Posted on March 5, 2010 by Bahi Para
Categories: Blog
Blog
Migrating your library from Aperture to Lightroom or Lightroom to Aperture
Following the release of Aperture 3 last month, the Shoot Raw site logs show that we’re getting quite a few people visiting from Google, looking for ways to migrate a photo library from one application to the other. (In both directions, interestingly.) Based on the search terms people are using, it’s clear that these visitors are looking for one thing above all others. Here’s the bad news:
There is currently no way to move or migrate your raw files from Lightroom to Aperture or from Aperture to Lightroom without losing your edits.
That’s what most of you have been searching for but it’s not possible today. If Apple, Adobe or a third-party publisher provides this functionality, we’ll post something on it straight away and we’ll edit this page to point to the new article. (Subscribe for free via e-mail or RSS to get all our articles when they’re posted.)
Possible in theory
It is theoretically possible for someone to write software to make the move easier. Both Lightroom and Aperture store all your edits as metadata. Any third-party conversion software would read and interpret the metadata in the database used by Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3, or inside the XMP sidecar files; it would then translate that information, which describes all the edits you’ve made in Lightroom, and add it to the Aperture 3 database or vice versa if you’re travelling in the opposite direction. Your original raw files would remain untouched and in their current locations or would be relocated from an Aperture package.
One problem is that there’d have to be a lot of subjective decisions about interpretation, given the differences in camera profiles between the two applications, their different approaches to noise reduction, sharpening, highlight recovery and so on. It’s a difficult task and the market for such an application is quite small so the product is likely to be expensive. I hope one appears but would consider it unlikely.
Moving JPEG or TIFF renderings of your raw files
If you decide to export JPEGs or TIFFs, you probably need no further help—you can bake your changes into the files, export them and include the IPTC metadata. You can do this as well moving your raw files, using your JPEGs as guidance when reimplementing edits.
If you’ve decided to move the raw files
If you’ve decided to redo your all your edits as and when they’re needed, here’s what works and what doesn’t.
Migrating raw files from Aperture to Lightroom and vice versa
- Your keywords will travel between the applications if you choose to write XMP sidecar files or if, in Aperture, you select the pictures you’d like to export, choose File=> Export=> Master and then include the IPTC metadata, either as a sidecar file (strongly recommended) or written to the original raw file (definitely not recommended). See below.
- Ratings (star ratings, from zero to five stars) will also travel in XMP files if you’re moving to Lightroom but not if you’re moving from Lightroom to Aperture. (Apple’s somewhat unconvincing explanation of this is here. ) One workaround if you’re migrating to Aperture: in Lightroom, select all photos with a one star rating, add a keyword like “onestar”; select all photos with a two-star rating and add a keyword like “twostar”; repeat for all star ratings before saving XMP files. (See below for the XMP procedure.) After importing into Aperture, reverse the process: find all the images with the “onestar” keyword, assign them a star and so on. (C’mon, Apple, you can do better than this!) [Update: Apple’s notes for the Aperture 3.0.3 update suggest that it should now be able to read ratings from XMP sidecar files. We haven’t gone back to test this.]
- Edits… no. As above, you currently need to bake your changes into TIFF files or JPEGs if you’re desperate to keep your edits intact. Of course, you can always do both—move your raw files and export TIFF or JPEGs of certain images to sit alongside.
- Mapping of IPTC metadata can be tricky. Apple has an article on the subject here.
With these limitations in mind, here are some suggestions for moving your library from Aperture and Lightroom or Lightroom to Aperture with the appropriate options in place. Again, this is for moving raw files without edits but with keywords and other IPTC metadata.
Including metadata with raw files from Aperture 3
This screenshot from Aperture 3 shows the pop-up menu that includes the two relevant options. To get to this stage, choose File=> Export=> Master.
We’d recommend getting Aperture 3 to write the XMP sidecars, as shown in the screenshot above. In general, try to avoid any alterations to the raw files themselves whenever you can. (In the past, there have been examples of bugs in raw-conversion software that have caused difficulties with modified raw files; these difficulties didn’t show up for a long time. Whenever possible, leave the raw files untouched and write sidecars.)
