Digilux 2 sharpening

[wparsonsgisnet]

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My (blond) dauthter-in-law tells this story:

 

A blonde was standing on the sidewalk and she heard another blonde colling to her from the other side of the street:

 

"How do I get to the other side of the street?"

 

The first blonds, thought for a minute and responded, "You are on the other side of the street."

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[Overgaard]

John,

 

I've started playing around with Aperture "John Style" ;-)

 

Now, the 10,000$ question is, how do you manage disk space? With iView Media Pro (Microsoft Expression) I can keep track of photo files in many disk drives at the same time.

 

When you import new files into Aperture, then how do you manage where it's put when you start adding new and more disks?

[John Thawley]

John,

 

I've started playing around with Aperture "John Style" ;-)

 

Now, the 10,000$ question is, how do you manage disk space? With iView Media Pro (Microsoft Expression) I can keep track of photo files in many disk drives at the same time.

 

When you import new files into Aperture, then how do you manage where it's put when you start adding new and more disks?

 

Ha... not a problem. I run 6 TB or external drives and carry a 1TB mobile drive... all Lacie Firewire 800.

 

Start by understanding the hierarchy of Aperture Libraries.. and note, you can have more than one Library. Within a Library reside your Projects, then Albums under Projects. Of course, Albums are simply iTunes-like Playlists... just links to the images within a project.

 

Where some people over look a step is that you can create Folders ABOVE Projects. Keep that in mind for a moment.

 

So.. Multiple Libraries is where you can organize and manage your "archives" in a fashion that makes sense to you. Then, you can put those Libraries on specific drives.

 

For instance, I will have a full year of Motorsports images in its own library. Remember, it's not a good idea to let Libraries too big.. not from a safety standpoint OR a performance standpoint/. So, I have a 2006 Motorsports Library and a 2007 Motorsports Library residing on one disk. Figure each Library is about 250GB. Of course, I will also "mirror" that drive for backup.

 

Of course, I have my 2008 Motorsports Library. During the year, that is mirrored in two places ... on an external drive on my desk and on the Mobile drive that travels with me. After each race, I will copy the latest Project over to the Library that's on the external desktop drive. This allows me to safely have the whole year's Motorsports Library with me in hi-res, not matter where I am.

 

Back to the Projects under Folders. On another drive at home, I have a 2008 Miscellaneous Library... mostly family and personal events. WIthin that Library, I have Folders that contain related Projects. So, there is a Folder called Marlon (my son). Any outing or event that involves him becomes a Project UNDER the Marlon Folder.

 

The reason I do that is because Aperture provides a feature called Smart Albums. So, under Marlon's Folder, I have a Smart Album called Marlon's Book. Every year I create a Year Book and have it printed and sent to all his relatives and a copy for us. Nice way to organize and record is growing up. So, each time I upload Marlon images to a new project, I give a 5 star rating to the handful I like, apply the keyword "Mallon's Book" and those images automatically, are represented in the Smart Album called Marlon's Book. Come November when I put the book together, I don't have to look through 1000's of photos. I know the best 200-300 are in the Smart Album.

 

So, short answer after that long response, is you have multiple Libraries on multiple drives (or even on one drive) that have some "logic" to how you want to access your images. Mine's chronological.. which is critical to me. Other's may choose to do it by subject or some other type of categorization.

 

Here's the final "trick." Aperture ALWAYS launches with the last Library that was open. So, what I have done is created a Folder on my task bar and added shortcuts to each of my Aperture Libraries. So, I can quickly open any Library simply by using the Library (shortcut) I want to launch Aperture.

 

Was that helpful?

 

JT

[John Thawley]

Just a quick follow-up... and to be clear, you can use Aperture exactly has you did with iView Media by running in Referenced Library mode. This is where the images reside in folders you put them in upon import.... and Aperture maintains a symbolic link to those images. Where you get in trouble though is if you don't do all your file maintenance within Aperture. I've seen guys all of a sudden decide they want to rename some files or move them to another drive... and lo and behold, they open up finder and start dragging and dropping.... 10 minutes later, they open Aperture and start calling me... "hey, Aperture lost my files. I've got thumbnails, but it say's the images can't be found... blah, blah blah."

 

So Referenced Libraries is an option... but I feel it doesn't harness the real power or Aperture's management abilities... and leaves room for human (that would be us) error.

 

JT

[Overgaard]

Makes perfectly sense. Then again, you come from iView Media Pro as I do ;-)

 

Okay, I'll have to start playing around with this to see how it works. Some files for wire service goes via PS Actions before they are FTP'ed.

 

But what I think I like is the idea - was it you who introduced that somewhere? - that one finish individual or small portions of pictures at the time, as one go by, instead of doing full batches.

 

That might be what may give me back the enthusiasm for handling files. An enthusiasm which I by the way never had. But the main reason for handling full batches one at a time is exactly the archiving and keeping track of what's where.

 

Here's a view into my archive. I know you will know exactly how it goes when you see it. The storage is simply one disk after another filling up on a FireWire string, from 120GB LaCie back when to 1 TB raid currently. Backup on 500GB LaCie USB-units stored in another building.

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[John Thawley]

Some files for wire service goes via PS Actions before they are FTP'ed.

 

Tell me about the PS Action. Exactly what is the action doing to/with these files? Perhaps it can be replicated or duplicated in Aperture on export.

 

Is it (the Action) running Photoshop adjustements? Like contrast, unsharp mask or levels? Or is it simply a sizing issue?

 

JT