RAW photos are purple when imported

Aperture has just added RAW support for my Olympus E-M1. I took several photos in JPG+RAW. When importing them to Aperture the JPGs were fine but some, not all, of the RAW images became purple. Is this an Aperture problem, an SD card problem, or camera problem? Someone told me to reformat my SD cards because I had been using them on my Nikon camera, so I did. Could this be the problem? Also, when I put the SD card in my MacBookPro again, it showed up in Finder but not in the Import menu. Could this also be related to not reformatting the card before taking RAW photos? I haven't had the problem with JPGs with this camera.

Thank you for any help.

Aperture 3, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 30, 2013 5:55 PM

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12 replies

Jan 3, 2014 10:39 PM in response to RPbySC

There a a number of different issues at play.


This is the embedded preview extracted using Exiftools. The preview is 3200 x 2400 which is 4 x 3. (I resized it here upload speed).

User uploaded file


However, the embedded preview when seen in Aperture, is squashed into a 3 x 2 format image:


User uploaded file


When the raw is loaded, this is what is seen.

User uploaded file


As well as the purple issue, the file is cropped at the top and bottom and stretched back to 4 x 3 format. Very weird!


Aperture is mis-interpreting the files data, especially the blue channel which is all hunched into the image midtones.


If you add a curves adjustment and use auto (the coloured version) it will get the image a bit closer, I then tweaked the curves (and also used WB and Levels) to get the image closer:

User uploaded file


However, obviously, the image is still cropped.


Here are the curves for each of the RGB channels. I added a second curve, to tweak the blue becuse it was hard to work with with the data all hunched up.


User uploaded file

You don't need to be concerned about your raws. I checked them in RawTherapee and they seem fine and corruption-free.

User uploaded file


I'm convinced this is an Aperture issue, where one of the settings is confusing Aperture (look for a common theme in the affected images, did you choose to shoot in 3 x 2, is it just the long exposure ones, etc).


When Apple releases a fix, your images should return to normal.


In the mean time, you can use Exiftool to extract the embedded previews to have 3200 x 2400 jpegs to play with, or use an alternative convert to create TIFFs for using in Aperture.


Andy

Dec 30, 2013 10:29 PM in response to RPbySC

It seems to be an Aperture problem. Several people have reported the same issue. I believe Apple is aware of it, so I think you just need to sit tight and wait for a fix.


I don't think the formatting issue is related. Some cameras don't behave well when a card has images deleted from a Mac (Aperture lets you delete images after import), so the advice is to format the card in camera before re-use.


But I don't think OM-D is a problem camera (I use EM-5 not EM-1). I saw the issue on my Fuji X100. It would get slower and slower to start up after deleting the cards images within Aperture. A reformat in camera fixed it from very slow back to its normal just sluggish self!



Andy

Jan 4, 2014 8:53 AM in response to Najinsky

Thank you so much, Andy, for spending the time on this probem for me.


Yes, I changed the aspect ratio in camera to 3x2 because that is what I was using on my Nikon. I print and mat photos and my mats are in that aspect ratio. I guess I could just crop the 4x3s, but I don't like cropping and loosing part of the image if I don't need to. I hope this won't be a problem with the camera. All the photos I've been taking are in the 3x2 ratio, so that isn't part of the purple problem.


BUT, I did come across a theme. The only photos that are purple are the ones I took of the tree with a long exposure. Up to 2.5 secs they are fine, but the ones at 6 secs are the purple ones. All photos I took outdoors, with "normal" shutter speeds, are fine also. So maybe it's the long shutter speeds that Aperture needs to fix!

Jan 4, 2014 9:24 AM in response to RPbySC

There seems to be a recurring issue with Aperture, long exposures and certain Raw formats, going back to Aperture 1.


If you search you will see the occasional post like yours, everything is fine until a long exposure shot is processed then any number of things might be wrong.


I'd advise you to send a bug report to Apple for this Apple - Aperture - Feedback


regards

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RAW photos are purple when imported

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