Best Setup, iPhoto 11 & Aperture 3 and Lightroom 3

As I use all three of these apps, as well as Photoshop CS5, I've been thinking hard how I want to set up all these apps. The first obvious issue is storage. It would be insane to keep three copies of my images, so the obvious choice is to store images in subfolders of the Pictures folder in my account hierarchy. Then have all three apps reference the images from there rather than copying the images into their own library structure. Would all agree to this or is there some hidden gotcha to this?
I know iPhoto and Aperture can share info back and forth. Is there a preferred way to set up what app gets images from or to another that you all would recommend? Can one app be the 'master' and the other two be slaves?
What would be the best bet, also, for importing the images to the master. The images are already in folders and subfolders according to how I would like them to be in the master app once the import is done.
Finally, is there a way to support a dual storage system, one where my folder structure is maintained, top level folders within pictures being the project, subfolders being the events, or whatever terminology the app uses, with a second structure using top level by year, sub-levels by month and day? Both systems in use together.

Aperture, Lightroom and iPhoto, to one extent or the other, all do the same job. The best advice is to pick one horse and ride it.
All three apps want to manage the files. Yes, all three can reference the same set of files too, but none can see or work with the processing of the other. So, the Lightroom version of the photo is different that the iPhoto one is different from the Aperture one. And, none can even see the other without some form of exporting.
Best analogy I can think off: Writing your novel in Word, Pages and TextEdit - one paragraph in each. It just makes everything more complicated.
I know iPhoto and Aperture can share info back and forth.
Aperture and iPhoto are entirely different applications that work in very different ways.
The only communication between the two is as follows:
Aperture is able to parse the iPhoto Library to allow it to import the contents while stacking the Originals and Modified versions, preserving metadata and so forth.
Aperture can share its Previews with the iLife apps, including iPhoto.
That's it.
So, specifically, what interaction there is between the two is designed to facilitate migration from iPhoto to the more powerful app. After that, iPhoto has exactly the same relationship to the Aperture Library as, say, Pages or iMovie.
iPhoto has no knowledge of, and knows nothing of how the Aperture Library works. It cannot read the Aperture library.
EDIT: BTW: Lightroom has no knowledge of the other too at all. And Vice Versa.
Really, working with all three makes no sense to me. You'll be doing triple the work. It will unnecessarily complex and that's how you get data loss.
That and a dollar might get you a cup of coffee some places.
Regards
TD

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Aperture 2 and Lightroom 2

Hello everyone.
I know this question has been asked before, and I have read some previous threads about these two products. However, I was hoping to have a few things clarified for me that I was not to sure about.
I just recently started to really become involved with Digital Photograph. Purchased my first SLR (Nikon D80) and love it. I really found a hobby I enjoy.
With all the pictures I am taking and will be taking, I obviously need to find post processing software that suits my needs. Here is where Aperture 2 and Lightroom (and to a degree, CS3) come into play.
Let me ask some obvious questions first.
1.) Lightroom 2 is a organizing piece as well as editing software piece correct? lets you get into the photo, make adjustments. Pretty good editing from what I can tell.
Can it be said that LR2 and A2 do the same thing, just differently? A2 lets you organize your photos and edit them as well. They just do it differently correct? For example, A2 lets you edit in full mode.
I guess that is one of my main questions.
2.) Fundamentally, what are the main differences between L2 and A2?
Down the road, I am planning on using CS3 (or CS4) to take advantage of layers and do the really cool fun stuff. But that is down the road when I am more experienced.
I downloaded both LR2 and A2 and installed the trials and plan to use them over the next 30 days to 'test them out.'
A2 seems to 'plugin' better to the iMac, which I expected.
With LR2, from what I can see, I could use LR2 instead of iPhoto for my organizing/cataloging, and if I wanted to move photos from LR2 to iPhoto (to make books, calenders, etc. etc.), I would need to export it out of LR2 and import it into iphoto. That correct? Where as Aperture 'co-exists' easier with iPhoto?
Is there really anything that stands out and separates the two?
The other thing I need to consider is when I bring in CS3 down the road. What is the easier way to integrate everything.
Appreciate the help.
Cheers,
Jason

