Aperture and Plug In question

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Level 4

2,545 points

Aperture and Plug In question

I am new to Macs and even newer to Aperture (former Lightroom user) and I decided to try - and purchase - the Nik software bundle.

So far really impressed - but now the question:

When you choose a photo to be edited with a plug-in, Aperture creates a TIFF file for the plug-in to work on.

Is there anyway to tell Aperture to create a PSD file - even an 8 bit PSD file - like I can set up when using PS Elements 10 as my "external editor"?

I only see the settings in Preferences to set up the one external editor - no settings (unless I am missing something) for the plug-ins.

Just because the TIFF files end up taking up a lot more room than PSD files do.

Thanks,

Steve

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Dec 14, 2011 3:11 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,773 points

Dec 14, 2011 10:57 PM in response to swandy

cancelled, please delete this stub

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Answer 2

swandy Author

Level 4

2,545 points

Dec 15, 2011 5:53 AM in response to léonie

Leonie, I was about to thank you for trying but to write that I have heard this solution in several forums and it is not the answer as I am referring to PLUGINS not the EXTERNAL EDITOR - but I guess since you cancelled your response you realized this.

Hopefully someone.......

Thanks, Steve

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Answer 3

Dec 15, 2011 8:04 AM in response to swandy

Have you tried setting the External Editor preference to PSD? It is possible that edit plug-ins (as opposed to export plug-ins) use this setting also. I don't have any edit plug-ins to test it on right now.

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Answer 4

swandy Author

Level 4

2,545 points

Dec 15, 2011 8:25 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

I realize that everyone here and in other forums are trying to help BUT it seems no one reads my post - I do have the external editor set for PSD/8 Bit - but that setting seems to have no effect on the way Aperture sends files to the various NIk plugins that I have. Those receive TIFF files, which for my purposes are not worth the hard drive space.

Thanks anyway, Steve

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Answer 5

Dec 15, 2011 8:47 AM in response to swandy

You're original post was a long rambling account not really a question. I tried to dig out of it what you're problem was, sorry if I missed that fact .

To be honest that you are new to macs or aperture or that you decided to buy the nick software bundle or that tiff files are bigger then psd files (really, wow!, goo to know) has nothing to do with your situation. If you want help here you really need to learn how to describe your problem in 20 words or less. We're all just users here trying to fit in a few minutes of helping out others between our other tasks. If we have to wade through someone's life story to get at the problem it really becomes a bit much.

And actually you never say outright that you tried setting the external editor to PSD and using thsat wiith the plug-in in your orginal post.

Oh and putting words in caps like BUT is really helpfull, makes me really see what your point is.

good luck,

dregards

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Answer 6

swandy Author

Level 4

2,545 points

Dec 15, 2011 12:04 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

I thought my original post explained pretty clearly what my "problem" and thought mentioning the fact I was a new user might explain why I was mistified by Aperture's behavior.

I did fine out from Nik software that their plugins will only work on TIFF files so they ignore whatever export settings I had selected.

Sorry if I sounded testy but this was driving me crazy after I kept getting responses that the export settings should work.

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Answer 7

Dec 15, 2011 1:38 PM in response to swandy

Steve --

Thanks for posting back. I had thought Nik's Aperture plug-ins worked with TIFF files only -- glad to have it confirmed.

If you own Photoshop, opening a new Master in PS via "Edit in PS", and then using the Nik plug-ins for PS, is a superior workflow. Imho, any one Nik plug-in works well with Aperture, but if you use more than one on any Image, you are much better off using them both via PS. I purchased the NIk Aperture plug-in suite. That was a bad purchase (and Nik couldn't care). I would have been much better off getting Nik's PS suite.

Super Aperturista Rob Bower addresses this in this blog post.

More broadly: get lots more storage. (It was cheap prior to the Thai floods, and will be cheap again.) Trying to save space by working with certain types of files is, IME, penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Most broadly -- let me extend a group welcome to you. We are usually not only very helpful, but also kind and considerate. Please don't hesitate to ask more questions (and post answers when you know them).

Cheers.

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