I’ve just made a really useful Automator workflow for fans of Aperture. The workflow allows me to select any number of .NEF raw files (either managed or as referenced masters) and with a single click perform the following actions:
- Generate XMP sidecar files with all Aperture metadata and export them with the .NEF to a working folder
- Combine the .XMP and the .NEF into a .DNG using the latest DNG converter from Adobe
- Remove the temporary .NEF and .XMP files leaving only the DNG files
- Open a finder dialog, allow me to select one or all of the DNG files
- Opens my selection for editing in Adobe Camera Raw
This is important to me as it allows me to use all the power and flexibility of Apertures photo management and retain the use of ALL the brilliant non-destructive editing tools of Lightroom (which are all available in the ACR interface). Further heavy pixel pushing from ACR straight to Photoshop is a further button click away.
There is a little basic setup required.
- Go to this site, download and install the DNG Automator action.
- If you don’t have it yet, go to Adobe and download their free DNG converter. Install it.
- Go to my Skydrive and download my workflow (or application if you prefer), unzip it and run it.
You should see something like this:
The workflow should open in Automator. Replace the areas in the image above which say Adobe Photoshop CS4 with the version you have (if you don’t have CS4).
You can now either run the workflow directly from Automator or (from Automator) click: File > Save as plugin. Select ‘Script menu’ under the plug-in for section and choose a name. The script is added to your scripts folder in your taskbar and you can access it really easily when you’re in Aperture.
Done! The best of Aperture goodness with the heavy lifting of ACR and Photoshop for when you want it.
Hi,
How do you then get the file back into aperture and make any future edits ?
Hi Dave
Once the file has been exported you merely import it back into your Aperture library. This is a process you can do manually as I like to do or you can automate it. Aperture treats the DNG as a RAW format and further adjustments are performed in a non-destructive manner. You can also elect to process further adjustments in Photoshop or through the vast number of available plugins; in this case the DNG+adjustments are usually baked out to a TIFF.
Sorry I meant to also say thank you for the post as this could be just the thing I am looking for.
Dave
I’m not sure I follow?
I convert my .cr2 cannon raw files in light room or raw into .DNG files? I then make edits to them in light room or ACR to the .DNG files i.e. grayscale etc. I would love to import these worked on .DNG files into Aperture to file them and or create books with them. When I import these worked-on .dng files (it light room or ACR) into Aperture the work I did in those programs does not show up. I mean if I changed my .DNG to a grayscale in Light room or ACR then Aperture doesn’t show it as a grayscale image but as instead in it’s original color raw form.
Is it possible for aperture to display the photo how I worked on it in those adobe raw programs?
I’m trying to unzip your workflow files on my mac and they won’t work. Mac doesn’t recognize the file at all. I download the file and it’s just blank with no option to unzip and won’t let me open it in Automator.