Prep Aperture Library with Photoshop Files for Import

Jeffrey Jakucyk

• October 03, 2015 17:40

Hi there. I made the move to Capture One Pro a number of months ago after using Aperture for many years. I jumped at a natural break in my shooting schedule, not worrying too much about migrating forward my old Aperture libraries (which are mostly separated by year). I have imported a few as a test though, and I figured out that the very unhelpful error message I got was related to the handful of Photoshop files in my library. I know that Capture One can't read those, and that TIFF is the preferred format. So I'm wondering if there's any other converted Aperture users here who've found a good way to make this transition work, because I will need to migrate all of my Aperture libraries at some point.

The issue is that while I can search in Aperture for PSD files and then open them all up in Photoshop in one fell swoop, saving them out as TIFF files from there doesn't bring those TIFFs back into Aperture. So then I have to import them into a new project, manually find which project/album they're in, move them there, re-stack them if necessary, reapply metadata, then relocate the originals to their proper location. That's hugely cumbersome, but I can't think of another way to approach it. Any ideas?

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  Eric Nepean

  • October 04, 2015 18:01

  Here are is one suggestion: After finding the PSD files in Aperture with a smart album, add the project name to one of the unused IPTC fields (source or instruction perhaps), either manually or using an Applescript. Export with Metadata, once converted to TIFF, the IPTC metadata should still be there, import into an Aperture project, select by the same Metadata=project name and put them back where the should be.
  
  Here is some Applescript I wrote to do some thing similar
  
  
-- Copy Filename and ImportSession to IPTC "Source" and and "JobID" fields

tell application "Aperture"
set selectedImages to (get selection)
end tell

if selectedImages is {} then
error "No images selected - select one or more images"
else

tell application "Aperture"
tell library 1
repeat with i from 1 to count of selectedImages
set thisImage to item i of selectedImages
tell thisImage
set fileName to (get value of other tag "FileName") as string
set versionName to (get value of other tag "VersionName") as string
set dateImportSession to (get value of other tag "ImportGroup") as string
log "Version: " & versionName & " File: " & fileName & " Import Session: " & dateImportSession
make new IPTC tag with properties {name:"Source", value:fileName}
make new IPTC tag with properties {name:"Original Transmission Reference", value:dateImportSession & " Aperture"}
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end tell

  
  I don't have time to debug for you, but I would try changing it to
  
  
-- Copy Version name and Project Name to IPTC "Source" and and "JobID" fields

tell application "Aperture"
set selectedImages to (get selection)
end tell

if selectedImages is {} then
error "No images selected - select one or more images"
else

tell application "Aperture"
tell library 1
repeat with i from 1 to count of selectedImages
set thisImage to item i of selectedImages
tell thisImage
set fileName to (get value of other tag "FileName") as string
set versionName to (get value of other tag "VersionName") as string
set dateImportSession to (get value of other tag "ImportGroup") as string
set projectName to (get value of other tag "ProjectName") as string
log "Version: " & versionName & " File: " & fileName & " Import Session: " & dateImportSession & " Project: " & projectName
make new IPTC tag with properties {name:"Source", value:versionName}
make new IPTC tag with properties {name:"Original Transmission Reference", value:projectName}
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end tell


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  Eric Nepean

  • October 04, 2015 18:03

  By the way I posted my recipe for Aperture Import here, you may find it useful.
  

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  NN635770922769309595UL

  • October 05, 2015 09:15

  You can do this quite easily using Aperture Exporter (). It's available as a free trial so you can confirm it does what you want before purchasing.
  
  I used it successfully and the only caveat is to do it in handy bite-size chunks, for example by firstly setting up a User Collection in C1 with Albums, Projects and Groups that mimic your Aperture library and then Export selected Album(s) as New Library, and use Aperture Exporter to export that library to C1.

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  Jeffrey Jakucyk

  • October 10, 2015 19:42

  The problem with exporting the Photoshop files out of Aperture and reimporting them is that the exported file is flattened, so I lose all my layers, which is the most important part. Aperture Exporter also makes no mention of Photoshop files, so I'm not sure how it handles them.

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  NN635770922769309595UL

  • October 11, 2015 10:17

  jjak
  
  According to Aperture Exporter tech support it handles PS files, and as they mentioned there is a free trial period that you can use to be sure it does what you want - why not export a few albums with PS files as a new Aperture library and try it?

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