I just purchased Color Efex Pro and am wondering what file format the photo is after the round-trip back to Aperture. I know it exports as a TIFF, but back in Aperture I can only determine that it is “Externally Edited”.
Jpg? or is externally edited some proprietary format?
Thanks
Lawrence,
The format that comes back from any external editor is the same you sent out — which is determined by your preferences in Aperture. However the plugins can sometimes behave differently, and if memory serves, Color Efex Pro always send a TIF file back and forth—but I could be wrong. The easiest way to check is to look at the File Name in the Metadata tab, like this: [screenshot]. Notice there it says .PSD at the end of the file name.
@PhotoJoseph
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I don’t have Color Efex Pro but I have another Nik plugin - HDR Efex Pro. I’m betting Joseph a beer that they work the same as far as Image Output Format.
HDR Efex Pro has a setting that controls what file format comes back to Aperture. You need to open the plug-in and click the Settings button on the lower left. Then twirl open the IMAGE OUTPUT SETTINGS section. You can select JPEG, TIFF8 or TIFF16. I don’t know if this overrides the file setting in Aperture’s Preferences for what type of file is sent to the plug-in but it certainly controls what comes back to Aperture.
Thomas
Nik always generates a tiff file. You can check this by looking at the metadata for the newly created Nik file. You need to export the tiff file to create a jpg file and reimport that jpg back into Aperture if you so desire. The rub is where Nik puts the tiff file. Some of the apps put the tiff in the same directory as the referenced file. Some of the Nik apps put the tiff file directly into the Aperture library even if you use referenced files exclusively. Tiff files can easily be in excess of 100 MB. The moral is KEEP TRACK OF YOUR TIFF FILES — otherwise you will be visiting the Western Digital exabyte hard drive shop more frequently than you like.
Tom Carroll
Tom Carroll
www.tomcarrollphotography.com
Thanks Joseph, Thomas, and Tom for the info. Duh, I can’t believe I didn’t look there. The other info is helpful too!
Thomas,
Guess you owe me a beer ;-)
There’s no option in CEP4. I think that there is one in HDR Efex Pro because of the quantity of files you create in generating HDRs? Also I recall Trey recommends using JPG for HDR files, although I don’t know why. Maybe for that reason.
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph,
It was an easy bet. I would have bought you one anyway.
Aperture does send a bunch of files to HDR Efex Pro but only one comes back. The sent files get discarded automatically. Doesn’t make sense to me why HDR would give you more options on the returned file.
This is an aside because it’s related to HDR Efex Pro rather than CEP4 but I just did some snooping in the Aperture library when sending three files to HDR Efex Pro. Aperture created three 16bit TIFF files contrary to my Aperture Preference External Editor setting of 8bit TIFF. So it seems that plug-ins don’t use Aperture’s External Editor settings. The resulting file sent back to Aperture matched the setting in the HDR plug-in. The three 16bit TIFF files got deleted after I click the Save button in the HDR plug-in.
Thomas