Unwanted downsizing on export and import

Question

Unwanted downsizing on export and import

Hi there =)

When I export a photo and add effects or other in different apps, the size of the photo has downsized by more than half! I have the export settings in aperture set to keep original size but it shows up downsized in other applications. I can export a photo 17.9MP and it returns at 4.5MP and if I export at 4.5MP it returns at 1.1MP.

Please help! Tanya

Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Mar 25, 2012 2:31 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Mar 25, 2012 3:00 AM in response to TanyaMarieReeves

Tanya,

how do you export to external editors? Do you export to your hard drive, then edit, then reimport, or do you select your image in the Browser in Aperture and then use "File -> Edit with whatever your external editor is set to".

If you use the second approach, then your images should keep their original size, or even grow larger, for Aperture will send them to the external editor converted to tiff or psd, depending on your settings.
If you exort to disk and reimport, then the size will depend on the format you picked. Even with the size set to "original size", this only means the number of pixels will remain the same, but not necessarily the file size. If you export as jpeg, the quality slider will influence the size of the file, also your choice of image format: jpeg, tiif, etc. The lossy file format (jpeg) will result in a better compressing and smaller files than tiff.

The best way to do external edits is to use the export settings in the Aperture preferences and to set an External Photo Editor and an external File Format in the "Export tab" and then to send the images to the editor from Aperture.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Mar 25, 2012 3:29 AM in response to léonie

Thank-you so very much L`eonie!

This is what I usually do ... My photo is already in aperture on my mac, I open another app and select import and then select my photo/s from the aperture library (or I drag and drop from aperture directly to the app on my desktop).

My image format for exporting is jpeg... from what you have written above Im guessing i should have it set to tiff or psd? This makes a difference yeah?

I will find where I set an external photo editor as you suggested as well. Fingers crossed!

Tanya

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Mar 25, 2012 3:47 AM in response to TanyaMarieReeves

You are welcome, Tanya, glad to help!

then select my photo/s from the aperture library or I drag and drop from aperture directly to the app on my desktop

Tanya, that explains it: If you drag and drop from Aperture, or import using the Media Browser (I think your "select my photo/s from the aperture library" means the Media Browser) then you will not use your "Export" presets. With both these methods the external editor will use the Previews of your images, not the high resolution master image files. The quality of your preview images depens on your settings in the "Preferences -> Preview" panel; usually this is set to for your screen size, but not good enough for high quality printing.

Regards

Léonie

To export directly to an external editor from Aperture:

P.S.: Right now there is a funny bug with the export to an external editor, read this support article for a work around, if you do not see the results of your edits: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4237

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