Hi,
I migrated to the iMac from PC around a month ago and was evaluating my photo options both before and after the migration. The difference with me is, I guess, that I haven't previously been much of a user or any version of Photoshop, so had no Adobe-centric preconceptions to colour my own evaluation of Lightroom and Aperture.
I guess I qualify as an enthusiastic amateur who finally migrated from film to digital 5 years ago, after 25 years of film. On the PC, my photo management comprised folders on the hard disk plus Picasa to provide some basic abstraction layer and album facility. Editing was very basic and relied on The Gimp if no addressed by Picaca's built-in adjustments. Then I started taking photos in RAW rather than jpeg, and it all went to custard as they say.
Picasa didn't cut it any more, RAW opened up a lot more options and my collection was becoming unmanageable. Tried ViewNX - limited manageability. Tried Lightroom 2 on the PC - wow, this is more like it. Didn't like ACDSee, iview. Migrated to Mac, and started comparing all over again.
Lightroom - given my previous try-out I was expecting Good Things, so left the start of this trial until after using Aperture for 2 weeks. Suddenly Lightroom felt clunky - very modal and constraining.
Aperture - didn't really know what to expect. Imported all of my photos as referenced and found my folder structure replicated by albums. Kind of disconcerting initially as I couldn't work out where the Masters were, nor the true behaviour of albums, projects and folders in Aperture. Then it clicked - great version control and cataloguing, non-destructive edits etc etc, logical collections of photos. It worked more like my thought processes, rather than my thought processes having to adjust to how the software worked.
For my uses, Lightroom's closer integration with Photoshop is a bit of a non-event as I don't chop up photos - just develop them. Anyhow, Photoshop Elements is there if I REALLY need it (so far not at all after a month).
I can see how previous experience with Photoshop or Lightroom would create a preference for continuing with Lightroom. For me, there's no business reason, emotional attachment or previous experience to consider, so Aperture won. Lightroom was uninstalled after 2 weeks.
Regards,
Calx
PS - I think from an interface design perspective, Aperture is an amazing piece of software, leaving aside other comparison aspects.
Message was edited by: CalxOddity

Importing masters from iPhoto to Aperture 3 and saving as referenced files on external drive

I'm making the move from iPhoto to Aperture 3.I'm new to Aperture 3 and want o make sure I am importing and saving correctly. So far, I have imported my library of events from iphoto to Aperture 3. I understand that for the most part, it makes sense to house this library on an external drive as "referenced files" vs within Apeture as "managed files." I'm not clear on exactly how to accomplish this set-up. Is this something I should have set-up when doing the initial import or can I move the files now? Once this is done, when importing new files, how do I import to Aperture 3 but save on external drive?
Thanks in advance for your help!

A fabulous answer:
In the olden days ( ) when hobbyists made their own telescopes from kits, everyone wanted a six-inch lens, and the kit makers shipped six-inch lens blanks. Which the hobbyists used to learn lens grinding. Which is arduous and requires skill. Which the hobbyists didn't have until they'd ground that six-inch blank -- an expensive piece of high-quality material at the time -- into a lumpen flawed approximation of a good lens. Then the hobbyists would contact the kit makers and ask for another lens-blank, so they could build their telescope. At which point they would drop the project because the six-inch lens blank cost so much. And much calumny was rained on the kit manufacturers.
Now the kit manufacturers wanted to promote a hobby, and make, in addition to telescope kits, money (not calumny), so they together and separately hit upon the idea of supplying the hobbyist with _two_ lens blanks: a four-inch blank, and a six inch blank. Nobody wanted a four-inch telescope -- but that's not what the blank was for. The instructions read (I've shortened this part) "Grind the four-inch blank into the most perfect lens you can. Check it and re-check it. Now throw it out. You likely now have the skill to grind the six-inch blank into a useable lens."
Thus endeth our fable.
The point, of course, is: start small and gain skill before committing time and material to a task. Port just a small sub-set of you photos into Aperture. Experiment with it. Try different workflows. Think about how to best use the containers and organization tools Aperture provides. Develop a long-term naming convention for files and Projects. Work out a back-up strategy that is scalable and that you will stick with. My specific recommendation for beginners is: don't worry about Referenced v. Managed at first. Make all your Masters Managed. When you have your four-inch Aperture Library all smooth and even, put the entire thing in the system trash -- and then you can start working on an Aperture Library fit for your photos -- one that will allow you to see far, and clear, for years.
Good luck.

