Possible to import BOTH Raw file and Adjustments/Edits from IPhoto?

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Possible to import BOTH Raw file and Adjustments/Edits from IPhoto?

SUMMARY: I only shoot RAW and have been editing/adjusting pictures in IPhoto. Importing pictures from IPhoto to Aperture seems to generate two images: the "IPhoto Original" (Raw file with no adjustment) and the "IPhoto Edited" (what seems to be a jpeg which "processed:" with the IPhoto edits). What I am really after is a single version based on the RAW file (as Master) with IPhoto adjustments applied to it in Aperture.

THE "SLIGHTLY" LONGER STORY:

I have recently purchased Aperture (3.2) after having used IPhoto for a while and gathered 10k+ pics, I have started playing with Aperture and like what I saw (except the very frequent crashes or rather hangs it seems to generate... - I am running a library from an FW800 external drive).

I have been doing some tests importing from IPhoto (using the IPhoto browser - I want to be sure I know what I am doing before importing the whole library) and I cannot see a way to import photos in the way I would like (and which seems to make sense to me).

Here are the scenarios I have tested:

1) Import a RAW file directly into Aperture (no IPhoto interaction). I can then edit the picture in Aperture which creates a version based on the Raw master. Importantly, if I don't like my edits later I can go back to that adjusted version and simply reverse some of the adjustments and/or alter them, add new ones.

I could also do a "New Version from Master" so that I have a new blank canvas to work with from the raw file and make better adjustments.

So far so good, non-destructive editing as we like it...

2) Import an image from IPhoto. Two versions get created in Aperture: an "IPhoto Original" which is the Raw file with no adjustments applied to it and an "IPhoto Edited" which is a jpeg that contains the IPhoto edits. Problem is that neither image gives me an adjusted version based on the raw master file. Instead of importing the raw file from IPhoto and then re-apply the same adjustments made in IPhoto, Aperture seems to import an already-adjusted jpeg image (on top of the raw file).

I could decide to keep both versions: raw and IPhoto edited jpegs... But The majority of my pics in IPhoto is un-adjusted (70% maybe). For those, there is no point at all in keeping the "IPhoto Edited" because this is seemingly just a jpeg version of the raw file with no "added value" (as opposed to the pics that I have painstakingly edited in IPhoto and for which I would like to keep these adjustments as well as the raw file).

The issue of image rotation muddles the line between those pictures edited in IPhoto and those that are not: if I only rotate an image in IPhoto, I readon'tlly want to have to import/keep an un-rotated raw version and a rotated jpeg version of it.

Am I missing something obvious in some settings somewhere or is what I am after impossible to do?

In which case, I'd need to identify an "migration" workflow that would allow me to only keep those images in duplicate versions when they have "genuine" adjustments in IPhoto but there does not seem to be a way in IPhoto to create groupings/smart albums of photos with/without adjustments?

I am open to any suggestion as I am a bit at a loss right now (and a bit disappointed as I thought the migration would pretty seamless).

Thanks,

Jeremie

PS: I hope I got the terminology right with regards to versions/masters, etc.

Technical details (some might be relevant for the many crashes I have had?):

- MacBook Pro 2.53GHz i5

- Snow Leopard 10.6.8

- 8GB RAM (Crucial)

- Internal Apple SSD (locaion IPhoto library) and external 7200 rpm FW800 500GB HDD

- IPhoto 9.2.1

- Aperture 3.2.2

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 6, 2012 4:48 AM

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Answer 1

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Frank Caggiano

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Jan 6, 2012 5:35 AM in response to jeremie_rtw

jeremie_rtw wrote:

SUMMARY: I only shoot RAW and have been editing/adjusting pictures in IPhoto. Importing pictures from IPhoto to Aperture seems to generate two images: the "IPhoto Original" (Raw file with no adjustment) and the "IPhoto Edited" (what seems to be a jpeg which "processed:" with the IPhoto edits). What I am really after is a single version based on the RAW file (as Master) with IPhoto adjustments applied to it in Aperture.

Unfortunately it doesn;t work that way. When you edit in iPhoto, iPhoto makes a copy of the image so that the original and the edited version are two separate files. The edits aren't saved separate from the edited image.

When these two images are imported into Aperture there is no way for Aperture to 'look' at the edited version and say if we apply such and such adjustments to the original we'll get this. So there is no way for Aperture to create a version of the original that matches the edited image from iPhoto.

It does tag the images so you can kep them together, iPhoto Original and iPhoto edited, but thats all that is possible.

regards

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Answer 2

jeremie_rtw Author

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Jan 6, 2012 7:32 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks Frank.

I see what you are saying about IPhoto saving a different image (a jpeg in the Previews folder I presume) but I believe IPhoto does save the edits - as they always show in the Edit section for the modified photos (ie if I up the exposure by half a stop, IPhoto does somehow retain that info).

From an IPhoto point of view only, it is possible to look at any edited photo and:

1) make a note of all edits on the modified picture

2) revert to original (to get back to the raw file)

3) re-apply the exact same edit settings to generate the same adjustments on the raw pic.

My point is that both raw and adjustments information are available in IPhoto and I was really expecting the importing process from IPhoto to Aperture to be more clever in a similar fashion:

1) make a note of all edits on the modified picture (from IPhoto)

2) Import the RAW version into IPhoto

3) re-apply the exact same edit settings (mapped from IPhoto edits to Aperture adjustments) to generate the same adjustments, on the raw pic, in Aperture - thus creating a single version containing the IPhoto adjustments but based on a Raw master.

