I'd like to start with a “Happy New Year!” to all interested members of ApertureExpert.com and of course to Joseph who manages this great information resource for Aperture.
I have been using Aperture now for quiet some months and I have both enjoyed and hopefully learned some basics while studying “In-Depth Getting Started with Aperture 3”, “Work like a Pro Photographer in Aperture 3” and - most recently - the “15 Tips on File Management in Aperture 3”.
I use to shoot RAW+JPG and I really appreciate Aperture's features to handle the file pairs appropriately. With respect to the Tip #11 (Working with RAW+JPG Pairs) I found it especially remarking that you can e.g. import the jpg files first, then make some first selections or ratings and then import the “Matching RAW files”.
So far the theory which really sounds promising as the option to include only those RAWs that apply to a currently set filter would be just gorgeous. The problem I encounter is the following: There are no matching RAW files found after I have successfully imported the “JPEG files only” in a first step. Note: I take advantage of the renaming options Aperture has to offer. I rename my originals according to my personal pattern as it has been recommended also many times in the above mentioned resources.
My finding now is - please correct me if I am wrong - that the Matching RAW to jpg files feature seems to work as long as I keep the original file names (e.g. DSC_9555.NEF + DSC_9555.JPG) on import. If I employ the renaming options - which I intend to use for obvious reasons - no matching RAW files will be found in the second part of my import workflow.
I appreciate any idea on how both renaming and the “first jpg then matching RAW files” import could be performed successfully.
Best regards
Michael
Sorry for the long post. It has been my first one and I’ll try to keep it short and simple in the future. ;-)
I just would like to add that it seems obvious to me that Aperture has a problem with the renamed files. This has already been mentioned in context with the “don’t import duplicates” feature.
It just came to me that a possible workaround would be to import both RAW+JPG in the first place - renaming them according to my personal needs - and then to use the newly generated folder for selective import of first the jpgs and then the matching RAW files.
This, however seems quiet cumbersome to me and of course would only make sense if I do not wish to keep all the RAW+JPG pairs organized by Aperture.
I hope that you may have a better solution…
Cheers, Michael
One option would be to manually import your images from the flash card to your computer’s HD and use another utility to do the renaming before importing into Aperture. Then the RAW+JPG pairs would be named the same. I found several utilities in the Mac App Store for this although I haven’t used any of them. (I searched for “file rename”)
This might defeat the purpose of doing the down-select before importing the RAWs if you are doing it to save disk space.
Thomas
Michael,
I just tested this, and you’re absolutely right. And I’m 99% sure that this didn’t used to be this way. I’ve shown the importing JPG, then matching RAW feature many times, and I virtually always rename masters on import, so I have a hard time believing it’s always been this way.
Let me see what I can dig up for you.
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph,
Thanks a lot for getting back to me. I just can review your demo on the video2brain video training (chapter 1.7 Handling RAW+JPG Pairs). On that occasion you did not seem to have renamed the files (named like P1010…). Maybe just to make the procedure easier to understand.
However, I absolutely agree that both renaming to receive consistent file names plus the matching RAW files feature would make a lot of sense.
I look forward to your further findings then.
Michael
Michael,
I did the same thing ;-) And yes you’re right, I didn’t rename there for simplicity. Since the demo videos are designed to be stand-alone, I had to not include previous (or future) lessons in it.
However I’ve shot a query off to my friends at Apple. I’ll let you know if I get a response.
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph,
I hope I do not press too much if I once more come back to this weird issue.
Is there any news about that “matching RAW files” question?
It would really be a huge improvement and of course also mean substantial savings in terms of library and/or archive size if this feature worked as supposed.
Thanks for your efforts,
Michael
Michael,
Nothing yet. I did notify Apple though back when we discussed this.
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi, I had the same problem.
One solution can be, you import JPG, then matched RAWs as a master and don’t change the name when you import.
Then when all the rating, adjustment etc is done, select all files, make them referenced and only then you do the renaming.
Esteban