Apple Aperture - Manual (Page 78)

78 Part I Interface and Acquisition
What Is a Vault?
To ensure you have backup copies of your images, you create a vault to hold the
backup. A vault is a container that holds an exact copy of the Library. This includes your
projects, digital master files, and any versions you’ve created. You can easily create and
update a vault to back up the Library. It’s a good idea to create multiple vaults on
multiple external hard drives to safeguard copies of the Library.
You can have as many vaults as you deem necessary. Creating more than one vault is
useful if you work at different locations; you can always keep one vault on a FireWire
drive onsite and another one offsite. All vaults and backup files are tracked by the
Library so that even if you disconnect the external hard drive that contains your vault,
Aperture can access it the next time you reconnect the drive and update your vault.
All the managed master file images, versions, and all metadata, previews, and adjustment
information associated with your images are backed up. The versions, previews, and
metadata associated with referenced images’ master files are also backed up in the vault.
Referenced images’ master files are not backed up in the vault with the Library.
Important: Because the digital master files for referenced images are stored outside of
the Library, you must manage the backup and archiving of them yourself.
Working with Projects
How you use and organize your projects depends on the scope of your workflow as
well as your particular organizational style. These factors also affect your decision to
use one or more albums in your project.
Organizing Your Projects
Typically, you create a new project for each photographic project or job that you work
on, regardless of its duration. For example, if you’re working on a documentary in
Thailand, you would create a project for it. If you’re also shooting the temples in the
interior of the country, that could be a second, separate project. Both projects could
conceivably refer to some of the same images, but they are completely independent
structures, each with its own versions, master files, and albums.
Very large photography projects, such as documentaries and sporting events, often
consist of large numbers of captured images. You can always break one project into
several should the need arise.