Upgrade to 3.4.3 Problems--huge change in image appearance

Question

Upgrade to 3.4.3 Problems--huge change in image appearance

Hi all,

I've just upgraded to Aperture 3.4.3 from 2.1.4 and I'm having some big issues. On some of my images, the adjustments seem totally changed. For instance, on several images, the contrast has been reset to 1.0 (all the way to the right). Other images the exposure and color balance seems different or lost. The change isn't universal, either. The image just before and just after may appear correct, but the image in between is corrupted. My typical work process is to get one image right and lift and stamp adjustments in a series, so all of the adjustments originally should have been the same. Sometimes the thumbnail looks okay, then when I click on it, the image gets corrupted. Odd series of issues.

Also, I noticed that each image was processed with a previous processor and Aperture asks to reprocess. When I do, the image looks much worse than it did before. All the images are taken with in Raw .nef format, with a D100, D200, and D300, but mostly seems to impact the earlier models.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,

Steve

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Aperture 3.4.3

Posted on Mar 21, 2013 2:14 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2013 7:57 PM in response to steve hutchcraft

A quick update:

After the Apple communities went down for repairs, I called Apple Care. I got the "we've never experienced this problem before" response. They suggested to repair preferences, then repair, then rebuild. I've made it through the first two and no joy. Hesitant about the third. . . .

I have tens of thousands of images that appear to be messed up, primarily with changed "enhance" adjustments. Contrast set to 1.0 in many instances. Vibrancy moved to zero, Saturation appears to now be an addition of prior vibrancy and saturation (ie prior sat @ .03, vib @ .17, new @ sat .2, vib @ 0.0). Totally stumped.

Really bummed at this point with 3.4.3. . . .Thousands of hours of work lost.

Thanks for any insight.

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Answer 2

Mar 21, 2013 8:40 PM in response to steve hutchcraft

An unfortune side effect of updates to the raw converter can be the symptoms you are seeing.

When the update to the library occured did you get a message to the affect that images had been converted with an earlier version of the raw converter and asking if you wanted to update the images?

If so you could decline to do the update to the images and they should appear as they were.

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Answer 3

Mar 21, 2013 9:30 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank,

Thanks for the reply.

It did ask me if I wanted to update with the latest raw converter. When I did, the images were worse. Surprised that the specific adjustments I made previously seem to be ignored and/or exaggerated. . . .

Stumped.

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Answer 4

Mar 22, 2013 6:25 AM in response to steve hutchcraft

Steve,

I have seen this report several times, but never experienced it. None of the shots from my D200, for example, ever dramatically changed in later versions of Aperture.

Export the Master for one of these images, and then Import that NEF back into a new Aperture Project, as a test.

Ernie

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Answer 5

Mar 22, 2013 6:51 AM in response to steve hutchcraft

One possibility is to redo the upgrade from the V2 library from your backups and after version 3 starts don't update the current images with the new Raw converter. This will at least keep the images as they are and you can see how 3 works with newly imported images.

Having written that I have had the same experiences as Ernie mentioned in his post. I have a Canon 40d and I have never seen any dramatic changes in the images when there has been an update to the converter. Of course I started with version 3 so this may only apply to version 2 to 3 upgrades.

regards

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Answer 6

Mar 22, 2013 7:15 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks for the replies!

Exported the image and re-imported. Seems fine, but of course there are no adjustments. I've checked my library, and it appears every (tens of thousands) image has been changed. Only the "enhance" adjustments seem to be affected though.

As mentioned above, if the contrast had been upped in the original, it now shifts to 1.0 ruining the image. Vibrancy appears to have been reset to zero in every image. Every one. Saturation has changed as well, in most cases it appears to be an addition of Vibrancy and Saturation from the original 2.1.4 version. Really great for skin tones. I'm guessing this as my "standard" adjustment for people images is +.03 Sat and +.17 Vib. Now many images are +.2 Sat.

I rebuilt the library as Apple Care suggested. No change, except the order in the albums and projects has been totally rearranged, so much for that work, as well.

Really frustrated. Am I going to have to delete this library and reload from my 2.1.4 vault?

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Answer 7

Mar 22, 2013 7:58 AM in response to steve hutchcraft

Lift the adjustments from the first Version, and then Stamp them on the newly imported image. Is the result the same as before, or is it now suitable?

Ernie

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Answer 8

Mar 22, 2013 8:15 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Pastes as before--no vibrancy, different saturation setting. This particular image is only three weeks old. It appears that the upgrade/update didn't bring in the enhance settings properly. . . .

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Answer 9

Mar 22, 2013 8:18 AM in response to steve hutchcraft

Please expand in complete detail what you mean by "enhance settings"? Was the image first processed by something other than Aperture 2.1.4 -- say with Nikon software?

