How to catalog with Aperture

Question

Im new to Aperture, I got it because I ws told that it was great for cataloging photos. I Im about to import my first batch. Is there any tutorials on how to import and catalog correctly. Im trying to do this correctly and not have duplicates all over the place.

Answer 1

I've been using Aperture since January and the best suggestion I can offer you is to import a couple of small batches first and experiment with the cataloguing feature. There are a number of ways in which you can organise your photographs and what works for one person may not be suitable for another.
Read the help file and find out about how Aperture organises files, specifically with respect to Folders, Projects and Albums.
Also think about how you want to apply keywords to photographs. It may seem a ball ache to begin with but developing a good keyword hierarchy will save you loads of time in the future by being able to search your photo library using targeted search terms instead of having to look though each file in turn trying to find the one your after.
Lastly, I recommend the use of ratings as well because not every shot you take will be superb, absolutely in-focus and perfect. For me ratings enable me to decide quickly which shots I think are the best out of a particular shoot and so makes it easier to find in the future.
Apparently (I say apparently because I've not bought it myself, but I've seen many recommendations for it) there's an excellent book in the Pro-Training Series for Aperture that's well worth a look, however the currently available edition is based on Aperture 1.5.6. There is a new edition targeted at Aperture 2.0 on Amazon but it's not available yet.
Overall though, the best way to learn what works for you is to experiment with the features, understand how they work and then you can develop a structure and a workflow that makes sense.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Jason