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Author Topic: Aperture & iPhoto workflow  (Read 12977 times)

Mosccol

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Aperture & iPhoto workflow
« on: November 10, 2006, 11:29:28 am »

Hello

I am an amateur shooting 50-100 pics/week currently using jpg only as my Canon's AWB is actually pretty good. At present I dump everything into iPhoto; when a picture needs reworking I bring it into Photoshop and when I am completely happy I export back to high quality jpg. This means that there is only one 'return trip' between original and saved picture.

I have downloaded the Aperture tryout but before I invest several dozen hours in learning a new app, I would like to understand how I can integrate Aperture and iPhoto together.

I know that version 1.5 makes a lot about its compatibility with iLife, but I need to know what is the best workflow for an Aperture/iPhoto combo. Has anybody ditched  iPhoto completely, or is there a way to work with both? Also, if there is a Photoshop intervention (i.e. remove blemishes or dust), where would that fit in the workflow?

Thanks! I'm sure I'm not the only one with these existentialist questions...
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Tom Dibble

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Aperture & iPhoto workflow
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2006, 12:36:29 am »

Quote
I know that version 1.5 makes a lot about its compatibility with iLife, but I need to know what is the best workflow for an Aperture/iPhoto combo. Has anybody ditched  iPhoto completely, or is there a way to work with both? Also, if there is a Photoshop intervention (i.e. remove blemishes or dust), where would that fit in the workflow?

Thanks! I'm sure I'm not the only one with these existentialist questions...
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My workflow goes like this:

I shoot raw (Canon 300D).

Once "home", I plug my CF card into the reader, which brings up Aperture.  I copy all the photos over into Aperture in a new project (which seems heavy-weight; some day I'll look into a lighter-weight way to do that).

First pass in Aperture I reject at least 75% of the shots for focus or missed subject reasons, and mark up any obvious winners.

Second pass I do all color correction, cropping, red-eye, etc.

Once I'm reasonably happy with everything, I take the keepers (25% kept in first pass minus any I decided I couldn't work with in the second pass) and drag into iPhoto.  Dragging into iPhoto does a JPEG export of the latest version of each.

Before quitting out of Aperture, I select the rejects and delete them.  Yes, I know, it hurts.  But, still, I'd rather keep my permanent collection slimmer.

In iPhoto, I then re-rate the newly imported photos (NOTHING copies over from metadata from Aperture!), apply keywords (who is in the picture, which sport, holiday, etc), and organize.

iPhoto is my display library.  It's got some nice slideshow options, some really nice sharing options, and it integrates well with the rest of the system.

Granted, Aperture integrates better with the rest of iLife now, but still, not very well.  Instead, Aperture is my library of record.  If I notice a flaw in the picture a few days later, or want to bring out the shadows a little more, or make a wholly new take on it, whatever:  I go right into Aperture to do it.

A word about Aperture and iLife:  it's still nowhere near integrated.  If they could get iPhoto to read directly from Aperture, not as an import process but as another source for iPhoto, I'd be in paradise.  Even if they could just get the Aperture->iPhoto import process to preserve keywords, ratings, comments, etc ...  hell, I'd love that too!

But, today, for all the hype, the Aperture-iLife "integration" is hardly anything to write home about.  IMHO.
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Mosccol

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Aperture & iPhoto workflow
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2006, 04:48:45 am »

Thanks Tom

This sounds like a very sensible workflow, although of course you end up with about 4x storage space compared to the normal jpg. My curretn iPhoto is about 3 Gigs, so that would be 12 equivalent... Do you store your Aperture projects on DVD?

What happens if you do any real photoshop correction?

Regarding iLife, we all expect version 07 just before or at the same time as os 10.5 i.e. Jan-March I assume it will also depend on launch dates for Vista...  
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rimi

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Aperture & iPhoto workflow
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2007, 10:58:59 pm »

Hello Guys,

I hope you do still follow this forum. Well, the workflow presented is pretty good and I am, myself, trying to do something similar for a long time. iPhoto has much better presentation capabilities (including incorporation with frontrow) and capacity of making calendars (not present in Aperture).

However the workflow presented has one problem that is the bad management of pictures that both programs do.

Well, iPhoto, uses photo duplication to keep your original untouched in case you want to go back so even if you just rotate your portrait pictures (so that they look as a portrait after imported) i Photo duplicates everything increasing the size of your library.

However, if you are importing from Aperture that should not happen because you are already creating JPEG versions of whatever kind of files you had in Aperture (would they be RAW, TIFF or JPEG).

OK, you library will increase size again but interestingly enough not as much as if you are editing pictures inside iPhoto. So why's that?

Well, that's related with the way aperture handles photos. When you import a photo to aperture, the program will copy the original that contain all the info and will create a JPEG version of each photo called preview. That JPEG version must be a very compressed file because they only have 200 Kb (a normal 4MgPixel pictures in JPEG is around 900Kb). Aperture uses that file to quickly show to you a picture in the screen (because when you work with RAW files (around 20Mb each) you will need a lot of bandwith on you equipment to see it in a blink of an eye, so again Aperture uses the lower quality but also small JPEG it has previously created). When you first create a library of pics with aperture, if you just import RAW files you won't feel a big difference in the usage of you hard drive space (because 200Kb for every 20Mb are like nothing) but you will see the difference if you make a library just with JPEGs.

Anyway, when you go back to iphoto and use the command "File > show Aperture Library" and you import some pictures into iPhoto you will only import those small previews files. While they look fine in a small computer screen they won't look as great if you display them in a big TV type screen (were color compression of the pictures will make a big difference). And PLEASE, never delete your originals in Aperture (as they always have better quality).

Alternatively, you can go to aperture and use the "File>export" command to first export your pics. Unfortunately this won't export your files either. Doing this way, Aperture will add the original and preview file in one file adding those 200K into your original file. I am not sure if this happens in a RAW file but even if it does, again, 200K in 20Mb are invisible, but in your JPEGs it will create a problem because your library will now be much bigger in size then when you imported it.

Let's say (u can try it out): You import a 600Kb JPEG and Aperture will copy that original plus a 200K preview (of the same resolution - this is the tricky part). When you export the project containing that pictures you picture will now be 800Kb. (I had pics that we 600-800 KB and now more than 1Mb).

I don't know if that improves anything in the picture such as speed of visualization in new programs but for me works like a bug as they never tell you that.

Well, Hopefully helps you (maybe getting more confused or frustrated)

If you know anything else let me know,
Ricardo
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