The Importance of Libraries: Aperture 3’s New Syncing

Let’s talk about workspaces to make this more tangible, so let’s assume we’ve got two Aperture users named Joe Desktop and Martin Laptop. They could be working in the same office or one could be a client and one an editor, but in any case there are two different systems running Aperture.

Prior to Aperture 3 the ability to share documents was limited to the exporting and importing of Projects. A user could export a project and then import it to another Library, but for the most part that left at best two copies of the files on two different machines. Desktop would have their Library and Laptop would have theirs. If Laptop went out into the field, they’d come back and export a Project and give that project to Desktop. At this point, the files would live on both machines. (With the exception of the very complex system of referencing files and relocating the Masters, which we’ll forget about now.)

But if Desktop made some changes—adding metadata or rating images for example— and then wanted to have Laptop keep working, they’d have to export the Project again. When Laptop imported the Project it would become a new Project alongside the old, original Project. This poses some logistical issues, requiring Laptop to throw out the original Project or to carry around two separate versions of the files, each in a different Project.

When done with image editing the Project would get exported again and then Desktop would have the same issues. Suddenly there are four copies of each image.

If Laptop only wanted to share only one Album or Book (in other words just one component of the Project)—well forget about that. They’d have to make a new Project with nothing but the files for that Album or book and share that, and suddenly there are lots of files and no real way to track which is the original one.

Apple has gone back to the drawing board on this one for Aperture 3 and come up with a much cleaner system for multi-user interaction. Let’s take a look at the scenario we just discussed above.

Martin Laptop goes out in the field and shoots images and upon return exports a Project to Joe Desktop. Here’s the first change—the Project turns into an Aperture Library on export.

Desktop can do two things here—he can either import the Project/Library or he can switch to that Library without having to quit Aperture using the new File>Switch to Library command. But let’s assume here that Desktop imports the Project and starts working with files. Desktop rates the files, gives them labels and flags, makes a few albums, and does some metadata work.

Now, Joe Desktop wants Martin Laptop to do some color correction work on files that he’s flagged, so he exports the Project. In this case, since they both have the originals, Desktop can choose to not include the original files (Laptop already has them) and he passes that Library/Project back to Laptop.

Previously Laptop’s importing of this Project would create a new Project in the Library, but now with Aperture 3 the Projects merge. Laptop ends up with a Project (with no additional files) that have the changes that Desktop has made. Laptop makes the image corrections and creates a custom Book, and then exports just the Book as a Library. That’s a new feature of Aperture 3, just about anything can be exported as a Library now.

Desktop takes the Book and imports that, and that Book now syncs up with the original Project it came from.

This brings up one additional interesting workflow. Remember I had said that you could either import a Project/Library or switch to it, that unleashes a new way of working. Let’s back up.

Martin Laptop comes back from a shoot and all his most recent images are in a Library. He hands that off to Joe Desktop who, instead of importing, simply opens that Library. (This could be via an external drive or with the Laptop tethered , doesn’t matter.) Desktop makes his changes and closes out of the Library. Now, instead of the Project being imported, it’s simply saved. Martin Laptop can open that Library up and keep going.

It’s not only possible with Aperture 3 to share Libraries, now you can merge them as well. Simply select File>Import>Library/Project… and you can suck in any previous Aperture 2 Library, Aperture 3 Library or an Album, Folder or Project exported from Aperture 3. That means you can merge multiple Aperture Libraries, which opens up whole new realms of possibility for multiple-user workflows.

These ideas are obviously just the beginning of what’s possible. Thanks to Aperture’s ability to merge the changed contents of Projects and the ability to export just about anything as a Project/Library, it’s now possible for multiple users to work together in a whole host of new ways. We’ll be writing about many of these new workflows, some of which we haven’t even thought of yet.

The bottom line is that Aperture is no longer a closed system, it’s now vastly more powerful and is open to workflows of user

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