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Aperture , Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Workflow #1
Kay in's picture
by Kay in
June 2, 2013 - 3:45pm

Hi all,

Been here for a while, and talked a few times about my sports workflow and using Aperture. For the last couple of months this season i've switched towards shooting full-raw, i noticed that Aperture isen't the right fit for shooting 1.500 raw images and edit them quickly. i Mean, on editing im a lot quicker on Aperture, but importing, waiting, browsing, selecting, captioning is just so much better and quicker on Photo mechanic.

So my current workflow for all kinds of photography is 100% photo mechanic. BUT i noticed that with a library of like 50+ shoots a month, im just lost track of all other projects, privat photos and such.

In the mean time i just fell in love with Photoshop and ACR. While Aperture is a perfect RAW processor and can work fantastic with photoshop there are several times i would like to work with ACR.. There have been a lot of talk about that its just not possible. but in the mean time did anybody find out a great workflow or made a script or something to make this more workable situation.
I mean Aperture is amazing but the 2 main things that are a pain in the but are.

The initial force to use a managed library
The lack of integration with other workflows (ACR, DXO Optics and such)

Bob Rockefeller's picture
by Bob Rockefeller
June 3, 2013 - 7:53pm

Of course, there’s no need to use a managed library if you would prefer a referenced library. That should fix point 1.

Point 2 is a little tougher because Apeture IS your raw workflow tool. Lightroom is your tool for ACR. If you don’t like or don’t want to use Aperture’s raw conversions, but you want to use Aperture’s other features, things get complicated.

You could import a raw file into Aperture and then immediately edit that with Photoshop to make the ACR raw conversion and whatever other Photoshop adjustments you want. When that file round trips back into Aperture, you can continue with it from there. The same for DxO.

Bob

Bob
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Bob Rockefeller
Midway, GA
www.bobrockefeller.com

Butch Miller's picture
by Butch Miller
June 4, 2013 - 4:22am

i Mean, on editing im a lot quicker on Aperture, but importing, waiting, browsing, selecting, captioning is just so much better and quicker on Photo mechanic.

You should look at this story:

Import Browse Test

Add in a handy utility like Text Expander and you add the power of Code Replacement found in Photo Mechanic system wide … in other words, you can make snippets and shortcuts for countless text input options you do repeatedly each and every day in every application you use in OS X … not just PM.

By setting your import preferences in Aperture appropriately (set it up to use the embedded camera previews rather than waiting for Aperture to build new ones … which is what PM does), you can work at nearly the same speed as in PM … you can even set Aperture to only import “tagged” images so you only have to import your selects and not the whole shoot if you are on a short deadline …

I routinely import 1,000 to 6,000 images following games and high participation events and complete the task as quickly as if I were to use a PM/ACR/Ps workflow … matter of fact, by using Aperture … I rarely find the need to visit ACR or Ps at all …

Russell's picture
by Russell
June 18, 2013 - 6:58pm

There are scripts available so that you can edit raw files in ACR/PS that can round trip back to Aperture but here’s a simple workaround that I do using Automator Folder Actions.

For those who may not know, Automator is an app included in OSX with which you can write script-like functions. It’s actually quite a powerful tool but fairly easy to use. Anyhooooo…

I’ve written two Automator Folder Actions allocated to two specific folders. I “Export Original” from Aperture into the first folder. The Automator Folder Action takes the file and opens it in ACR. I can either then do ACR adjustments or more usually, open as a Smart Object in PS CS6 and complete the edit.

I then save it as a PSD into a second folder that I have set up with an Automator Folder Action that immediately imports it into Aperture. You can actually choose when setting up the Folder Action whether to import as referenced or managed. And if imported as a managed file, you can delete the original PSD.

So, in Automator, the first Folder Action is simply Allocate Folder > Get Folder Contents > Open in PS CS6.

The second Folder Action is Allocate Folder > Get Folder Contents > Import Photos (which you can choose within Automator +/- managed file +/- delete original PSD). Make sure you choose the option with the Aperture icon rather than the iPhoto option.

The only thing I can’t get it to do with Automator is delete the original raw export file after ACR/PS has finished with it. So I just go back and trash it manually later.

Russell

Russell's picture
by Russell
June 18, 2013 - 7:47pm

BTW - you can set it up for any external editor you like. So I have a different folder for nefs edited in CNX.

Russell

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