Migrating iPhoto to Aperture 3 and the case of missing photos

I love the new Aperture 3 and am so excited to migrate from iPhoto. I have used the Aperture feature of importing an entire iPhoto library directly into a new Aperture library. This doesn't produce any errors (except for a handful of missing photos which aren't too important), but when I look at the resultant Aperture library (8 hours later), I am missing a LOT of photos. My iPhoto library has about 24,000 photos and my Aperture library only has about 16,000. Because of the differences in the way Aperture and iPhoto keep track of edits, my Aperture library should have considerably more photos than iPhoto and not less. Please help!

In new iLife 09 (or iPhoto 09), some pics are now black in the Event, simply an outline of dotted lines. Yet, when I cursor fast, they appear, so I know there are still there.
That doesn't mean that they are "still there". It means that a cached version of the image exists.
I recall, when migrating photos it noted that the photos in iPhoto (old system) needed to be formatted to new iPhoto, so I allowed. Makes me wonder if something in a pic title or such is the issue.
That's a standard procedure when you upgraded to the later version of iPhoto. Happens every time to up a version, and to everyone.
With regard to Portrait. When I import from iPhoto to Aperture, any Portrait picture has a 2nd verson next to it, but in the Horizontal. All Horizontal pics, there is only the one version of the pic.
Your camera has an Auto-Rotate feature. However, the camera does not actually rotate any pixels in the file, but instead flags it with an instruction: "Display me this way". iPhoto, seeing the flag, reads the intention and creates a modified version. Hence the second version of the Portrait pics and no second version of the Landscape ones. The landscape ones don't have an auto-rotate tag.
For the dotted line problem, try rebuild your iPhoto Library: Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild.
Regards
TD

Hi does anybody know how to perform roundtripping between aperture 3 and lightroom 3? i can set up aperture to send the file to lightroom BUT i cannot get lightroom to send it back with the just the adjustment (it sends the image as a separate file)

basically, i find the sharpening tool in aperture extreamly slow and would like to use lightroom, just for sharpening. I then would like to send the image back to aperture as just an adjustment on the original file and not a whole new replica file as the original. can any body give a easy solution? cheers

What you want to do can't be done. There is no low-friction way to combine image adjustments from Aperture and Lightroom. There is no way at all to combine them without creating new files.
This was recently discussed in this thread.
Are you using the Edge Sharpening adjustment? In Aperture 3, it superceded the old Sharpening adjustment, which remains included for backwards compatibility.

What is the best book to learn Photoshop CC and Lightroom? I'm a beginner and like a hard copy.

Just got Photoshop CC and Lightroom and want to learn to use it properly. Was thinking a manual would be the best way. There are so many available, what are your favorites?

Manuals tend to be dry and heavy going, and more suited to used as a references, rather than to be read in a linear fashion. If you do want to go that way, the Missing Manual, and Bible series have been around for a long time, and I imagine they must contain heaps of info if the size of them is anything to go by.
The Scott Kelby books are a good choice for beginners, because he tries to introduce humour onto every page, which makes them easy to keep reading.
A good half way between the two choice are the Adobe Classroom in a Book series, which are laid out in a home learning fashion.
My best advice is to use Amazon, and read the Customer Reviews, so long as there are at least a dozen or so to give you good sample rate.
Amazon.com: photoshop cc: Books
Amazon.com: lightroom 5: Books

What is the best setup to encode h264 (1080p) and to avoid stuttering, dropped frames?

