Convert Aperture file system to buckets

[kzdyb]

Does anyone know the best way to convert 7,000 images from Aperture into the bucket system.

I am using Aperture and "managing" a library but I have not been 100% happy with the software. I started playing around with lightroom and perfer it. I would like to set up all of my Pics (currently around 17,000) into buckets and reference them from Lightroom.

Thanks,
Kevin

[peterkrogh]

Kevin,
I don't think either Aperture nor Lightroom is going to help you out much in creating the buckets.
I personally do this in iView, but there are lots of other tools to help. 
Are all of your pictures i a single folder in you library?
Peter

[kzdyb]

I have the pictures in a Aperture "Managed" file system (Should have referenced them) and that is the main reason that I want to do this. I should have listened to your advise when Aperture was released by I was caught up in the excitement of it all. I now understand the advantage of setting up buckets- a painful lesson.I guess that is how you learn.

I guess my question is how to get started. I see that within Aperture I can use the relocate masters command for each project I have. At that point Aperture will place the original file (with the original name) in a folder that I specify. Should I use Aperture to rename all of my files and put them into one big folder then use iView to break them into appropriately sized buckets?
Thanks,
Kevin

[peterkrogh]

Kevin,
The first question has to do with your certainty that you want to leave the application.  If you only *might* want to leave Aperture, then it would be best to have Aperture know where everything is, in case you want to move back t the application in the future.

If you are positive that you won't want to come back (and it may be hard to know what the future will hold), then you can rearrange things without regard to how it might confuse Aperture.
Peter

[kzdyb]

I have been using Aperture since its inception and Lightroom since the beta was introduced and I now own a copy of 1.0. I like the feel of lightroom over Aperture. I think that since I have used ACR for so long it might just be more familiar to me. I like the controls in the Develop Module in Lightroom. I have now stopped using Aperture and find myself stuck because I have all my files in the Aperture file system (a "package").
   I was planning on setting up all of my files in buckets and using lightroom to reference the files from the buckets. Can someone explain to me what the MAIN reason for not fully adopting lightroom is? I am having a hard time understanding this.
Thanks,
KEvin

[johnbeardy]

Kevin

The main thing is to urge sensible caution - there's always a danger of being caught up in the excitement generated by the new kid on the block. With raw converters you can speed date but you're a bit more committed with these DAM+P programs. Moving over is more like obtaining a divorce, dividing up belongings, and setting up house with your new love. Of course, you can always flounce out the door and leave all your metadata behind.

Anyway, enough with that! You are going to need plenty of disc space. As a first step, export the masters, choosing subfolder option for year/month/day and switching on the sidecar files option. That gets your files out of the vault, and with your metadata. You will have to adopt slightly separate measures for raw files, jpeg originals, and finished versions. The jpeg issue is that Aperture exports a sidecar file, but LR expects jpeg metadata will be embedded - go via iView, Sync, then import them into LR. There are a couple of metadata export plug ins for Aperture which may help - Lightbox and Annoture. And check a couple of Aperture to LR threads at Adobe's forum.

John

[Greg Cutler]

kzdyb,

I am currently using the trial version of Aperture to see how I like it.  I would like to know what problems or little issues you have found with it. 
I am leary of jumping in as I have never set up a real database system for my pictures and want to research all the options. 

I would like to set things up right the first time and not regret it.


Peter,
I still need to read your book and will pick that up this week.  Do you still feel that iview is the best way to go on file management? 
If I don't go with Aperture, I am looking at  Photo Mechanic or Bridge (sorting) - Capture NX (Editing) - Iview (filing) as a workflow. 
 

[johnbeardy]

Greg

See if you prove that all your files are in it. By its method of completely obscuring the folder system, you may find the task a trifle difficult. Try getting it to read or write XMP style metadata - this is a program written 3-4 years after it came in. Have a try at embedding metadata in your originals - not raws, but anything else. In processing, I'd also look at high noise images and see if you can match LR, even LR1.0. And have a go at doing split toned b&w. Lastly, try setting off one large job before the current one's finished. For a sausage machine workflow program, it's odd that there's no background processing. Might slow you down a bit, don't you think?

