all keywords, color codes, etc. I’ll have to look into the Aperture Exporter to see if it does that. If so, that may be the way to go.
Don’t see any need to duplicate photos though. I’m going to set up referenced folders/files in Aperture. Then I’ll use the same files and import to LR. So both programs will look to same basic images. I don’t intend to use both programs once the transition is done so it should be no problem and I won’t have any duplicates.
Steve
Steve, the way I understand it, and I may be wrong because I have not looked into this in a any depth, aperture exporter makes copies of your aperture Library that have to be placed in a folder somewhere (your computer HD, external HD, whatever) and then that gets imported (Added) to the Lr catalogue (Adobe’s equivalent of Aperture’s Library). Lr needs to see where those files reside. The Aperture files stay where they are but you have an extra folder of the copies. I guess you would need to find out what to do with that file (delete it? Save it as a back up? Move it to another portable external HD?) Adobe’s transfer program will not recognize any adjustments you made to your photos in Aperture so you would have to individually export those photos as JPEGs and then import them into Lr if you want to save the changes. Aperture export does that for you.
Florian
Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com