Suggestion for a Workflow on file storage for Aperture

I just got my first Mac a few weeks ago. I am just getting my feet wet on using Aperture 3

I just want to know if I am on the right track when it comes to organizing my files.

I have both PC and Mac and probably won't stray away from the PC anytime soon. I use LR on my PC for the past few years therefore I've already collected a large catalog.

Most of my photos are saved on a single RAID 5 unit. Now that I have the Mac, I bought a 2TB external drive to isolate my photos from the internal HDD. The intention would be that, whenever I transfer photos from the CF card. It will be done on my PC first since the PC has the CF card reader. Once it's copied to the RAID unit, I will make a duplicate copy on the Mac external drive. But since both storage units are still in the same physical location. I'm contemplating on having a third HDD that will be the off premise backup (3rd copy). With this configuration, I will have 3-way backup.

The RAID unit is eSATA so I don't think there is a way I can use this drive for Aperture use. This is another reason why I went with the 2TB external drive for the Mac.

I'm still trying to search if I can export my LR catalog to Aperture. If not then I will only add the current photos to the library and leave the old ones on LR.

In summary:
- take photos.
- Files on CF card transferred to PC.
- Files (PC) duplicated to Mac external drive.
- Files copied to 3rd drive for off-site storage.
- From Mac external drive import to Aperture library.
- Aperture library file resides on Mac internal drive.

*** Please note that this arrangement is short term. Eventually I will decide which platform to use permanently.

Is your Mac an iMac, Macbook, Mac Pro? With a Macbook Pro you have an Express Card slot that you can put a eSATA adapter in to connect your RAID to, but since you already got the 2TB drive, you can go with that for now. Aperture is very similar to LR, but workflow sounds fine, but one part. "-Files (PC) duplicated to Mac external drive." The CF card reader should be compatible for both PC and Mac unless you are planning on editing the pix on LR and then transferring them to the Mac.

If you are copying same unedited pix to your Mac external drive, just use the CF reader. LR and Aperture don't really work well together, so I'm pretty sure you will not be able to transfer catalogs to Aperture. I have both on the same machine and sometimes I can get images copied from one to the other, but since using both programs I just stick with LR3 for now. I will work with Aperture occasionally.

Was there a reason you did not want to use LR on your Mac? Aperture is nice, but I find LR more user friendly and Mac is pretty good about being user friendly, but Aperture is sometimes a little confusing with all of its tabs and drop down menus.

Whoof, that sounds like a complicated method!

• What kind of Mac did you get? I have an eSATA card in my late-2008 MBP, but about a year later that became pretty much impossible with anything but a Mac Pro. But if you got a model with Thunderbolt, once hard drives and enclosures that use it start coming out you'll be all set.

• In the long run it's going to be dictated by your eventual backup method. If you want to use Aperture's "Vault" feature then you'll want your master files stored in the library itself (meaning keeping the library and masters on separate drives won't work.) If you get mirrored drives for backup, this is pretty irrelevant.

• Does your RAID array only have an eSATA connection? Because you can actually run an Aperture library on top of your LR library's file structure if you really want (with certain limitations).

• Anyway, your workflow is certainly more convoluted than it would need to be if it was your permanent solution, but it's probably about the best you can do in terms of evaluating the two systems. However, it might actually wind up being simpler and faster to get a $10 USB CF reader for your Mac and, rather than copying the LR-imported stuff onto the Mac HD, just do another import in Aperture before/after your LR import.

Thanks to both of you.

Sorry for the confusion. Being an Apple newbie I wasn't careful with my use of "Mac". It is an iMac.

In regards to CF reader. I read somewhere that iMac had trouble reading CF cards. I did not pursue the poster. I just went along with it. No big deal on that issue then. I will use my CF to my iMac

I have no prejudice on LR. I'm just curious about the other graphic capabilities of Aperture. I'm already thinking that the LR web module is nicer than Aperture. But I haven't really spend enough time to make judgements.

Master & library must be in the same location. This I did not know. Thanks

I cannot comment on the user-friendliness of Aperture since I haven't given it enough time to make an opinion.

Multiple backup is in the back of my mind for some time now. So in all honesty. After I've finished my experimentation. I want to have off-site storage anyways.

Canajun wrote in post #13172192
In regards to CF reader. I read somewhere that iMac had trouble reading CF cards. I did not pursue the poster. I just went along with it. No big deal on that issue then. I will use my CF to my iMac

With all due respect to whoever told you that...what a ridiculous thing to say! That smacks of "Best Buy employee who gets higher commission on Dell products" to me! Totally untrue. I actually thought you were talking about a built-in CF card reader or something.

I have both, and both have their strengths. Personally I prefer Aperture's organization and interface by a huge margin over LR's, but LR handles noise much better. I usually run high-ISO RAWS through ACR (which does the same thing as LR on that front) before importing them into Aperture.

ONLY if you want everything to be backed up in the Vault! The Vault only backs up your library; it ignores anything located outside of it. If you have an alternative backup method, you'll have no problems separating the library and masters.

I understand wanting to try Aperture. I did the same thing and I have upgraded each of the two programs when ever available. There are features that Aperture has that I really like and I saw a demo that blew my mind on what it could do, but I'm a little clumbsy navigating Aperture. I don't feel I gave it enough time before running back to LR, but I have access to video tutorials on Aperture that I will be viewing soon.

For the CF reader, I have had my difficulties with some of them and picked up a new one at Best Buy that has worked very well for a few months now. I did not know about problems working with Mac, I just thought they were cheap readers that went bad after awhile.

Off site storage is probably the safest way to go and now that cloud seems to be the wave of the future, it should become even easier and cheaper. I do not have off site yet, mainly because the sticks where I live still has has slow internet for "high speed" dsl.