My Apple Aperture Workflow

Aperture’s interface isn’t the easiest thing to get used to for a new user, though through time it becomes easier to navigate without thinking twice about an action. With my Aperture workflow, I’ve tried to adapt the same thing to how I manage my projects and albums.

I like to know where photos are, and not have to think too much when importing. The best way for me to do this is to use a Month/Year organization structure. I have Aperture setup with folders labeling years, which hold individual projects for each months shooting (this is perfect as long as you dont exceed 10,000 shutter clicks in any given month):

2006
- January
- February
- March
- Etc

2007
- January
- February
- March
- Etc

For me this is the easiest way to make importing images a quick and swift task. I don’t need to try and relate images to a specific project, which is handy if you shoot as a hobby and nothing is strictly defined as a “project”.

I also have many Smart Folders setup for quick access to images tagged with different meta-data. Some of these are:

Camera
- Canon 350D
- Sony S600

Lens
- 18-55
- 70-300

Best Of
- 2006
- 2007
- Etc

Smart Folders save me a vast amount of time in post production and allow me to move onto other tasks much more quickly. I love the integration of Smart Folders throughout OSX - and how most applications use them in similar yet highly helpful ways.

How do you manage your images/projects inside Aperture or iPhoto?

Comments

  1. #1

    Cloudy Boy → homepage.mac.com/cloud.e/myblog

    I like aperture because no matter how crappy my photography is, I feel like a pro using it:

    to visit my photography please visit: http://homepage.mac.com/cloud.e/

    (options for different galleries are under the big photo in small gray font)

  2. #2

    Chris ‘MyAppleStuff’ Marshall → www.myapplestuff.com

    I use Lightroom for my initial workflow tasks. I have a similar structure but stick with 070516 (for example - today) for my folders. I actually do this with pretty much everything that I do actually as easiest way to keep everything in order.

    I posted on this a while back if you are interested:

    http://myapplestuff.com/dslr-workflow-the-end-of-the-journey-or-just-the-beginning/

  3. #3

    Nick Danforth → nickdanforth.blogspot.com

    I always wanted to move to a system like that, but I find it hard to keep track of files of certain events.

    Like let’s say I took pictures from a 2006 summer vacation in . . . Hawaii. Right now I could just go the “Hawaii 06″ folder. But in the month/year system, it could be harder.

    How do you guys manage to find things like that?

  4. #4

    Elliott Cost → www.35light.com

    Glenn, thanks for posting your Aperture workflow. I just switched over to Aperture from iPhoto and I’m loving it. Also, I just purchased the Canon EOS 350D, after discovering your blog.

  5. #5

    Daniel Hollister → www.dysplacement.com

    Ditto on Lightroom. I got totally fed up with Aperture and love Lightroom to death now. It would take a lot for Apple to get me to move back. Not only does the organization make a lot more sense in Lightroom, but for some reason Aperture is slow as molasses, whereas I have thousands of photos in Lightroom and they take virtually no time to load and make changes much faster.

  6. #6

    Michael Yurechko → michaelyurechko.com

    Glenn, there’s a difference between organization and convenience. Most would say organization makes everything more convenient, but honestly it takes more time to set it up, which isn’t very convenient.

    I have my photos in projects under a folder for the month they were taken. (i.e. I took a bunch of picture of stanley park, I labeled the project “Stanley Park” and dropped it into the March folder. Now when I need a picture from stanley park, I just have to remember in which month I took it, but most of my folders are spread out (extended) so I can read the project title).

    This seems like the easiest thing for me. I don’t tag them or give them descriptions since that seems like a waste of my time, and I do know where I take my shots.

  7. #7

    Kutti → www.jungfreudlich.de

    I have never used or seen Lightroom live in action. So it would be great to see how and for what purpose you use the programme. Maybe there is someone who want to blog something about his/her Lightroom workflow? That would definetly be interesting

  8. #8

    Chris ‘MyAppleStuff’ Marshall → www.myapplestuff.com

    @Kutti - in addition to the link in my earlier post on my Lightroom Workflow here is a link to the review I posted if you are interested:

    http://myapplestuff.com/lightroom-turns-me-on/

  9. #9

    Kutti → www.jungfreudlich.de

    @Chris: Thx for the link :-)

    @Glenn: Why don´t YOU use Lightroom?

  10. #10

    Chris ‘MyAppleStuff’ Marshall → www.myapplestuff.com

    @Kutti - de nada :-)

  11. #11

    Elliott → www.35light.com

    I like aperture because no matter how crappy my photography is, I feel like a pro using it:

    to visit my photography please visit: http://homepage.mac.com/cloud.e/

    (options for different galleries are under the big photo in small gray font)

    Same with me and your site and photography is amazing!

  12. #12

    Dustin → web.mac.com/dustin.cook/iweb/D-Money/Home.html

    One reason I don’t organize my Aperture library like this is because the Projects Panel oranizes everything alphabetically, which makes April show up on top of the list, etc. Is there a way to get it to orgnize manually?

  13. #13

    Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com

    I like aperture because no matter how crappy my photography is, I feel like a pro using it.

    Some of your photos are up to a professionals quality, they are amazing!

    Glenn, thanks for posting your Aperture workflow. I just switched over to Aperture from iPhoto and I’m loving it. Also, I just purchased the Canon EOS 350D, after discovering your blog.

    Great t hear, I hope you are enjoying both the software and the new camera.

    @Chris: Thx for the link :-)

    @Glenn: Why don´t YOU use Lightroom?

    I have honestly never used Lightroom, I must download it and give it a try. Reasons why I haven’t done it as of yet, is I’m completely happy with Aperture (and I prefer to stick to Apple software if I can).

    One reason I don’t organize my Aperture library like this is because the Projects Panel oranizes everything alphabetically, which makes April show up on top of the list, etc. Is there a way to get it to orgnize manually?

    I label months as “1 - January 2007″, “2 - February 2007″ etc.

  14. #14

    Kutti → www.jungfreudlich.de

    @Glenn: Would you mind posting some screenshots of your Aperture workflow?

  15. #15

    Glenn Wolsey : Blog Archive : Review: Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz → www.glennwolsey.com/2007/08/17/review-mac-pro-2-x-266ghz

    [...] I can simply leave them all running in the background. One day I didn’t even notice both Aperture & Final Cut Express were open while I worked for a full 12 hours with no slowdown. Simply [...]

  16. #16

    Ralph Bernd Scholz

    I am astounded for how many people the main question in discussing workflow just is the location to store photos. Even more puzzling are suggested solutions that require the user to remember the whereabouts of the photos – at least partially.
    Isn’t workflow a bit more? Looking forward to seeing some more meaningful discussions on that issue.

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