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Sharing images between Aperture and iPhoto
Like a lot of photographers, i find myself using both the pro-level Aperture and the consumer-level iPhoto. I find that there are things I can do best for my pictures in each. Both are truly useful to me in my work as a professional photographer. Personally, I think it makes sense to use both--all the time.
In the course of my work, most of my shots get stored in Aperture. But along the way, there are shots that I take that I want to store in iPhoto. This setup creates a situation where I might someday want to transfer the photos from Aperture to iPhoto, or, from iPhoto to Aperture. It's a good thing that I can easily do that. Apple engineers have designed Aperture 2 and iPhoto '08 to work together.
When I need to import images from iPhoto into Aperture, i choose Show iPhoto Browser from the file menu, which then allows me to import by dragging individual photo, albums or entire events from the iPhoto library into Aperture's project panel. The process is simple and painless. It is also happens very quickly.
If, on the other hand, I want to do it the other way, meaning, put the photos into iPhoto from my Aperture library, I just click on File > Show Aperture Library. With the Aperture library open, I can now select any image I want to transfer and then drag the thumbnails into iPhoto. This creates a new album, or, I can specifically drag the images into a particular album. Similar to importing using the Import command, a new event is automatically created in iPhoto with all the images that has been dragged/imported.
I discovered soon enough that the images imported into iPhoto through this method are the JPEGs automatically created in Aperture at the moment of import. If you need a big size and high image quality to use in iPhoto, you can set it in the Preview settings of Aperture's preferences pane. Now, if you want to work with the original RAW file, your option, of course, is to first export the Masters and then import them into iPhoto. But from experience, I find that the JPEG files from Aperture are of good quality and usable for many, many of the things I want to do with my pictures in iPhoto.
I love the integration between Aperture and iPhoto. Of course, a similar integration is available to other iLife and iWorks applications. This makes Aperture some sort of a gateway to all my projects which allows me to easily create various output right within Aperture, and just as easily, across many other different applications.
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thanks, just the information that i needed!
Interesting, what would you use iPhoto for that you can't use Aperture for?
>> Interesting, what would you use iPhoto for that you can't use Aperture for?
FrontRow, AppleTV and all that. Also, if I give my laptop to my friends to browse my photos, it is much easier for them to use iPhoto that Aperture.
>>... images imported into iPhoto through this method are the JPEGs automatically created in Aperture at the moment of import.
Important point: What's imported into iPhoto is the preview automatically generated when the image was imported into Aperture, not when the image is imported into iPhoto. So .. if you want to change the iPhoto import quality, you have to reset the Aperture Preview preference, and then update the preview for all the images you want to import into iPhoto.
Kind of a pain if you want to import high quality images, you either convert your entire Aperture Library to BIG previews (using BIG disk space), or you end up fooling around just updating the previews for the images you choose to export.
Apple, perhaps a separate "iPhoto" setting would be useful here. Less complicated for the user to find and to use.
I set iPhoto not to import the images, but reference the originals (in Aperture). That way, if I reprocess an image in Aperture after I've added it to iPhoto, then the changed image appears in iPhoto without having to re-import.
> set iPhoto not to import the images, but reference the originals (in Aperture). That way, if I reprocess an image in Aperture after I've added it to iPhoto, then the changed image appears in iPhoto without having to re-import.
I was going to ask how to do this, but then decided to look in Preferences.
Now my question is how does one preserve the order set in Aperture in iPhoto. In other words I've organized a slide show in Aperture, but want to share it (to use with Front Row) so I need to bring it into iPhoto do that. And after "importing" they aren't in the order I'd set in Aperture.
Thanks.
Responding to my Anonymous post of Sept. 6
Worked again. As soon as I posted I found the answer.
Sort manually. My excuse is that I've never really used iPhoto and View>Sort>Manually wasn't obvious. But as soon as I selected Manually my Aperture order came up.
HI
my question is, why after I imported a couple of pics into iPhoto from Aperture, is the file name not the same as the master or version name? It's the original file name from the storage card prior importing into aperture.
Regards
Nicolas
When i transfer from aperture to iphoto I can transfer the Image and Keywords but the file name reverts to the photo number allocated by the camera not the new name I have given it in Aprture. Any ideas
jim
I like the tip for importing without a copy the aperture library. And I do notice that if I select the image it is properly pointing to the preview aperture created, however, how can I get iPhoto to re-create the thumbnail without editing it, and then restoring to the original?