Things that are really good are smart albums, and the loupe.

John

[Greg Cutler]

Hi john,

Thanks for the reply.  I need to do the lightroom trial as well.  The folder system and archiving in Aperture is what has me confused and concerned.  If I stuck with it I think I would reference the originals on my computer.  But if I do that, then at some point I still have to move the originals to an external storage device and correct me if I am wrong but Aperture would then no longer be able to reference those pictures, correct?

[johnbeardy]

Greg

It would be able to reference them, but would initially lose track of them. There is a "manage referenced files" feature that lets you point the library to the files' new locations.

John

[kzdyb]

John,
Thank you for the information. I just wondered why you recommend exporting into date folders instead of one folder. I just thought it would be easier to look at all the files in one folder and then break them up into "buckets". Also will Annoture help me export metadata for jpeg's or Raw files? Will I retain any of my correction that I made to my pictures? I noticed that when I am in lightroom and make an adjustment in the develop module I can then go to the bridge and see the adjustments!!

Greg,
I have been using Aperture since it was first released and overall think it is a very good program. The issues that I have experienced are using the vault. I have a "managed" library and relied on the vault to backup my work. This is the thing that I, at first, REALLY liked about the program ( I was trying to find an eisier way than outlined in the DAM book) . I wish now that I used APerture with a "referenced" library. I had to rebuild my vault three times due to an error message. I was never able to learn what caused the error message to appear and I panicked the first time in thinking I lost some of my work. This made me leary and now I no longer trust the vault as a backup method. Since then Lightroom was released and I started learning the software. I like the look and feel of lightroom over Aperture. For me, I think that the Develop module in Lightroom does a better job at correcting an image than Aperture's controls. I see better results using lightroom but that is just my opinion.

Now my challange is how I can utilize Lightroom into my DAM workflow!!!

Thank you for all the helpful input!!!!
Kevin

[johnbeardy]

Kevin

I don't believe in completely meaningless folder structures and date-based ones are as robust as any. They may result in unused space in your buckets, but that's no big deal.

You won't have any of the Aperture adjustments. They aren't included in the data exported by Aperture, and in any case wouldn't be understood by Adobe or anyone else.

John

[kzdyb]

John,
I have myself very confused at this point. I now understand how to export all of my files out of Aperture and also understand which metadata will follow the RAW files and which metadata won't. I am mostly interested in the keywording and rating metadata that I have learned will follow the image.

What I am struggling with is ......if I import this into lightroom do I use the option to copy and convert to DNG? Should I use iView to catalog all of my images? I have read about how LR's DNG will not display Full-size JPEG previews. I am not sure I fully understand the benefit from this. I am not a pro Photographer and take pictures only as a hobby. I have a personal collection of around 17,000 images that are very important to me (mostly family pictures).

Thanks,
Kevin

[peterkrogh]

Kevin,
In the courtship phase, I would suggest not yet converting to DNG unless you need to.  If you want to use Lightroom to manage everything, then it's not necessary to begin work.

No Adobe software reads the large embedded preview in DNG - it's not necessary if you are going to stay entirely in an Adobe workflow. 

If you want to use iView, then DNG conversion would be handy, since that enables iView to see the ACR corrections, and to make the annotations more transferable.

I would index your whole collection with Lightroom and play with it a bit.  I'd keep them in their native format for now, and work with them as referenced files.  Understand that there is likely to be a .1 version of Lightroom at some point, so what you see now might not be the Lightroom you are married to for the whole product cycle.


If you have file-types in your collection that Lightroom does not work with - such as movie files from a point and shoot - and you want to manage them with the photos as a whole collection, then you might want to consider a workflow that changes the proprietary Raw to DNG, and manage the whole thing with iView.

Does that help?
Peter

[kzdyb]

Peter,

Yes that gives me a sound direction for now. I only manage RAW & JPEG files....Thank you for the advise. As far as LR 1.1....I noticed on Scott Kelby's blog that he "hinted" at a sneak peak of something at his Lightroom Tour stop in Boston. One can speculate!!!

Kevin