Hello,
What is the best setup with AME to encode h264 (1080p) and to avoid stuttering, dropped frames using a classic video player .I am looking to have the smoothest experience (in fast horizontal motion for ex!).It also can be another format (intra codec’s etc...)it doesn’t matter as long as readable by most players. Anyone’s to tell his favorites presets for that?
thanks

I should have included the following:
1.) Why can't I make a silent project in GarageBand? I have to instead find a project with a long enough song, make an "iLife preview" of it (see (2) below), copy it from the iMovie Music and Sound Effects browser to the end of the movie, and then open the audio panel and turn the volume to zero. And all this so that video websites don't get confused by a soundtrack that starts in mid-movie.
2.) Why do I have to "render" them by the following process: Double-click a song in the iMovie Music and Sound Effects browser. You get a dialog box saying "The project "The Great Race" cannot be used because it was not prepared with an iLife preview. Would you like to open "The Great Race" in GB so you can save it with an iLife preview?" What I don't understand is why this new thing was introduced and why I have to do it via iMovie.

The best way to migrate image library and Lightroom settings form PC to Mac?

I want to migrate my image library and Lightroom Catalogs and settings over to my new Mac Pro. My images are currently on a separate external drive, whilst my Lightroom Catalogs and settings are on my old PC.
My intention is to situate my entire image library on it's own dedicated drive, which is one of the four separate drives on the Mac (in this instance, drive 4). I have also installed Lightroom 3 onto drive 1 (the same drive as the OS and all other applications, including CS5). I bought this as an upgrade to LR2, which is on my PC.
My questions are:
(a) How do I transfer my LR2 Catalogs and settings housed on my PC, over to LR3 on the Mac?
(b) Once the library has been moved, what do I need to do to get Lightroom to find them?

(a) How do I transfer my LR2 Catalogs and settings housed on my PC, over to LR3 on the Mac?
Simply copy them. When you launch the LR2 catalog in LR3 you will be prompted to convert it to a version 3 catalog. This will create a duplicate. Once you are satisfied all is well you can delete the version 2 catalog.
(b) Once the library has been moved, what do I need to do to get Lightroom to find them?
Control click on the topmost folder and direct lightroom to the current location of the folder on the external drive. All images in subfolders should sync nicely.

Best setup for external hard drive and iMac?

Just purchased a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB external HD for my Mac OSX 10.5.8. Would like to use it to backup all my pics/writing (I am a writer/photog), videos, and music - about 400 gigs worth at present. As an analog person, I am confused as to how best I should format the drive:
option 1 being to use drive with Time Machine (just now heard of it),
option 2 to use drive for storage and backup (what's the diff) using Memeo software,
option 3 to use for storage by reformatting with Disc Utilities.
This, no doubt, is easy language for most of you, but Japanese to me, a Nuyorican.
Again, I mainly would like to have backups for what's on my iMac, in case that dreaded day comes and it goes kaput. What would be the best option for me to simply transfer everything, unplug it and put it in a safe place? And if and when I do that, could I, two years, months, weeks later, plug it back in and add what pics or whatever I've accrued to it and replace it in that safe place once again? Looking for what is most practical for the safe keeping of my precious files.
Hope my old tactile-inclined *** is making sense.
Appreciate any and all assistance here. Thanks in advance.