Ernie

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Answer 10

Mar 22, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Sure. For this particular image I took the image with a Nikon D300 in raw .nef format and imported it directly into Aperture 2.1.4. Made adjustments to white balance, levels, and vibrancy and saturation and cropped. When I upgraded to 3.4.3, everything but the enhance settings (vib and sat) came through properly.

Before I upgraded, I did repair the library, but Apple Care is telling me that my library must be corrupted. It worked great in 2.1.4, so I don't know what could have happened.

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Answer 11

Feb 2, 2014 4:26 PM in response to steve hutchcraft

I'm glad I found this post. A few years ago, when I upgraded to Aperture 3 from Aperture 2, the exact same thing happened to me. I was also using a D200 at the time, and all or most of the images that I had used any "Enhance" Adjustments on, like Contrast, Saturation or Vibrancy, had Contrast set to 1.0 among other things when I upgraded. And when I reprocessed some images with the new RAW conversion, they didn't turn out as good as before.

I never did figure out why this happened and what could be done about it. But I had copies of some projects that I managed to convert again from 2 to 3 into new libraries, and at some point I got it to work (but don't remember what I did differently). But even to this day, I still have thousands of images in my main Aperture 3 library that have this problem. I said that I was going to wait until Aperture 4 came out before I was going to undertake changing all the old images, but I've been waiting for years now.

I would also like to know what you ended up doing Steve. And if anyone knows anything more about this issue, it would be great if you could share the details. I particularly want to know if perhaps my main library could be corrupted, and if I should export all the projects and import them to a new library. I'm hoping that it was just a bug during the conversion and that my library is fine. But if it isn't, I would like to know.

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Answer 12

Feb 3, 2014 11:23 AM in response to Don_McCracken

Don,

Sorry to hear that someone else had the exact same issue as I. Not surprised that Apple didn't mention that, and still disappointed that Apple has never resolved my issue, especially after escalating it to engineering nearly a year ago. . . .

I ended up doing nothing, and fixing the old images as I need them in 3.4.3. I do also have a 2.1.4 on my system and can open that up as needed.

Might be worth sending off another email to them. . . .

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Answer 13

Feb 3, 2014 12:54 PM in response to steve hutchcraft

Hi Steve,

I'm sorry to hear that you never found a solution and that Apple didn't figure out what is causing this bug. Before I moved to Aperture 3 however, I saved a copy of my library as 2.1.3. And since it was over 3 years ago since I did the original conversion, today I made a copy of the old library and converted it again with 3.4.3. Unfortunately I got the exact same results. Just incredible how this bug can still be there after so many years.

However, after going through everything, what sticks out is that it only seems to affect RAW images from my NIkon D200. Images from my D300 are not affected. And all the affected images have had some tweaks to the 'Enhance' Adjustments. Was it the same for you, or did you have this happen to images other than from D200 as well? If you have any additional information I may call up Apple again and try to have them solve it, or at least fix the bug so I can make a proper import of all my old images in Aperture 4.

Unfortunately I no longer have Aperture 2 installed (which I would need to to some additional testing and exporting of projects). Do you know If I can install it when I already have Aperture 3 on my system? Or will some preference files etc. get overwritten?

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Answer 14

Feb 3, 2014 1:23 PM in response to steve hutchcraft

I just found the following support document on Apple's website:

Aperture 3: Darker photos after converting library from Aperture 2 to Aperture 3

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5171

So at least Apple is not acknowledging the issue. Perhaps this document was created after you talked to support? The document says that it is only the Contrast slider that is affected. Is this your experience as well? I'm guessing that my saturation and vibrancy values have been altered as well, but I can't say for sure until I re-install Aperture 2.

If it's only the Contrast, and I was reassured that there is nothing wrong with my library file, the I guess I could just stamp the Contrast to 0.

Also, what is your experience with RAW reprocessing of D200 images in Aperture 3? Do you recommend that? I'm finding that especially for flesh tones, the old Aperture 2 processing looks better. And the Aperture 3 processing seems to make images a bit washed out compared to Aperture 2. I haven't been able to exactly replicate the Aperture 2 RAW processing with Adjustments in Aperture 3. But perhaps you have a solution?

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Answer 15

Feb 3, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Don_McCracken

Mostly with the D200 images, but did get some of the D300 images, including a few that I had recently taken. Oddly, it didn't get them all--very hit and miss. Some images would be fine, then the next one cobbled up. Especially odd, since I copy many of my adjustments, especially the enhance settings, from image to image as a starting place.

I did email Apple for an update, I'll post a response if I get one!

Best,

Steve

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