Is it possible to have enable editing photo metadata (keywords, rating, stars, color) in both Aperture and Photo Mechanic if the files are stored in Aperture as "referenced" files?
I did a quick test, and some data is transferred/shared, such as the "caption" and "keywords", but the stars are not shared, nor is the color rating.
And if the files are managed as JPEG+RAW (NREF), how does that factor into the equation?
I'm looking for the ability do seamless super fast browsing of images with further tweaking in Aperture, and minimal duplication of files/data.
I've seen recommendations for doing an initial sort of photos after "ingesting" into PhotoMechanic, and then copying the files to an "Edit" folder for importing into Aperture, but that seems awkward to have the photos in both places, but maybe that's simply the best solution to store a "reference" set that is only downloaded and has some initial metatdata, and then to do more in Aperture with the chosen photos. Plus, this would enable placing the "desirable" photos on a local, faster driver, rather than an external, thunderbolt drive. The big disadvantage I see is later updating metadata in aperture, or the photo-mechanic ingest folder, and having the meta-data not shared between the edit set and the ingest set.
Here's an interesting article on this topic: http://www.quora.com/Margaux-Yiu/answers/Digital-Photography