Following from my previous thread, and general speed issues with Aperture, I'm trying to dig out all of my TIFF files (saved from CS2) from my library.

When I purchased Aperture I'd hoped it would store three copies of each photo; the original untouched RAW and a Photoshopped TIFF and JPEG, but 70mb+ TIFF files appear to be taking their toll. I will probably store them in another app, leaving the RAW and JPEG in Aperture.

Anyway, to cut to the question.

I send a 16 bit TIFF to CS2 directly from Aperture using the 'External Image Editor' option. When I've done all of the necessary work in CS2, save the 16bit TIFF, and then convert to 8 bit and 'Save As' to JPEG.

Aperture appears to be able to automatically retrieve a TIFF file, but not a JPEG.

Does anybody have any ideas of a way round this?

Currently, I'm saving JPEG's to my desktop, then re-importing into Aperture. I hoping it doesn't need to be quite so long winded

The problem is the "save as" step. When Aperture sends the TIFF to Photoshop, it can keep track of the file handle, so when you do the save from within Photoshop, Aperture knows the file was changed, and updates it preview in the library. However, when you do "save as," there is no file pointer communicated back to Aperture. There's no way for it to know the new JPEG exists. It's not a TIFF versus JPEG thing, but rather it's just how files work. You're creating a new file that Aperture has no way of knowing anything about.

Now, you *could* set up hot folders and have an Automator script so any JPEG files saved to that folder would be automatically imported to a project within Aperture, if you want. There is documentation on this in the Aperture manuals.

Any reason you need to re-import these JPEGs into Aperture? You could generate them at any time if you wanted.

Hi William

My usual workflow is:

Aperture: exposure, white balance, spot/patch & cropping (90% of the time this will suffice and there is no need to go onto Photoshop)

If the image requires it, I then go into CS2, and a typical workflow would be:

initial sharpen, Velvia plug in, Noise Ninja, save TIFF -> sharpen, convert to 8bit, convert to JPEG.


I like to keep a JPEG available for speed more than anything, as working with several 70mb+ TIFF files at any one time can be a bit of a chore.
A <7mb JPEG on the other hand is relatively easy to churn through.

Thank you for the advice, it's much appreciated.

Incidentally, I find Aperture exceedingly slow, even with a relatively small library.

Do you mind if I ask how large your library is?