Including metadata with raw files from Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3
Exporting metadata from Lightroom is as simple as selecting your pictures and hitting command-S (ctrl-S on Windows) to write an XMP sidecar file for each image. Alternatively, when you’re viewing your grid (to get there, hit G), just select all your pictures and go to the Metadata menu. Choose:
Metadata=> Save Metadata to FIle
When this operation is complete, each raw file will have an XMP sidecar file next to it and Aperture will read these sidecars when you import the pictures. You can then import them into Aperture the way you’d import any new raw files and your keywords will be included. (Remember: Aperture will currently ignore your photo’s star ratings—see above for a workaround.)
One-on-one Lightroom workflow training in the UK
If you’re migrating from Aperture to Lightroom, we have a really great training offer on this month for our Lightroom courses in London and the South East. You get to save lots of time and trouble and master your workflow quickly, with expert tuition. See this page.
Workflow courses in London based on Lightroom—March offer
As I mentioned in the previous post, we’d like to open up our digital workflow training courses to a wider audience. At the same time, we still want to do what we do best, which is to get you up to speed with your image processing workflow, in your own working environment. So we’re going to run an experiment this month. If it’s successful, it will stay but if not, this will be the only time you’ll see an offer like this. (From us, at least.)
March offer for emerging photographers and amateurs
For March 2010, we’re going to accept a maximum of four bookings for one-on-one workflow tuition from photographers who aren’t established professionals. For each of these four bookings in March, we will charge just £380 plus VAT for a complete two-day digital workflow and post-processing course. That price is for photographers based in London and it gets you a one-on-one training course, built for you and delivered at your premises. The training is based on Adobe LIghtroom and you can get an idea of an example course by looking at these notes, which were for a group course we put together earlier in the year.
Let’s talk first—for free
Each course is tailored for you, after we speak over the phone, though the notes for the group course do give you an idea of typical content. The purpose of the first phone call is to prioritise topics. That helps us devote more time during the course to the things that matter most to you. We find out in advance what you’re struggling with or have questions about and we’ll focus on those areas. It could be the quality or the look of final images, print quality, exporting and sharing, the speed and efficiency of your post-processing, colour management, the ability to file and retrieve your work easily or something completely different. We’ll learn a lot during that first phone call and customise the course based on what you tell us.
The phone call is free and there is no obligation to book a course after we’ve spoken. (We hope you do decide to book a course but we don’t hassle you if you don’t!) During the calls, we get to hear what photographers are struggling with; you get to talk to us and decide whether you think you’d want to take a two-day course with us. And if you go ahead, you’ll get a course that’s made for you.
Where?
The courses can be held anywhere that you have access to your computer—usually your home or office. If you use a laptop, it could be any place where we can work quietly and without distractions. (For a very reasonable cost, we can arrange a small training room in central London.)
Leave a week between the two training days
As always, we recommend leaving a one-week gap between day one (where there’ll probably be lots of information to digest) and day two, which is more advanced but is best completed when you feel comfortable with that first day’s training. Use what you’ve learned on day one for a week and become really familiar with it. You then get the most out of day two. So for a whole week, you’ll be using Lightroom on your own images and you’ll get plenty of practice with the new techniques and workflow. A week later, on day two of the course, you’ll get all your questions answered before we build on that knowledge to get into the advanced stuff. (During that first week, you’ll build up plenty of questions.)
Who’s eligible?
How do we decide whether you’re an established professional and therefore not eligible for these prices? Well, if you’re making a living from your photography, you’re an established professional. If you’re a serious amateur thinking of turning pro, you (and three others) get these lower prices. Same with fine-art photographers who aren’t yet earning enough to rely on that income—you qualify.
Collectives, clubs and groups
If you represent a group of photographers who might be interested in digital workflow training, we’d be delighted to offer you group training or one-to-one training for each photographer individually. We’d be happy to offer special rates to reflect the numbers. Get in touch and we can meet up for a chat first to discuss what exactly you’re looking for.
So what about pricing for professional, full-time photographers?
We have good news for established professional photographers, too—we’ll be putting new standard prices on the site later this week. If we’ve spoken previously, visit the site on Friday and you’ll see new prices.
Lightroom courses for photographers outside London?
If you’re outside London, the same rates apply but we’ll need to charge something towards travel. We don’t make money on travel (it’s charged at cost) and so far, have never needed to charge for travel time so drop us a line and we’ll happily work something out.
Best before end 31 March
We’re going to run this offer during March and see what response we get—we won’t repeat it unless things go well this month. So if you’re interested in mastering those workflow and post-processing skills, now’s the time to book.
