Share Libraries Between Aperture Users (And Use Dropbox to Simplify)

Here I have three images selected out of a Project that I want to send to my editor. This could just as easily be every image in this Project, but in this example let’s look at three images.

I’m going to put these images into their own Album, as it makes it easier to show off this process.

I’ll call this Album "For Retouching"

Any container in Aperture (Album, Smart Album, Project or Folder) can be exported as a self-contained Library file. Here, I’m going to export this Album as a Library by Right-Clicking on it and selecting Album as New Library… from under the Export menu, or you can select this from the File menu.

I’m using a web-based service called Dropbox to share this file with my retoucher. Dropbox creates a folder on my desktop that I can put any file or folder into and share that file or folder with anyone else. The files automatically synchronize so there’s no need to email or FTP things back and forth.

In this dialog box I’m selecting Consolidate masters into exported library as my editor needs the original files in order to do adjustment work. If these files just needed metadata, the consolidated masters wouldn’t have to be included, which would make the file smaller.

If I were sending this to someone to do metadata work (keywords, captions, etc.) I would turn off Consolidate masters into exported library and turn on Include Previews in exported library because the preview is all that’s needed to work on metadata.

Now my editor simply gets the file in his Dropbox folder and Double-Clicks on it to launch it.

Or he can open it by selecting File>Switch to Library>Other/New… and navigating to the Library.

Now my editor adjusts my files. In this case, I’ve just made them all monochrome as an example.

Since my editor is using Dropbox, there isn’t even a need to send this file back to me. When he quits Aperture the file will automatically update on my machine.

Back to my copy of Aperture and now to import the changes and merge them with my Library I open the file up. In this case I’ll open it from File>Library/Project.

Aperture will ask if you want to Merge the items or Add them. I want them merged (or I’d end up with two copies) so I’ll press the Merge button.

Aperture will display a dialog box.

Here are those three images now merged into my Library.

Here’s an important facet of this—since Aperture syncs Libraries, there wasn’t a need for my editor and I to export files numerous times. The Library that I exported from Aperture to Dropbox was opened by my editor. The file was edited and then I opened up the same file and merged it into my Library. That saved me from having to make numerous import-and-export steps with each one creating more files to manage. Aperture does all the heavy lifting, and I used Dropbox to do the file synchronization between locations.

I could have done this just as easily with my entire library of images as with these three files, the process is exactly the same. This has huge ramifications for people working with more than one Aperture setup. When I’m shooting in the field I’ll create a new Library file and when I return to the office simply select File>Import>Library/Project… and suck those files right into my desktop system. No need to export things and then re-import, I just grab the self-same Library I created on-location and suck the contents of that back into Aperture.

But the slickness of this technique doesn’t end there. Since I’ve still got the Library I shot on location on the laptop, I can take the files with me to a coffee shop or on a plane and do more captioning work, some more adjustments and so on. When I’m done, I simply re-import them to my desktop using the same process above, and Aperture will merge my changes with the files in the desktop Library. It’s an incredibly powerful way to work in a system with more than one computer.