A. Stark Place

I used to be really proud of how well my computer was organized. I had a coherent and well organized structure of folders and everything was well labeled. It made my computing life much easier, but it often took diligence and hard work to keep it that way.

I hardly spend any time worrying about my computer’s organization anymore, however, because my computer’s software has taken a lot of that workload away. It is like I have my own personal secretary who puts my files away and retrieves them on command. I don’t worry about how my computer files things away, as long as I get things back when I want them. I do notice, however, that many users are not willing to give up this job because they don’t think the computer can do as good a job as they can.

I do think that this is the future of computing, however. After all, don’t we have computers because they make our lives easier? Or do we just revel in the computing experience itself? I for one am happiest when my computing time is spent on a specific project rather than cleaning house. Software is being programmed to do more and more of this house cleaning and organizing task.

Enter Aperture, Apple’s newest professional application. According to the manual:

Aperture is a nondestructive image processing and database application that let’s you efficiently acquire digital images, perform photo edits, adjust and retouch images, publish images on the web or in print, export images, and back up your images for safe keeping.

While Aperture has, in my opinion, a great interface and excellent photo editing tools, what makes it stand out is the way that it handles files. When I hook up my camera, Aperture automatically opens and asks if I want to download the photos. I say, yes, and it downloads the images and names them according to my prescribed method. For example, I might tell it to name them according to the filenames given them by my camera, or I might chose a custom name followed by the time or date that I took the shot.

Then Aperture works away while I edit photos I had downloaded before, filing the images away into a library, rather than an old fashioned folder. It takes the original image, saves it as a master file, and also creates thumbnails of each image so they can be viewed in the program more easily. If I make a change to the photo, the master file will remain unchanged, but a version (essentially a file that contains all the changes I made and any information that I might want attached to the image) will be created.

Aperture files the master, the thumbnails it creates, and any versions of the images away in the background as it sees fit. I can view the photos and any changes I make to them in the Aperture software, but not by opening the Aperture Library with the operating system. It is not until I export that I have access to an ordinary image file.

I can make as many versions of each master file as I like, without ever needing to use the SAVE AS or SAVE commands. These commands are actually absent in Aperture. Whatever changes I make will simply be added to the current version file. I can make new versions from the master, and can access all versions of a master file from one location. Gone are the days when, in order to have a few different looks of the same photo, as many full sized files are needed as looks are created. Instead, Aperture simply creates files that refer back to the master. These files keep a record of what changes have been made to that master file. Only when it comes time to export or print an image does Aperture make a new image file.

If I want to access my photos, I open Aperture and find them either by performing a search or by accessing the file structure in Aperture. I don’t go to a pictures folder, open the folder that an image is in, and then double click on an image to open it. In fact, there is no Open command in Aperture, only an Import command. This is because it’s not a photo viewer, it is a photo organizer and editor, and as such, it must create thumbnails of the image, have a copy of it in its own library, and be able to create version files in its own library if it is to work efficiently.

Special attention is given to making the images easy to retrieve. In fact, all sorts of information can be added to an image in addition to the information embedded in the image automatically by the camera. An image can be searched by any of the included information fields. An image can also be included in several different places without duplicating the original file. For instance, if there is a photo of a family member playing soccer, it can be present in a soccer album and a family album, and both will simply refer back to the original master file.

After the photos have been edited, I can then choose what will be done with the image, and Aperture will export the image for that specific purpose. If the image will be emailed, it will be exported in a certain way that I have preset, if it is to be printed it will be exported another way, and if it is to be viewed on the web it will be exported yet another way. I usually export my files to my desktop, send them to where I need them (for example, I might upload them to my web galleries), and then I delete them. With Aperture there is no need to keep finished image files around.

So what is so special about Aperture? Well, Aperture is not the only program that operates in this way, but it is a clear example of how this method can be useful. The old file structures of endless hierarchies of folders is cumbersome for the user, inefficient in terms of storage space, and is a strain on software. Conventional folders are good so far as they go, but a program can work better with a file structure that is made for it’s specific needs. This allows the software to easily do the filing for you, and present the files quickly and efficiently.

Final Cut Pro (Apple’s video editing software) apparently works in much the same way as Aperture, and both programs generally deal with extremely large files. I do think, however, that similar programs will work their way into other less storage intensive areas, such as publishing and word processing, making the old filing systems obsolete for all but a few specific tasks. This, I think, will make computing much more efficient.

Are there drawbacks to this type of software? Perhaps. For instance, those who want complete control of their computers filing systems will be aggravated by programs like Aperture, and it has received criticism for this reason. They may also make choosing which software to use take an even larger commitment, as each program makes its own file structure and version files that are not compatible with other programs.

These problems, however, are few, and programs like Aperture represent a major step in the process of making computers more efficient and user friendly. Expect many more programs like this in the future. They take yet another chunk out of the grief and aggravation of computing.

Related Tags: Apple, Apple computers, software, photo software, workflow