All photos in Aperture?

[conamor]

Good day,

I think I already asked but here I am, confronted to around 30 folders of folder, organized by year/month/day in my folder tree. Should I put all of them into Aperture?

If I don't I will never have a look I them, I believe.

Would there be any limit to the Aperture Library? It's 380GB at the moment.

Thank you!

 

[aristobrat]

Aperture is End-of-Life. Apple has committed to making it work with Yosemite (Mac OS X 10.10), but hasn't said anything about future OS updates.

There's supposed to be a new photo managing/editing app from Apple coming out in early 2015 (IIRC).

Might want to wait until then and see how that app turns out?

 

[Attonine]

I can't answer about the import because I've never had to do what you are asking.

There is no limit for library size in Aperture. Some people do report performance slow downs with larger libraries. A solution is to use more than 1 library (1 for holidays, another for weddings, another for portraits, this kind of thing). I don't know the size of the libraries of those who have reported this issue. For the record, I use a referenced Library, my photos use over 300 Gb, I haven't noticed any performance issues because of this. My actual Aperture library file is 40Mb.


If you already have Aperture, give it a go. If you are concerned about losing the folder hierarchy, make a copy on an external or something before you start playing around. If you don't already have Aperture, do you want to pay out for it now, knowing that it is EOL? Is LR more appropriate, or waiting to see what Apple comes up with?

 

[conamor]

I already have Aperture, I was wondering if I should import all my older pictures...

I am sure there is an easy way to get out of Aperture if you don't have a folder tree backup?

Merging to lightroom shouldn't be a big deal I believe then maybe I should use referenced?

 

[Attonine]

I already have Aperture, I was wondering if I should import all my older pictures...

I am sure there is an easy way to get out of Aperture if you don't have a folder tree backup?

Merging to lightroom shouldn't be a big deal I believe then maybe I should use referenced?

If it were me, then yes I would import all photos into Aperture. This is the way I like to work, with things in one place. Organised.

I do not think Aperture will keep your file hierarchy. I believe it will change the file hierarchy to be by project. Once imported you can certainly sort the photos by time, and you can create any number of projects and folders to organise the photos however you wish.

Should you wish to move away from Aperture, I believe LR has a migration utility, I do not know about other applications. However, if you wish to return to a time based structure like you have now, you would probably need to do this manually via finder.

 

[MCAsan]

Continue to use Aperture for now. When the new Photos app has been released in Q1 2015 and the dust settles, you can decide to move to Photos, move to Lightroom...or go elsewhere.

 

[conamor]

Will do, thanks for all the comments

 

[ChrisA]

Good day,

I think I already asked but here I am, confronted to around 30 folders of folder, organized by year/month/day in my folder tree. Should I put all of them into Aperture?

If I don't I will never have a look I them, I believe.

Would there be any limit to the Aperture Library? It's 380GB at the moment.

Thank you!

Aperture is not going to be supported by Apple in the future. If you already have it, use it but I'd NOT make a move to Aperture from something else.

But YES. Aperture can hold any number of images and the library can be a lot larger than 380GB if you want.

But don't move that many photos into a dead-end app.

Wait a few months an Apple will release their replacement product called "Photos" it might be good enough. Who knows. I'm going to delay any decision until AFTER Photos for Mac is released.

 

[Attonine]

I am sure that when Photos is released Apple will make sure that the Aperture library will migrate seamlessly to Photos. I don't think there is any cause for caution if you already use Aperture. After all the Aperture and iPhotos libraries have already been integrated.

 

[robgendreau]

You can do BOTH; have your existing folder tree AND import "into" Aperture.

Use the import option to REFERENCE photos rather than copying them into the Aperture library; the latter is called a "managed library."

If you reference the photos, they all stay where they are right now, and Aperture only points to them. All the features of Aperture are still available. And you save space over copying them into a managed library.

Finally, if you do decide to move to another product like Lightroom or Capture 1, it's even easier to do that from a referenced library, as opposed to a managed library.

 

[simonsi]

My library is 600+GB and no performance or other issues...

 

[maflynn]

My library is 600+GB and no performance or other issues...

Yikes, that's large. One key advantage aperture had was using multiple libraries. Did you ever consider this, to keep the sizes down? I had too, because my laptop's storage couldn't hold one giant monolithic library.

 

[Fishrrman]

I wouldn't "move from" Aperture just yet.

We see folks yelling "Aperture is end-of-lifed by Apple!" and running with their hands up for the exits. But this is without any knowledge of what the upcoming "Photos" app is really going to be like.

