Organizing photo files stored in and out of Aperture

May 30, 2010 10:02 AM

I need help! I'm trying to get all of my photos organized and consolidated in my Mac Pictures folder - but they're strewn everywhere after using various programs to try to keep them organized...

A few years ago, I moved all of my photos strewn in various places throughout my "Pictures" folder into iPhoto. I got them all organized, and apparently chose to let iPhoto move any new ones into subfolders with the project names. It appears the old ones were left wherever they were.

Then, about a year ago, I migrated all my photos that had been stored in iPhoto over to Aperture. I started to have all the photos stored in the Aperture library, rather than having them stored in various subfolders in the Photos folder.

So now - I have some photos floating about all namby pamby, some stored in subfolders with the project name, and some that aren't even accessible, except through Aperture.

What I'd like to do is replicate my Aperture set up in my Photos folder. Is there any way to do that? I can't even figure out which are "in" Aperture and which are actually stored on my HDD.

posted by fracturing to Technology (2 answers total)

You can access your Aperture Library outside of the program. In fact, a "master" copy of any pic you can see in Aperture is likely to be saved in the Library file in a perfectly readable format (well, they may be RAW files depending, but...), whether there's another copy floating around or not.

Just find the file in Finder that represents this library. "It usually sits in /Users//Pictures/Aperture Library". Right click on that file and select "Show Package Contents."
posted by drpynchon at 11:52 AM on May 30, 2010

Thanks! As a few follow ups/clarifications:

There's a little icon in the photo viewer screen that looks like a rectangle with an arrow on it. I think I've worked out that it means that the original of this photo is stored outside the Aperture vault. Is that true? Is there a way to create a search that will show me only the ones that are in the vault or only the ones that are outside it?

The files in the Aperture library are organized based on import date, rather than the organization that I've created within Aperture. Is there any way to have the Library be organized like I have it in Aperture?
posted by fracturing at 7:28 PM on May 31, 2010