Requirements
You need a computer running Adobe Lightroom 2 and ideally, a version of Photoshop or something similar. It helps to have your camera with you during the course and a good selection of your own images. Most of what we do is done within Lightroom but we do cover Photoshop integration. Healing, cloning and work that involves working on detailed selections is also best done in Photoshop, as well as panoramas and HDR work. Of course, how much time we spend on Photoshop is up to you—it’s your course. We’ll decide in advance what to aim for, during and after our phone conversation.
We turn up with a laptop running Lightroom 2.6 and Photoshop CS4 but you will need your own system to work on—you need to be able to walk away with the environment we’ve set up and the work we’ve done so you can continue where we left off.
Before we speak on the phone, try to list on paper all the reasons that you’re looking at post-processing training on Lightroom. Be sure to include things that you are finding particularly difficult, irritating or slow at the moment.
Payment
We accept payment by cheque, PayPal or bank transfer. You pay half the total cost before the first day’s training, and the remaining half before the second day. You get a full VAT invoice. Before any of that, though, book your free phone call and decide if this is the right course for you. If you are unhappy with the course at any stage, write and tell us why and you get a full refund—no further questions asked.
Next step
The next step is to let us know you’re interested and would like to arrange a phone call. We’ll suggest a few times, you pick one and we’ll call you. To get started, send an e-mail to develop@shootraw.co.uk with the subject “March Offer”. In the message, tell us what you’re looking for and how best to get hold of you and we’ll get in touch. (We never share our customers’ details with any other organisation.) If you’re among the first four people to qualify, you get to book your course this month—if not, we’ll put your name on a reserve list and we’ll arrange your booking in April.
Spread the word
If you know someone else who might be interested in a one-on-one Lightroom course this month, please pass on the link. You can copy this shortened version of the URL:
http://bit.ly/lightroom-london
Or click here to send the URL to a friend using your usual e-mail application. We appreciate your support—thank you!
Some Shoot Raw updates
Digital workflow: new prices for Lightroom training courses in London
Shoot Raw has been around since November last year, offering digital workflow tuition and courses based on Adobe Lightroom. During that time, we’ve have noticed one consistent thing: serious amateurs who want to get better at post-processing workflow have been calling or writing to arrange one-on-one training and, so far, we’ve been too expensive for them. Well, we’ve taken the hint and we’re reworking our price structure. We’ll have some welcome announcements later this week, for both amateurs and pros. If you’ve been in touch with us previously for prices but haven’t been able to justify the cost of a course, drop by again on Wednesday. We’ll have offers for amateurs and professionals.
Four Corners Film
I did three days at Four Corners Film last week, teaching digital processing and workflow, based on Lightroom. The students were a great group, interested in different types and aspects of photography but working well together. I really enjoyed it and I hope they did, even though there was a lot of information to take in. Considering that this is the first time the course has been run, it has been really successful so far—the students have learned 35mm film photography, processing in the chemical darkroom, lighting and digital workflow and will go on to learn about marketing and to complete a project, finishing with an exhibition. I saw some really good work there, too. It’s a great opportunity and it’s the kind of course many self-taught photographer will benefit from.
PIN network for photographic businesses in London
Four Corners Film runs a professional development network for existing photographic businesses; both of us at Shoot Raw joined last year and have found it very useful. It’s free to join and is called the Photo-Imaging Network (PIN). You can find more details about it here. There are meet-ups, seminars on business skills, networking and marketing events and some really good talks (sometimes organised in conjunction with London Metropolitan University) from established artists. We’ve recently attended talks by fine artist John Goto,, commercial photographer Ray Massey and his son Jean-Michel, fine artist and portrait photographer Franklyn Rodgers, photographer Zoe Maxwell talking about her work as archive specialist at Autograph ABP and Anne Williams, course director of LCC’s MA Photography programme . If you’re a London based photographic business, visit the PIN page and get in touch with Four Corners to see if there are still places available. There was even a new bursary announced last week, offered exclusively to PIN, which will be awarded to one PIN photographer for a project about the East End.
The BJP—now monthly
By Internet standards, this is very old news because it was announced more than a week ago but the British Journal of Photography was just relaunched as a monthly and we’re really pleased to have secured a slot this month in their directory listings.
More on Wednesday…