I often make custom designed cards, collages, etc. in Photoshop. I always import these into Aperture, but right now the steps are cumbersome:
1. Import file into Aperture
2. Select file from Aperture, Click “Edit in Photoshop”
3. Aperture creates a new file
4. In Photoshop, delete the single layer. Open the existing file from hard drive, copy all layers
5. Paste all layers into the “Aperture PSD file”
6. Save Image
7. In Aperture, delete the original file, so only the PSD file.
All this, to maintain PSD properties, such as layers, masks.
Is there a quicker way to get Photoshop files with masks, layers, etc. into Aperture?
T
TL,
I’ve run into this myself, and even what you’re doing can suddenly fail. More than once I’ve had a file that’s been “opened in editor” from Aperture and is “now a layered PSD file” suddenly duplicate and open as a new version when choosing “open in editor”, as if I’d edited it in Aperture—even though I haven’t.
What I’ve started doing after the initial round-trip (or in your case, once imported) is selecting the PSD file in Aperture, choosing File > Show in Finder (which I’ve remapped to Command-R), and opening it from the Finder. I find this to be 100% reliable, and avoids any possibility that Aperture will decided to suddenly duplicate the file before opening.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi Joseph,
I ran into the same issue and I like your fix, sounds easy enough. However when I drag my psd into aperture, then goto file, “show in finder” is greyed out, thoughts? I’d really love to consolidate some of these magazine edits into aperture, even if it means going to show in finder to edit them will the full layers!
e
Edson,
It’s because you’ve imported the file as Managed. If you just drag a file into Aperture, it will import as Managed (meaning it’s inside the Aperture library), and therefore you can’t reveal it to open manually.
To import referenced by drag-and-drop, hold down the command-option keys on drag. Check out this entry on the topic, “Importing to Aperture as Referenced—with Drag and Drop”.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph -
Thanks. That doesn’t fix the “import” issue, though, does it? Where Aperture imports a layered PSD file as a flat one?
T
TL,
Actually, Aperture never flattens a file. If you’re importing Managed, then it may appear this way because Aperture can’t show you the layers, and if you choose to open in editor, it’s going to duplicate the file before opening, but the original is never flattened (it’s one of the golden rules of Aperture… the original is never modified!). Even if you’re working Managed, even though you can’t get to the original file, it is still in its original format. To verify this, all you have to do is File > Export > Master to see that the original layered PSD file is still intact.
As long as you’re importing Referenced, you can do what I’ve described above. You can also import as reference by drag-and-drop using this tip: Importing to Aperture as Referenced—with Drag and Drop.
cheers
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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