does aperture duplicate photos when it creates a library?

[Keebler]

Hi,

i'm wondering if i screwed my aperture library up?
I imported my photos which is around 10 GBs, but the size of the overall library is 18 Gbs?

I checked and the aperture file is over 7 GBs. i'm a bit confused? Tried reading the manual as to why this is so, but can't figure it out.

The only reason is that i'm trying to ensure I have plenty of space left (tons of photos and music).

Cheers,
keebler

 

[Digital Skunk]

SO if your library 10, 7, or 18 GBs? I can't tell from what you have said.

The Aperture library only copies your files if you tell it to store them in the Aperture library. If you reference them it will be smaller. The only added size should be from the previews, which may add a few GBs to your HDD depending on the size of the previews.

 

[ChrisA]

Does it duplicate photos? The answer is "it depends". There is a preference setting where you can tell it which way to go.

 

[Grimace]

There are a LOT of hi-res sample images too.

7GB= "Aperture file" (is this the application?)
10GB= photos imported
~1GB= sample images
--------
18GB Total

But that doesn't make sense b/c my Aperture app file is 250MB.


Wherever you store you Aperture Library (in Photos folder?) -- check the size of that. It should be a white cube icon with an camera lens on the left front face. That is the measure of images that Aperture references.

You can also click "All images" and see if there are dupes.

 

[vanmacguy]

Aperture allows you to store your pictures two ways.

One is to reference them where they are (say, in iPhoto). In this way Aperture only references the originals so the only size increase you should see is when you alter a picture using Aperture.

The other is to import them to an Aperture library. In this case they are all copied to the Aperture library so yes, you should see a substantial size difference. If you had 10Gb's of photos in iPhoto, you should see an Aperture library of approximately the same size (not exactly the same size because I believe Aperture only takes the latest version of your picture from iPhoto and not all the versions in between the original and the final version, but it will be close).

 

[Keebler]

thanks for the info guys.

Dskunk - to clarify (before i confuse myself ... the size of my specific photo folder where i store my photos is around 10 GBs, but the entire "Photos" folder directly from the main hard drive is 18 GBs which means that the aperture library cube file is around 7 GBs.

Vanmac: if i understand correctly, i could keep all my photos in iphoto to use with frontrow and then just reference them from within aperture.

i'm in a bit of a quandry b/c i like front row, but i really dig aperture's editing capabilities and especially it's organizational functions. the stacks are incredible as is the smart keywords etc..

Any suggestions - what would you do, keeping in mind that i would like to use the frontrow function of iphoto yet the editing of aperture. i'm in a unique position as i'm about to transfer the photos from my G4 iphoto library onto my new imac (older version, but still sweet

Thanks again!
Cheers,
keebler

 

[Keebler]

thanks for the info guys.

Dskunk - to clarify (before i confuse myself ... the size of my specific photo folder where i store my photos is around 10 GBs, but the entire "Photos" folder directly from the main hard drive is 18 GBs which means that the aperture library cube file is around 7 GBs.

Vanmac: if i understand correctly, i could keep all my photos in iphoto to use with frontrow and then just reference them from within aperture.

i'm in a bit of a quandry b/c i like front row, but i really dig aperture's editing capabilities and especially it's organizational functions. the stacks are incredible as is the smart keywords etc..

Any suggestions - what would you do, keeping in mind that i would like to use the frontrow function of iphoto yet the editing of aperture. i'm in a unique position as i'm about to transfer the photos from my G4 iphoto library onto my new imac (older version, but still sweet

Thanks again!
Cheers,
keebler

forget my post folks. i loaded one pic and the that frontrow feature is for a slideshow type of thing so i'll just aperture.

 

[M@lew]

It's probably just the previews. You could turn off generating them, but then you wouldn't be able to use them with iPhoto/FrontRow etc.

A good tip from the InsideAperture blog today was that you can stop it from automatically getting previews and only choose to generate them for your favourite photos, so you can still show them off in FrontRow but keep HD space low.

 

[Keebler]

Aperture allows you to store your pictures two ways.

One is to reference them where they are (say, in iPhoto). In this way Aperture only references the originals so the only size increase you should see is when you alter a picture using Aperture.

The other is to import them to an Aperture library. In this case they are all copied to the Aperture library so yes, you should see a substantial size difference. If you had 10Gb's of photos in iPhoto, you should see an Aperture library of approximately the same size (not exactly the same size because I believe Aperture only takes the latest version of your picture from iPhoto and not all the versions in between the original and the final version, but it will be close).

Hey Van,

I"m wondering if you can help me out....

Your post makes total sense and what Aperture says to do, makes sense, but I can't seem to get the reference files working properly.

Upon import, I choose the option to let the files remain 'in their current location'. I did a test where i imported 1 folder (it is about 6.2 MBs). The aperture library size jumped from 254 Kbs to 5.9 which leads me to believe it didn't work right ?

