LIBRARY MERGING TO EXTERNAL HDD

Question

Hi
I have an iPhoto library of some 340 GB on a MacBook Pro 500 GB.  I use iPhotos as when I first got the Mac I knew nothing about the apps and this was default.  I have it backed up well.  I recently purchgased aperture app.  I want to move the library from iPhotos to Aperture and onto an external HDD not on my MBP.  The photos are show RAW and I need to keep them in TIF.  I have had help on importing them from the card but I now need to sort out my historic mess!
Can anyone tell me how to do this, please in absolutly basic steps!
Many thanks
Jules

Answer 1

Hi Jules --
julesnewtoMac wrote:
From what you say it doesn't matter about the library as it is the same files in Iphoto and Aperture, just what I can do to them changes?
Yes.  Details regarding the differences are at the following two links.  It is worth reading through them, particularly before you go any further:
Using a unified photo library with iPhoto and Aperture
How to use Aperture to merge iPhoto libraries
julesnewtoMac wrote:
I use Adobe CS 5 to edit still. 
Many do (myself included) but you will find that you can do _a lot_ of what you currently do in PSCS5 in Aperture, with many important benefits -- primary among them Aperture's non-destructive workflow, and its enormously more efficient storage (more on that in a minute).  In Aperture, you will want to set you External Editor to PSCS5.  When you want to edit an Image that is in Aperture in PS, you select "Edit with Photoshop" and Aperture will create a duplicate of the currently selected Version and open it in PS.  After you are finished, close the file in PS, and your changes will show for the Image in Aperture.
If you are unfamiliar with Aperture's terms, you should carefully read the first seven chapters of the User Manual -- they provide a guide to the interface elements, and a sturdy foundation on which to rest your picture collection.  Here is a concise guide I wrote.
julesnewtoMac wrote:
My end state is to have my photo files in tiff on the most robust storage possible (on a minimum of two external HDDs) with my MBP free for the next shoots!
And here is where you come to the first and perhaps highest of the conceptual hurdles you must clear to take advantage of the novel but excellent system around which Aperture is designed.  Using Aperture entails making a shift -- continental, if not tectonic, imho -- from conceiving of the task of software as being file-management to being image-management.  The importance cannot be overstated.  I touch on it in my concise guide.  Here I'll mention just two things I think you'll find helpful:
- In Aperture, your Image is not a file.  It is created on-the-fly from two files: the digital camera file you imported (once imported, called an Original in Aperture-speak), and a text file of instructions detailing changes to make to your Image (Adjustments in Aperture-speak) and changes to the Image's metadata.  When you close Aperture, your Images do not exist.
- Aperture is then best thought of as storing your original digital camera files, and information on how to make new, share-able, image-format files when you need them.  You don't make them until you need them, and you don't store them in Aperture.  You can always make them again.  When you need a TIFF for sending for printing, you make it and send it on.  There is no reason to save this file anywhere on your system.