iView to Aperture Workflow -- Part 3: Clean-up
2007-01-08
Now that all of my old images and their metadata have been prepared and transferred from iView to Aperture, one step remains: clean up. Cleaning up comprises applying ratings, merging keywords, and converting data in other fields to keywords.
Before describing this process, some advice on performance. I discovered that by doing the right thing I could speed up some operations with Aperture up by a factor of more than a thousand. Yes really. The key advice is this:
If at all possible, don't have any images or thumbnails visible when you change metadata!
I found that doing some things like changing and editing keywords in the keyword HUD with a filter active that used that metadata took an hour rather than a second (I have 20,000 images in my library). Aperture was going through serious contortions with SQL and string handling during this time and eating real memory at a rate of about 50k a second (a memory leak?). Once I figured what was going on, I created an empty project and selected that each time I wanted to make changes to the keyword hierarchy.
Of course it is not always possible to have images not showing or filtered, but whenever messing with keywords, it is worth remembering.
Apply Ratings
To apply ratings (these were brought over as keywords from iView) I filter on the blue folder called iView that contains all of my projects with the imported images. Since all of my one star images have the keyword onestar, I filter on onestar, select all the images in the browser with command A and press the + key to give them a rating of one star. This takes a while because there are many one star images. Then (bearing in mind the performance tip above) I delete the onestar keyword from the Imported Keyword section of the keyword HUD.
I repeat this for the twostar and threestar keywords and the ratings are now done.
Convert People Keywords
Next I convert my people keywords. I have imported name keywords from iView that all start with a lower-case letter so I can distinguish them from the existing ones. To convert these is easy. After selecting my empty project and unlocking the keyword HUD I double-click on "steve" in the keyword list and change it to "Steve". That elicits this warning:
Once done, I drag the Steve keyword onto its containing keyword in my "master" hierarchy. In this case that keyword is Family under People:
I get another warning and then this warning:
Accepting the offer to merge the keywords leaves my imported images with the same keyword as those already in my library and ensures that they have the same hierarchy too.
I repeat this for each person until I am done.
Convert All Other Metadata
There is still more metadata to convert. Annoture maps iView metadata fields to IPTC fields. For instance Location in iView becomes Sub-location in Aperture. So I have to work through each IPTC field, identify all the possible values, filter by each of those values, select the images, and add or apply keywords appropriately.
This is not as hard as it seems. By adding the appropriate fields to the List - Expanded metadata view and browsing my images in list view I can sort them by these fields:
For Albuquerque I create a new keyword United States > New Mexico > Albuquerque, select all of the images with Albuquerque in the Sub-location field (in the list view with click at the top and shift click at the bottom of the range), and then apply the new Albuquerque keyword. See Metadata Views for more information on setting this display up.
Once I have worked all the way down the Sub-location column and repeated this for each different word used in that field I can clear the field. The easiest way to do this is to select all of the images I have imported (and processed), press shift command B to bring up the batch change dialog and set it up like this:
By selecting Replace and checking the box next to Sub-location I choose to clear that field on all selected images. I press OK and then move to the next field.
Delete The Old Folder Hierarchy
Finally I am done, and all that remains is to delete my old folder hierarchy. It is now empty of course. I left it in place because in the second step (importing) iView still needs the hierarchy in place to allow filtering by folder. Now it is no longer needed.
That's It
I am sure that others will have a different story to tell about moving from iView to Aperture. Please let me know your own experience so I can improve this article.
Before describing this process, some advice on performance. I discovered that by doing the right thing I could speed up some operations with Aperture up by a factor of more than a thousand. Yes really. The key advice is this:
If at all possible, don't have any images or thumbnails visible when you change metadata!
I found that doing some things like changing and editing keywords in the keyword HUD with a filter active that used that metadata took an hour rather than a second (I have 20,000 images in my library). Aperture was going through serious contortions with SQL and string handling during this time and eating real memory at a rate of about 50k a second (a memory leak?). Once I figured what was going on, I created an empty project and selected that each time I wanted to make changes to the keyword hierarchy.
Of course it is not always possible to have images not showing or filtered, but whenever messing with keywords, it is worth remembering.
Apply Ratings
To apply ratings (these were brought over as keywords from iView) I filter on the blue folder called iView that contains all of my projects with the imported images. Since all of my one star images have the keyword onestar, I filter on onestar, select all the images in the browser with command A and press the + key to give them a rating of one star. This takes a while because there are many one star images. Then (bearing in mind the performance tip above) I delete the onestar keyword from the Imported Keyword section of the keyword HUD.
I repeat this for the twostar and threestar keywords and the ratings are now done.
Convert People Keywords
Next I convert my people keywords. I have imported name keywords from iView that all start with a lower-case letter so I can distinguish them from the existing ones. To convert these is easy. After selecting my empty project and unlocking the keyword HUD I double-click on "steve" in the keyword list and change it to "Steve". That elicits this warning:
Once done, I drag the Steve keyword onto its containing keyword in my "master" hierarchy. In this case that keyword is Family under People:
I get another warning and then this warning:
Accepting the offer to merge the keywords leaves my imported images with the same keyword as those already in my library and ensures that they have the same hierarchy too.
I repeat this for each person until I am done.
Convert All Other Metadata
There is still more metadata to convert. Annoture maps iView metadata fields to IPTC fields. For instance Location in iView becomes Sub-location in Aperture. So I have to work through each IPTC field, identify all the possible values, filter by each of those values, select the images, and add or apply keywords appropriately.
This is not as hard as it seems. By adding the appropriate fields to the List - Expanded metadata view and browsing my images in list view I can sort them by these fields:
For Albuquerque I create a new keyword United States > New Mexico > Albuquerque, select all of the images with Albuquerque in the Sub-location field (in the list view with click at the top and shift click at the bottom of the range), and then apply the new Albuquerque keyword. See Metadata Views for more information on setting this display up.
Once I have worked all the way down the Sub-location column and repeated this for each different word used in that field I can clear the field. The easiest way to do this is to select all of the images I have imported (and processed), press shift command B to bring up the batch change dialog and set it up like this:
By selecting Replace and checking the box next to Sub-location I choose to clear that field on all selected images. I press OK and then move to the next field.
Delete The Old Folder Hierarchy
Finally I am done, and all that remains is to delete my old folder hierarchy. It is now empty of course. I left it in place because in the second step (importing) iView still needs the hierarchy in place to allow filtering by folder. Now it is no longer needed.
That's It
I am sure that others will have a different story to tell about moving from iView to Aperture. Please let me know your own experience so I can improve this article.
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