New tools and toys. Looking for workflow advice

michswiss

Ok, I've been struggling to establish a solid workflow for a while. Here's what I've been doing, give or take. I travel with a Gen-1 MacBook Air and have a 24" White C2D iMac at home. I use Aperture for DAM. I can be on the road anywhere from two weeks to two months at a whack.

My current workflow is something like this:

While Travelling...
- Take photos (the fun part)
- Offload photos onto WD Passbook 500GB USB drive on MBA to file system
- Import images into Aperture library located on same USB drive
- I'll then use Aperture on the MBA as needed for any photo's I want to share while on the road

Once home...
- Offload photos in file system from USB drive to external raid file system on iMac
- I'm currently just continuing to use the Aperture library on the USB drive on the iMac but I'm not sure if this is the best strategy.

Here is where I start to have questions. How should I handle the Aperture library on the USB drive? Maintain a separate library on the iMac and reimport the source RAW files or copy the existing library from the USB drive to the iMac external drives? Are there better ways to handle two machines with Aperture?

To date I have done all my PP in Aperture, but have run into some limitations specifically wanting to use Masks and Layers to allow for more editing flexibility. To that end, I've recently added a Wacom Bamboo Fun, Adobe PSE 6 and Spyder3 Pro for screen calibration. What's the best approach to integrate these tools into my environment?

Thanks!

Pupator

I can't answer your question because I use Lightroom rather than Aperture - but I'm sure someone will come along who can.

But I did want to ask - you left out the part where you backup your photos to DVD or a second HDD while on the road right? You don't really go for 2 weeks - 2 months with only one extant copy of your photos (and that on a portable USB drive)?

michswiss

Pupator wrote:

I can't answer your question because I use Lightroom rather than Aperture - but I'm sure someone will come along who can.

But I did want to ask - you left out the part where you backup your photos to DVD or a second HDD while on the road right? You don't really go for 2 weeks - 2 months with only one extant copy of your photos (and that on a portable USB drive)?

You are absolutely right that that is a gap in the current strategy. I have a another USB drive that I carry with me that I use for Time Machine. It currently has enough space to act as the secondary backup for most trips.

I've also thought about just buying a ton of CF cards in the 4-8GB range and just not clearing them until I get back to the home setup. I stopped burning DVDs for backup as I simply lose track of them and it's that much more I need to carry around while underway.

Pupator

michswiss wrote:

You are absolutely right that that is a gap in the current strategy. I have a another USB drive that I carry with me that I use for Time Machine. It currently has enough space to act as the secondary backup for most trips.

Excellent! Just wanted to make sure. I can't keep up with DVDs either and with HDD space so inexpensive, why bother?