Aperture + iPhoto

[reichmuth]

I've recently (<6 months ago) switched from PC to mac. I started out using iPhoto to organize my pictures, do simple edits, and upload to Smugmug. However, I'd like to be able to use a more full featured editing software and I'd like to start shooting RAW with my D70.

I downloaded the Aperture 2 trial and am confused on how I should organize my photos with iPhoto and/or Aperture. iPhoto does a fine job as a photo browser and I can't seem to replicate the same functionality in Aperture. In particular, in A2 I can't figure out how to have a descriptive name for the project yet sort the projects by date, not name. iPhoto does this automatically with "Events".

On the other hand, I'm not sure how to set up A2 as a photo editor only. When I tell iPhoto to use A2 as the editor for the files, it doesn't bring up the file. I also want to minimize the number of copies of each picture on my hard drive. I know that iPhoto makes copies with each edit, and I sure don't want to go that route if I start shooting RAW.

Questions:
1) Is there a "best" way to use iPhoto and Aperture together?
2) If the answer is just to use Aperture, then how do I set up my events to show up as they did in iPhoto?
3) Can I use iPhoto as the organizer and Aperture as the editor? If so will I have multiple copies of each photo on my disk?
4) Should I just use Elements 6 or some other software?

Hope these questions make some sort of sense, and I apolgize if they've already been answered in a thread that I haven't found yet.

[KED]

I've recently (<6 months ago) switched from PC to mac. I started out using iPhoto to organize my pictures, do simple edits, and upload to Smugmug. However, I'd like to be able to use a more full featured editing software and I'd like to start shooting RAW with my D70.

I downloaded the Aperture 2 trial and am confused on how I should organize my photos with iPhoto and/or Aperture. iPhoto does a fine job as a photo browser and I can't seem to replicate the same functionality in Aperture. In particular, in A2 I can't figure out how to have a descriptive name for the project yet sort the projects by date, not name. iPhoto does this automatically with "Events".

On the other hand, I'm not sure how to set up A2 as a photo editor only. When I tell iPhoto to use A2 as the editor for the files, it doesn't bring up the file. I also want to minimize the number of copies of each picture on my hard drive. I know that iPhoto makes copies with each edit, and I sure don't want to go that route if I start shooting RAW.

Questions:
1) Is there a "best" way to use iPhoto and Aperture together?
2) If the answer is just to use Aperture, then how do I set up my events to show up as they did in iPhoto?
3) Can I use iPhoto as the organizer and Aperture as the editor? If so will I have multiple copies of each photo on my disk?
4) Should I just use Elements 6 or some other software?

Hope these questions make some sort of sense, and I apolgize if they've already been answered in a thread that I haven't found yet.

I am a Mac user; I abandoned Aperture 1.5 in favor of Lightroom. I don't know much about the changes to Aperture in 2.x, but I will tell you how I look at iPhoto vs [Aperture or LR] for my own particular uses:

iPhoto is designed for the everyday snap-shooter: It's what you would use to upload and edit-lite the family pictures. That's not a negative, it's just a fact. If you take thousands, or even hundreds, of pictures and want to do serious post-processing, you need more sophisticated editing and organizational software, which is where Aperture or LR come in.

I shoot sports primarily, and generally sports involving my kids. So of course I shoot every movement that my own kid makes on the field, but I shoot the entire game, and the keepers go on my website. I organize all that stuff in LR (and used to do so in the very user-friendly hierarchical scheme of Aperture, which I miss). Then at the end, I export every image of my own child (or other SI-cover quality shots) over to iPhoto where it resides along with my P&Ss from graduations, etc and I get to see them routinely on my screen saver.

With specific regard to your question #2, and again noting that I don't know about 2.x, the organizational scheme of Aperture is (or was) so intuitive that I'm surprised that you are torn. Spend some time getting familiar with it and I think you will be sold.

Hope that is helpful.