Apple Aperture 3 Work Flow

[jfindley]

I am a user of apple aperture. I have a 13" macbook pro with a 250 gb hard drive. I'm getting to the point where I am filling my hard drive and have to move my master files about every 4 months to an external hard drive. I've been using a network hard drive in my house to move them to. It's not the most ideal way to do things, and I'm not doing very good at backing things up. I just upgraded from a XSI to a 6D. My files are growing exponentially now. I shoot in raw so I already have huge files. Does anyone else use Aperture on a macbook pro? I was curious what your work flow is.

[neuroanatomist]

I use Aperture, but not exclusively - I prefer DxO for RAW conversions. After conversion, I import the RAW files into Aperture as referenced files in one library (stored in year/month folders) and the jpgs directly into the Aperture library. The RAWs are backed up on multiple external drives.

I'm not yet at the point where I need to save space - the 500 GB drive helps there. But when I do, I'll just delete a year at a time of the RAWs from the internal HDD.

[HDNitehawk]

No clue on Aperture, never even tried it. Amazing since my whole system at home is Apple.

External hard drives are fairly cheap now. 2-3 tb can be had well under $200. I think this is the easiest solution for you just starting.

My system is a bit more elaborate because I have a Mac Pro with four hard drives. I use Apples Airport Extreme for wifi, it syncs the apple tv, my Iphone, the wife's macbook pro and two other computers. I have a 2tb hard drive that they all share off of Airport. I have all my Raw files on the network hard drive so I can access them any where in the house. I also have them duplicated on the Mac Pro's hard drives. I have a few external hard drives I bought. Occasionally I will back all the new files up to them then store them somewhere else just for safety.

[jfindley]

What size hard drive do you keep in your MacBook Pro?

[HDNitehawk]

Mac Pro, has 4 hard drives 1tb each, I have been thinking of upgrading them to 2tb. They have gotten less expensive lately. With the Mac Pro I really don't need externals, changing a hard drive is very simple just pull out and insert a new.
Wifes MacBook Pro has a small one, I think 250gb.

[ahab1372]

So far everything still fits on my MacBook Pro (500GB hard drive). I delete a lot of shots I take and haven't been out to shoot much recently.
I have a synology NAS with 3TB (2x 3 TB Raid 1) for backup only with TimeMachine and occasional rsync backups just in case TimeMachine blows up.
Once my library grows, I might add additional storage, either a second NAS or external drive and move the master files in Aperture.

[ahab1372]

One more thing about Apple Aperture: There is a setting in the preferences for the size of the previews that Aperture creates for each file. This is used for quick viewing. It defaults to half the size of the original I believe, which is more than the resolution of most monitors (for most DSLRs). If you change that to your monitor resolution and re-create the previews, you might be able to regain some disk space.

[Keith B]

I recently bought Lightroom 4 because the RAW engine in it is so much better than Aperture 3. I hope Apple will release a 4.0 version with a proper RAW converter. I love everything about Aperture but the RAW converter. Work flow, tools, interface, the ability to paint in or "localized" adjustments on color adjustments, are just so much better than LR. Besides the RAW conversion, the only other thing I like about LR over Aperture, is the orange channel in the color adjustment. But, with better color localized adjustments in In Aperture I don't really need an orange channel.

I know it's a little off topic, but this thread made me want to vent.

[jfindley]

No worries on venting Keith. Since I'm learning still about raw conversion, what does LR do better than Aperture? Can you process raw with LR and then move them directly to Aperture?

At the moment I'm frustrated that Apple hasn't released raw compatability for the new canon 6D. I had a weekend of playing with the new rig, and I can't get them imported directly to Aperture. I have to go to DPP.

[Keith B]

No worries on venting Keith. Since I'm learning still about raw conversion, what does LR do better than Aperture? Can you process raw with LR and then move them directly to Aperture?

I'm pretty sure even if you reprocess the RAW Aperture will still do it's mutilation upon import and besides that I can't increase the time on my workflow. I'm full-timer and just can't have the bottle neck.

My observation is, Apple has sold the pros out and are catering to consumers so they have turned Aperture into iPhoto Pro/Plus. Therefore they have made Aperture do a lot of "destructive" stuff upon import so that they look more contrasty and poppy. The worst part is, Aperture hates hot spots and tries to fill them in with surrounding colors. Granted it is only destructive inside Aperture but...Some of the issues I'm having can be undone but it is quite time consuming and it never really looks quite right.