I sense that Photos will "combine" features from both iPhoto and Aperture. The overall "attempt" by Apple looks to be to offer one piece of software that offers two operating modes:
- the "easy-ness" of iPhoto,
and
- the organization and editing features of Aperture.

Again, no way to know until Apple reveals the product.

Even if Photos is markedly dumbed-down, I'll reckon that Aperture (as an app, even without further updates) will continue to run through future iterations of the Mac OS. I'm still using software 8-10 years old, running on a late-2012 Mac Mini under 10.8.5...

For those who currently use (and like) Aperture, I would think "if it ain't broke, keep using it..."

 

[simonsi]

Yikes, that's large. One key advantage aperture had was using multiple libraries. Did you ever consider this, to keep the sizes down? I had too, because my laptop's storage couldn't hold one giant monolithic library.

Considered it but never had to split it. As I said I cant discern any downside to a library of this size, hence no advantage to splitting it.

 

[maflynn]

Considered it but never had to split it. As I said I cant discern any downside to a library of this size, hence no advantage to splitting it.

My downside as mentioned, is that I cannot fit it on my laptop. I also think working with a number of smaller libraries is a little easier, only from the sake its faster to move them around.

 

[simonsi]

My downside as mentioned, is that I cannot fit it on my laptop. I also think working with a number of smaller libraries is a little easier, only from the sake its faster to move them around.

I dont move it around so no issues, I have it on the internal 1TB drive so I have about 4-5yrs of growth left, but Id expect bigger drives to be available by then.

And of course the Aperture replacement question might be relevant by then although it wouldnt bother me if I needed to maitain a Yosemite bootable just for Aperture tbh, the style and scope of my edits arent changing that much or fast....

 

[tgara]

I wouldn't "move from" Aperture just yet.

We see folks yelling "Aperture is end-of-lifed by Apple!" and running with their hands up for the exits. But this is without any knowledge of what the upcoming "Photos" app is really going to be like.

I sense that Photos will "combine" features from both iPhoto and Aperture. The overall "attempt" by Apple looks to be to offer one piece of software that offers two operating modes:
- the "easy-ness" of iPhoto,
and
- the organization and editing features of Aperture.

Again, no way to know until Apple reveals the product.

Even if Photos is markedly dumbed-down, I'll reckon that Aperture (as an app, even without further updates) will continue to run through future iterations of the Mac OS. I'm still using software 8-10 years old, running on a late-2012 Mac Mini under 10.8.5...

For those who currently use (and like) Aperture, I would think "if it ain't broke, keep using it..."

I agree with others not to drop Aperture just yet. I'm waiting to see what the new OSX Photos app is like first.

In many ways, I'm excited to see what it can do. There are some reports indicating that the new Photos app will include professional-grade features such as image search, editing, effects, and most notably, third-party extensibility.

Extensibility will be important so users will be able to tailor the app with additional features as they need or wish.


http://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-will-upgrade-photos-for-os-x-2014-7

 

[flynz4]

Yikes, that's large. One key advantage aperture had was using multiple libraries. Did you ever consider this, to keep the sizes down? I had too, because my laptop's storage couldn't hold one giant monolithic library.

This is the key reason I really love having an iMac, with dual screens (ATD)... and enough SSD to hold my entire library. It is an absolute joy to use.

Aperture has strong support to move projects from one machine to another... so when I create projects on my MBA out in the field... it is easy to move it to the iMac when I return home.

/Jim

I wouldn't "move from" Aperture just yet.

We see folks yelling "Aperture is end-of-lifed by Apple!" and running with their hands up for the exits. But this is without any knowledge of what the upcoming "Photos" app is really going to be like.

I agree with others not to drop Aperture just yet. I'm waiting to see what the new OSX Photos app is like first.

I agree with both of you. I LOVE Aperture. I pray that Photos will be a good enough replacement. I also hope that Apple does two things, which holistically, only Apple can do.

1. Solve the multi-user sharing issue
2. Non-destructive round trip editing through 3rd party plug-ins (ex: NIK)

Both can be huge... and worth some compromise in other areas.

The only trepidation that I have is making recommendations to those just starting. I do not feel comfortable suggesting they start fresh with Aperture given the uncertainty of Photos.

For those of us who have many hundreds of hours invested in Aperture organization... it is premature to switch to something different. In the event that a change to another architecture (ex: LR) becomes necessary... it will be no harder to make the change in another year than it would take to change right now.

/Jim

 

[Ray2]

My downside as mentioned, is that I cannot fit it on my laptop. I also think working with a number of smaller libraries is a little easier, only from the sake its faster to move them around.

I keep my current year and keepers in process on the internal and later years on an external. Both referenced. Easy to move to the laptop for travel. Easy to relocate with Relocate Masters.