I have to agree with JG, I'd strongly recommend using Time Machine as your primary backup. BTW there is a forum specifically for TM that has a FAQ section and if you need it (most never do) a troubleshooting section. You can find that forum at:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227
Many people like myself believe in redundant backups, in other words 2 is better than one. If you decide to go that route you will need a second external HD and then use software like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. What these applications do is create bootable clones, so if your iMac's internal HD dies you have a bootable clone that you can use to run your machine until the internal HD is replaced. Dual backups are also good if one backup's HD dies.
Below are links to 3 articles I found in MacWorld magazine, what they are is backup strategies of 3 individuals to give you some ideas so you can figure out what is best for your needs.
Operating any computer without a backup plan is a recipe for disaster. Many people put their digital life on their computer (photographs, music, movies etc..) without a backup and then cry and moan when their computer dies. These days there is no reason one shouldn't be backing up their computer.
http://www.macworld.com/article/157414/2011/02/mybackupplanlex.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/156643/2011/01/howi_back_up_frakes.html?lsrc=top1
http://www.macworld.com/article/141363/2009/07/backup.html
Roger

Aperture 3 and Capture NX 2

I'm evaluating both trial versions of Aperture 3 and Nikon's Capture NX 2. I shoot with a Nikon D90, and I'm trying to develop a consistent workflow which might use the best features of both Aperture 3 and Capture NX 2. I also tend to shoot a lot of RAW pictures which are stored as NEF files. While my trial version of Capture NX 2 can display pictures in my iPhoto library, in it's browser, the program doesn't see the Aperture Library and therefore doesn't display any of the pictures in the Aperture Library. Has anyone else seen this? I'm still trying to decide the best workflow and would be interested if others have successfully integrated Aperture 3 and Capture NX 2 into their workflows.
Thanks!

That's exactly what you would expect to see when you try open the Aperture Library with Capture EX 2.
(BTW you know this is the iPhoto 08 forum, right?)
Aperture is a database. If you want to process Raws with NX then you'll need to either process them before importing to Aperture or use an app like Catapult ( http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31765/catapult/) to use it in association with Aperture.
Regards
TD

Best setup for iMac with SSD & HDD? Best location of scratch & home folders

Best setup for iMac with SSD and HDD? Best location of scratch & home folders?
Computer:
iMac 2.93 GHz Quad core i7, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SSD
There is not much info from Apple about the best way to set up an iMac with a Hard Drive and Solid state drive. I’ve looked at a few of the forum posts across the web and came up with a plan and lots of questions. (I do use photoshop frequently, but not on a professional level):
1. I will keep OS and Applications on SSD
2. About moving the home folder: I saw some posts about moving the whole home folder, but it makes more sense to me to only move selected fodlers withing the home folder tomake the best use of the SSD. So will keep the home folder on SSD, but move certain folders (document /music/iphoto/download) to 1 TB HDD via instructions I found on the macintoshperformanceguide website:
cd
sudo cp -r Documents /Volumes/Master
sudo rm -rf Documents
sudo ln -s /Volumes/Master/Documents Documents
3. I would like to get 8 more RAM when I can afford it
4. I will attach an external hard drive for most of my documents and backup storage
5. Now here is where I’m not sure what’s best:
a. Should I partition my internal 1 TB hard drive and use the first partition as a scratch disc for photoshop and other applications? How much should I partition? Is there any benefit to this if the rive is partitioned?
b. Should I use an external drive as a scratch disc?
c. Any advice on a good 1-2 TB external drive?
d. Should I just leave things in factory settings?
Don't assume I know the basics - I got all the above just by searching around. Any advice and commentary is appreciatedThanks.
Message was edited by: sfandtheworld

Thanks for the advice and the links. yes, I would like to speed up ps as much as possible.
I wonder if putting the scratch disc on the same drive as the OS would cause them to interfere with each other? Even if they are on different partitions, they would not be able to be accessed at the same time, or could they? That's why I was wondering if I should place scratch disc on the internal HDD -- but then I don't know how much to partition for it (or to partition at all?)
ALso, I read on a few places that too much read/write on the SSD wears it down over time? Is this more of a theoretical concerns - it does not make sense to me since it has no moving parts!
thanks again for the advice ... I'm gonna go digest those links

Aperture/iPhoto - Use Unified Library or import iPhoto into Aperture?