To be honest, the way Apple "sells" how easy it is to move from IPhoto to Aperture and retain all the editing effort is a bit misleading to my taste based on the above... And with all the hangs/crashes I have been experiencing with Aperture (my machine is very stable otherwise - even IPhoto with a 100GB+ library never crashes), I feel quite let down with Aperture.

Do you know if a script would allow to apply the steps that I described above?

Thanks,

Jeremie

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Answer 3

Jan 6, 2012 8:09 AM in response to jeremie_rtw

There may be a script out there to do what you ask, I've never seen one and don't even know if it is possible. You might want to ask over in the iPhoto group.

As far as Aperture goes this is how it works. You're right Apple advertising Aperture as a 'upgrade' to iPhoto is misleading. Aperture isn't an upgrade to iPhoto it's a very different application that happens to also manipulate image files.

As for your crashing issues you should start another post describing that problem, your hardware and software configuration etc.

regards

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Answer 4

jeremie_rtw Author

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Jan 6, 2012 4:25 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks for the suggestion Frank, I'll go ahead and ask the question in the IPhoto group but for what I have looked at, it does not look promising: the Apple script facilities in IPhoto do not seem to be able to do anything (read or apply) with regards to adjustments - and trying to look into the innards of the IPhoto library only seemed to reveal "version" files (strangely with ".apversion" extensions) that might contain the edits info but in a "semi-text/semi-proprietary-binary format" which does not seem easy to decode.

On the other hand I tested a manual approach by importing a raw version of an IPhoto edited picture into Aperture and "mapped" the IPhoto edits into Aperture Adjustments (this is fairly straight-forward for Exposure, Shadows, Contrast, etc..) and the similarity between the IPhoto edited picture and this new adjusted Aperture This is exactly what I want to do automatically (and really was hoping the standard IPhoto import would do) otherwise I'll spend hours (or rather days and weeks) "upgrading" my library to Aperture...

On the hunt for a script or a workaround now.. ;-) I'll report here about my findings so that the community can benefit from it (I do not believe I am the only one with this problem..)

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Answer 5

jeremie_rtw Author

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Jan 12, 2012 8:03 PM in response to jeremie_rtw

Just thought I'd give an update...

I have not had much luck in finding a script for doing what I want (described above) and since I am not tied to Aperture any more (since my edits are effectively "lost"), I am free to move to any editing software.

I quite prefer Lightroom in terms of Editing and since the latest beta adds two of Aperture features that are very good (Books and Maps), while catching up on Aperture with color levels and other adjustment improvements, I will probably skip Aperture altogether..

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Answer 6

jeremie_rtw Author

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Jan 26, 2012 5:50 AM in response to jeremie_rtw

Further update... on this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3683536?answerId=17406802022#17406802022

I basically found a way to identify "real edits" in IPhoto by digging into the SQLite database..

And I will probably use Aperture as an intermediary step to extract photos out of IPhoto and also sort through the real vs. non jpeg edits (this will then allow me to reorganise all my files in a better directory structure in a referenced library, by using "relocate Masters" and then import into Lightroom).

PS: note that this will not achieve exactly what I was intending (ie transfer IPhoto edits into actual Aperture adjustments onto the raw masters) but instead get rid of those "duplicate" jpeg previews from IPhoto which bring no value (ie the ones that I have not adjusted in IPhoto) while keeping those that have been edited.

The actual edit information is stored in a BLOB field in the database so not easily accessible..

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

197,297 points

Jan 26, 2012 6:16 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

When these two images are imported into Aperture there is no way for Aperture to 'look' at the edited version and say if we apply such and such adjustments to the original we'll get this. So there is no way for Aperture to create a version of the original that matches the edited image from iPhoto.

Frank,

I recently noticed that there now are exceptions to your statement above: "Crop" and "Straighten" adjustments are recognized by Aperture, and the images are imported as version and master pairs. The combined image shows both keywords "iPhoto Original" and "iPhoto Edited" at the same time. See an example in my post here:

Re: Aperture Loses iPhoto Edited Images

An iPhoto Library with four edited Images imported to Aperture as four images, on of them as a stack of two images. Only the rotated image imported as two separate images, the images with "Crop" and "Straighten" adjustments imported as Master-Verson pairs.

Cheers

Léonie

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Answer 8

jeremie_rtw Author

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Jan 27, 2012 2:50 AM in response to léonie

Well I just ran some more tests and I stand corrected - it seems that the "Import IPhoto Library" command behaves differently from the import from the IPhoto browser.

I just imported my whole library (instead of importing specific test events/albums from IPhoto) and the behaviour there was different from my initial testings reported at the beginning of the post (and much more in line with what I was expecting).

All raw (or jpeg) pictures that have not been modified in Aperture are imported as a single "IPhoto Original" picture. Ther great thing is that there is no duplication with an additional jpeg IPhoto preview picture.

But then the import works even better for those pictures for which there are adjustments/edits in IPhoto.

Aperture actually tries to apply the actual edits within Aperture (temperature, exposure, black/white clipping, stauration, etc.) on the version based on the original raw master (tagged "IPhoto Original" and "IPhoto Converted"). In some cases - and usually when the adjustments look quite different from IPhoto - an additional version tagged "IPhoto Edited" is also created as part of a stack (about 1/3 of all pictures with edits resulted in that scenario in my case vs. 2/3 with the earlier scenario).

FYI, version numbers:

Aperture 3.2.2

IPhoto 9.2.1

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