[Leica] Drowning in digital files

[rclompus at mac.com (Richard Clompus)]

Peter,

One solution to having multiple huge files is to use a Mac with  
Aperture.  Photoshop has become more of a graphics program for me  
while Aperture 1.5 provides 99% of what I need for digital management  
and output.  I just returned from MacWorld in San Francisco where I  
attended a 2 day class in aperture.  This software requires you to  
think differently about how you handle image files.  Once you import  
the raw file, anything you do it is just a small instruction set  
(~36K) that tells the program what changes you want to make - such as  
sharpening, levels, high resolution TIFF or low resolution jpg file.   
The original raw remains unchanged and can be stored on any media you  
choose.  With  Photoshop, you create a new file for every image  
alteration.  My main concern as I go deeper into digital image  
management is how you store, label and access 1000's of images.   
Aperture provides that solution.  I use Photoshop for more serious  
manipulation only.  I have learned to shoot more carefully so I don't  
have to fix it afterwards in Photoshop.

Aperture provides an entirely different solution to image management  
compared to Photoshop.  I'll always have Photoshop but seem to use it  
less as I have gotten to be a better photographer with Aperture.

My 2 cents.

Happy shooting,

Richard Clompus
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL



On Jan 22, 2007, at 2:11 AM, Peter Klein wrote:

> I'm a bit of a squirrel.  I rarely throw anything away unless  
> forced to.  Then once in a while, reluctantly, I do a big cleanup.   
> As with life, so with computers.  I have files on my computer that  
> date back to 1983, the year I started working with PCs, plus some  
> converted CP/M files from even earlier(!)  This has not been much  
> of a problem--most of it has been text, and the size of the hard  
> drive on the new computer I buy is always bigger than the old one.   
> So I never hit the ceiling.
>