Here's the other question before I go. I have too many photos in my library so i'd like to delete some as I go. I was hoping to use Aperture as my main tool to get this done. BUT, in the tests I ran, when i deleted a file (also ensuring it erased the master file), the supposedly deleted files were still in their original folder.

Assuming i set the reference files up properly in my aperture library, if i delete photo 1 (from within the app), should I assume it will be gone from its reference folder as well?

Sorry for the questions, but I've tried reading the manual and i'm going nuts...

Cheers,
Keebler

 

[termina3]

I have too many photos in my library so i'd like to delete some as I go.

De....De...Delete? What! Why!? (rhetorical)

 

[Keebler]

De....De...Delete? What! Why!? (rhetorical)

lol i know....i know... shame on me. let's just say it's a project long in coming and one i hope to take my time with. going forward isn't the problem, but in the previous years, it is doh

btw, cool names on HDDs your next one should be called 'bourne'.

 

[termina3]

btw, cool names on HDDs your next one should be called 'bourne'.

never!
jk.

I was missing my XP partition "Timothy" (now added).
No, the next one will be "George" for George Lazenby. After that.. I have no idea what I'll go to. *Luckily* I only have one more slot available in the Mac Pro.

There's actually a method to my madness... Sean is the original boot drive, Daniel and Pierce are contemporaries in a RAID 1, I always see Roger as small–its an external, and I never liked Timothy, so he gets stuck with XP. George'll have to be Vista or something... I dunno.

You can imagine that thumbdrives, etc. are the bond girls and baddies

 

[Keebler]

never!
jk.

I was missing my XP partition "Timothy" (now added).
No, the next one will be "George" for George Lazenby. After that.. I have no idea what I'll go to. *Luckily* I only have one more slot available in the Mac Pro.

There's actually a method to my madness... Sean is the original boot drive, Daniel and Pierce are contemporaries in a RAID 1, I always see Roger as small–its an external, and I never liked Timothy, so he gets stuck with XP. George'll have to be Vista or something... I dunno.

You can imagine that thumbdrives, etc. are the bond girls and baddies

lmao wrt to timothy and xp. if you've seen Hot Fuzz that you'll love the ending wrt to timothy

btw, any ideas on my aperture issues?

 

[termina3]

lmao wrt to timothy and xp. if you've seen Hot Fuzz that you'll love the ending wrt to timothy

btw, any ideas on my aperture issues?

Haha ya, back to the real subject.

Sorry, but I'm no expert with Aperture (nice thing is you don't need to be). I import all of my photos and have Ap. manage them (no referencing). Then, when I delete a photo (which I never do unless I import something twice), it's gone. Period, End.

 

[Keebler]

Haha ya, back to the real subject.

Sorry, but I'm no expert with Aperture (nice thing is you don't need to be). I import all of my photos and have Ap. manage them (no referencing). Then, when I delete a photo (which I never do unless I import something twice), it's gone. Period, End.

ok. so your library is pretty much duped within ap. right? ie. both are about the same size. and when you mention deleting, do you delete from within ap.?

i made the mistake of waiting so long so i don't have dupes, but i do have similar files which should be deleted. ap. looks to be a great app to sort through and decide which ones go the way of the Bond bad guys..

 

[termina3]

ok. so your library is pretty much duped within ap. right? ie. both are about the same size. and when you mention deleting, do you delete from within ap.?

No. No duplicates–Aperture is my only library. I import directly to Aperture from the camera (ok, well I run an automation script to add metadata) and then delete the camera's files.

Of course my ap. library is backed up... for a total of 3 copies.

 

[M@lew]

For the increasing file size issue, since your photos are jpegs of roughly small size (5.9mb isn't that much) it's probably the previews taking up room in your library, as Aperture creates previews of your images so you can view them offline should you move them to an external HD.

 

[Keebler]

For the increasing file size issue, since your photos are jpegs of roughly small size (5.9mb isn't that much) it's probably the previews taking up room in your library, as Aperture creates previews of your images so you can view them offline should you move them to an external HD.

hey M@lew...i'll check that out. thanks. I saw your previous post and will admit that I did check the preview issue once, but then i walked away and came back fixated on the size of the library...completing forgetting about the preview issue my bad.

another question for you.....is there a workflow to connect iphoto to aperture to use through frontrow? As i understand it, ap. won't connect directly to frontrow?

Just thought it might be neat to play with if i get the chance (after i organize everything of course

Cheers,
Keebler

 

[M@lew]

In Aperture's preferences if you set it to work with iLife products, you should be able to access and drag your Aperture library into iPhoto. This shouldn't increase the size of either library as you're just setting iPhoto to look out for the Aperture you dragged in. This should also allow the photos to be used with Front Row. Give that a try.