Aperture, Yosemite, and a New MBP

[rick3000]

Hi Everyone,

I just bought a new retina MBP (1TB SSD). I am going to be transitioning to this weekend, from my '09 MBP dual drive. I am currently using a managed Aperture library (about 170GB), stored entirely on the second internal drive. I like the managed setup, and do not expect my library to grow too fast, maybe a few GB's a year.

I plan to use Aperture for at least another year or two, until it is no longer feasible. (Hey, I am still using FCP7.) Aperture does everything I want it too, and I am waiting to see what Yosemite's 'Photos' app does.

My question is this, should I transition to a referenced library now in preparation for switching to another app down the road?

It seems that switching from managed to referenced is pretty simple in Aperture. My second question is, when you make this switch on the same drive does it copy the entire library (i.e. will I need 170GB free on the drive), or will it simply move it out of the Aperture library file.

Thanks for any input and advice!
-Rick

 

[MCAsan]

I would not make any change until I can see Photos and other options such as Lightroom.

A managed Aperture/iPhoto library has the master/original files, jpg previews, and edit info in the database package. All the eggs are in one large basket. In a referenced library the master/original files are outside the database packages, in folders you designate on the drive you pick.

 

[d.steve]

My question is this, should I transition to a referenced library now in preparation for switching to another app down the road?

No reason to. Can do that at any time, so just do it if/when you need to.

My second question is, when you make this switch on the same drive does it copy the entire library (i.e. will I need 170GB free on the drive), or will it simply move it out of the Aperture library file.

-Rick

It's a move, not a copy. If you want a copy, consider a vault before you do the move.

 

[rick3000]

Thanks, for all the help! I just made the switch and kept a managed library.

 

[Ray2]

You don't need to switch now. Though it would be a good idea to know exactly what a change would entail. You may want to spend time in Keywording, ratings, etc. Aperture can't write metadata to some raw formats (Fuji XTrans as an example), know if you need an alternative approach. Think about what you want your Finder directory structure to look like and make sure an Aperture change to referenced will support it.

 

[ChrisA]

...
My question is this, should I transition to a referenced library now in preparation for switching to another app down the road?...

I suspect that as we discuss this Abobe and others are writing software that will go into an Aperture library and re-format it for LightRoom. In other words the transition might be just a one-click deal.

We will have to wait and see that Photos is like. Should know this soon.

 

[MCAsan]

But ask yourself...do you really need the edits done with years old editing software? I would suggest that if you get your raw files out into a referenced library, you could be amazed how much better editing can be done with the latest versions of LR plus modern plugins.

So you go back in time and edit the relatively few older images as you need them. Save jogs or TIFs of the few important images so you can see how they used to look.

 

[d.steve]

But ask yourself...do you really need the edits done with years old editing software? I would suggest that if you get your raw files out into a referenced library, you could be amazed how much better editing can be done with the latest versions of LR plus modern plugins.

So you go back in time and edit the relatively few older images as you need them. Save jogs or TIFs of the few important images so you can see how they used to look.

This is where a good rating system helps.

I have:
Five star: 105
Four star: 387
Three star: 1516 (high in artistic merit but insufficient technical merit)
Two star: 5307 (moderate artistic and technical merit)
One star: 30k (triaged low value but don't want to delete. Lots of snapshots)
unrated: not yet triaged
-9: delete

If I ever need to migrate, I will discard any edits of 1 stars, and export tiffs of everything else. I can then selectively determine which, if any, are worthy of re-edit from original raw, likely skipping < 4 star as not worth the large amount of time needed.