Switching from iPhoto to Aperture
I’ve made the jump from iPhoto to Aperture. The move was a daunting one prior to actually doing it, but after a few tries I managed to move “successfully”.
Side note: Moving from iPhoto to Aperture was no simple 10-minute task. I wanted to make some major moves forward in how I was storing my master files. To do so I had to do a lot of fire-hoop jumping in iPhoto, Aperture, and my firewire drives. Then, Aperture had to create brand-new thumbnails and previews of my files from scratch. This resulted in almost 24-hours of processing time on my Macbook. Literally.
I’d compare this move from iPhoto (a built-for-consumer product) to Aperture (a built for professional product) to my move from Windows to the Macintosh. At first it always seems like your trying to fight through a plastic wrapping in order to get things done. However in the end, you usually find that all you had to do was use the knife you already had your hand.
I remember several epiphanies when switching to Mac and every time a moment like that would pass I’d think to myself: “Man I should have thought of that the first time.” More often than not, when using almost any application on the Mac platform - if you are having trouble it is because you are over thinking the problem. Think of the most logical solution and that is probably the right one.
Such has been the case with Aperture so far. Even though the application is much more complex and feature-rich when compared to iPhoto, once you start to get familiar with the application you start to notice how easy it is to use.
I have had some drawbacks. A few of which I was able to solve with a Google search or two. A few others I was able to solve by asking those who have used the application longer than I have (a few days). And the rest, save two, I have been able to solve by reading the manual. Which I have. Every single page, every single word.
The two things I have yet to solve, which are rather large things: 1) Spotlight can no longer find my photos since switching to iPhoto. I am really not sure where to start with fixing this so I think I’m just going to have to ask someone. 2) Reorganizing my keywords in Aperture (since I had them set up in iPhoto) is impossible. When I bring up the Keywords HUD, I’m greeted with all of my keywords residing subordinately to a master keyword of iPhoto. When I try to access the keywords that are “below” iPhoto Aperture freezes. Perhaps I have too many keywords (I do have an awful lot). I’m not sure how to solve this one yet either. Maybe there is a raw .plist file that I can manually edit (and I am willing to do so).
Either way, I’m finding Apertures professional features a welcomed upgrade to using iPhoto. I’m also loving the fact that I’ve saved well over 25GB on my laptop because Aperture has the option to store my masters on a Firewire drive instead of my local disk!
More on this as issues arise, and are solved.
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Timely post Colin….I am actually thinking of making the move myself.
Dennis on February 16th, 2007 8:49 pm
Dennis: I have much more to say about this topic, so stay tuned.
Colin Devroe on February 18th, 2007 1:29 am
Testing a comment.
Colin Devroe on February 20th, 2007 5:35 pm
[…] Since my switch to Aperture from iPhoto I’ve been having a fairly good experience with Aperture. […]
Spotlight and Aperture problems on The uber geeks on February 22nd, 2007 11:24 am
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I need help switching back to iPhoto | Colin Devroe on May 11th, 2007 12:26 pm