Quick Tip: Aperture and Your iPod

As the launch of Liphart Studios approaches (my first official shoot is tomorrow), I've faced a serious dilema; hard disk space.  I have a 120 GB internal hard drive (down to 5 GB free), and an external 120 GB drive for Time Machine.  I could have wiped the external and used that for photo storage, but I knew that the second I did that, I'd need that backup.  So I researched getting new hard drives, but the money just wasn't there.  The other night, a huge light bulb went off over my head.  My iPod!  For years now, you've been able to use the iPod as a general storage device, just like an external hard drive, by enabling disc use.  I knew this, and I've used it on and off in the past, but hadn't thought about it since I had my iPod Mini.  Anyway, by putting the Aperture Library on my iPod, I have 50 GB of free space to play with for photos.  And it freed up some space on my lappy too.  Here's how to do it:

1) Enable disc use of your iPod through iTunes (in Other Options, under the Summary tab of your iPod in iTunes).

2) Move your Aperture Library to the iPod location of your choice (I chose Photos).

3) Move your computer's copy of the Aperture Library somewhere as a backup.

4) Load Aperture, and if not prompted to locate your library, go to Preferences/General/Library Location and point it to the library on your iPod.

That's it!  Now you  have a portable Aperture Library.  The downside is that you have to have your iPod plugged in to use Aperture, but if you've got a bunch of free space on your iPod, you might as well use it!  Also, if you lose your iPod, you lose your photographs.  Always keep a backup! This tip will also work with iPhoto, and I'm sure other programs as well.

Mini-Review: Sony A200 DSLR

So I finally got my camera.  I had to work with a tight budget, and I ultimately went with the Sony A200.  It's very lightweight, has a great interface (even for someone coming off of Canons for the past 2 years), and is pretty fast for it's price point.  That price point being the $500 entry-level.   For the cost, you don't get a lot of features, and indeed, there are flaws.  The A200's flaw lies in it's noise levels (and bad noise reduction) at higher ISOs.  Going over ISO 800 introduces more noise than one would expect, and the noise reduction causes smearing, especially when you get to 1600 or 3200.  (Shooting RAW helps, but does not eliminative, this issue.)  It does produce very crisp and clear photographs, with reproduction (at lower ISOs) greater than one would expect of a $500 DSLR.  It also comes with a kit lens that ranges 18-70mm, beyond the typical kit lens that only reaches 55mm.  This is great for shooting portraits.  I shoot exclusively in RAW, and the results are wonderful.  It only does 3 frames per second (up to 6 frames total RAW), but I find this to be adequate even for animal shots so far. 

I'm still in the "testing" phase, as I've not had my own DSLR to go wild with before.  I've taken a few cool shots, and a lot of really bad ones!  The shot in this post was taken earlier this afternoon on my property with the A200.  Of course, I processed it a bit to get that result, but you can still see great amounts of detail in the larger size version, which can be seen here if you have a deviantART account. I've also played around with making some HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures, and the results have been pretty cool.  I'm going to add a sidebar here on the blog so you can track my recent photos and other artwork (for those interested) on my deviantART account .  I did have to laugh a bit at the included software; Sony knows that Mac users already have a management system built in (iPhoto), so the included software is very simple RAW adjustment and conversion tools, nothing more.  I installed the stuff, but I have yet to actually use it since I use Aperture.  I don't foresee the need for it, but you never know.  At any rate, don't expect this blog to become a photo-journal; I'm going to keep it tech based here.  I just wanted to post a very short review of the A200.  And yes, I will probably post about all the cool gadgets I get to go with the camera.