So as it is June 30th, I've been forced into upgrading to Lion. Now I know I can take advantage of the Aperture/iPhoto unified library structure.
But should I?
I am new to Aperture and use it for photos starting in January 2012 going forward. I have already upgraded to Aperture 3.3. I am still currently running iPhoto 8.1.2 for photos from 2011 and earlier. My plan was to eventually import my iPhoto library into Aperture. Now it appears I don't have to.
So I'm standing at a crossroads and I'd like feedback. I have read some of the discussions where folks are having issues with migration with both avenues so I'd like to know which one makes more sense.
Should I upgrade to iPhoto 9.3? Should I keep each library separate? Should I merge? Should I import iPhoto into Aperture still and have one library going forward?
Looking for folks with some experience to give me guidance!
Thanks in advance!
Chrystal in TX

Merge them. When you upgrade to iPhoto 9.3 and Aperture 3.3 the programs use the same library format... you can open it in either one.
Note people rarely post feedback about something if it's working for them, so results will always be skewed toward the negative online. Still, it makes sense to have a backup before upgrading, as a general best practice.

Which iMac for use with Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom

Any opinions on which iMac is best for use with Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom. Not sure if the 2.7 i5 with 512 graphics card is Plenty of power or if upgrading to the 3.1 i5 or 3.4 i7 is a wiser choice given the price differences. Appreciate the help

So I was reading over your post, and even though this is older and has to do with CS5, I have some information for CS6 that will be relevant to your question now that it is time to upgade the software. In general Photoshop has always been more about RAM than Processing power, though that is important too. Until CS5 it could never quite take advantage of what multi-core processors really had to offer, and even the graphics card didn't really effect much of it outside of certain features and the 3D optio
Now that is no longer true and Adobe can effeciently use all aspects of the computer to give you much better performance.
So much so that I was able to buy a brand New ASUS with the following specs:
Dual Core 2.2GHz Processors
8GB of RAM (4GB original to the machine)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit OS
320GB HDD w/ 5400RPM
This machine not only runs photoshop CS6 and Launches in less than 5 Seconds... it can run Premier and After Effects as well, and this Laptop cost me less than $400 (on sale at Best Buy 2 Weeks Ago. You don't have to buy something this cheap, but isn't it great that you can and still run Master Collection effectively?
You can read my details on how to buy a Photoshop CS6 Laptop, what specs you need, comparison between Mac and PC and watch the video of my Photoshop Speed Test by reading this article:
http://robertoblake.com/blog/2012/06/buying-a-photoshop-cs6-laptop

Help to make iPhoto mirror Aperture

I have not used iPhoto recently but after updating Aperture to 3.3 I now would like to use iPhoto again but would like it to mirror Aperture with the same albums, smart albums, etc. Now when I open iPhoto the library is there but no albums. Can iPhoto do this automatically and update automatically from aperture. I'd rather not set up the albums and maintain them manually.

There are some limitations on using the unified Aperture / iPhoto Library:
Aperture books and webpages will not be visible in iPhoto; and images that you have hidden in iPhoto cannot be made visible in Aperture.
Have a look at this KB article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5043, i.e. the last section: Notes on working with unified libraries in iPhoto and Aperture
Regards
Léonie

Import iphoto to Aperture 2

If I use the import iphoto feature and choose Store in Aperture Library will the import move my photos from the iphoto library to the Aperture Library or does it copy the files leaving with 2 versions of each picture.
I don't want to 2 copies so I can save disk space.
Thanks

I imported Iphoto into aperture 2 and now have 2 copies. How can I move masters into aperture library so I only have a referenced file in I Photo and thus save much space?

Best Setup, iPhoto 11 & Aperture 3 and Lightroom 3

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