Aperture 2 thumbnail quality grainy on imports

I am migrating to Aperture because it is lightning quick in managing with 1000s of images. I am particularly pleased with how it allows quick access to high-quality thumbnail images of photos in a large project. I should note, that my imports are referenced to folders elsewhere on the DB. I do not copy masters into the vault.
My issue: Aperture has variable/flaky treatment of imported project thumbnails. If I choose the Import icon arrow, the chosen imported folder photos show high-quality thumbnails. Conversely, if I chose the file menu option "Import Folder as Project", imported folder photos get grainy thumbnails--but then become high-quality IF I select individual photos, which then get properly rendered.
I generally like the "Import Folder as Project" method for importing folders because it is quick and it properly named the aperture project with the title of the referenced photo folder. The Import icon button requires several additional steps and is cumbersome for importing 100 photo folders from the HD, but it at least has the virtue of giving me what I want-which is high-quality thumbnails a la iPhoto.
Does anyone have an explanation for the different treatment of thumbnails? Program preference settings are same for both approaches, yet the thumbnails spit out by the imports are qualatatively different.
I suppose a variation on the above question would be, how to get Aperture to automatically generate high-quality thumbnails involving multiple photos? Currently the only option would be to manually select each photo one-by-one, which is impractical.

I just installed Aperture 2 on a PB G4 and 10.4.11:
it works and manage D300 and D3 raw...
The only problem is that trial version will not convert your previous 1.5 library (there is no option yet to upgrade in the Italy store).

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IMovie 11 - Image quality issues / aperture thumbnails

I'm importing images from my Aperture library into iMovie but for some reason the images are of a lesser quality than the original file.
I've tried importing it directly using the Aperture preview panel on the right side of the iMovie screen, I have also tried to drag it from Aperture but both methods produce really bad quality images once imported. I right clicked on the clip after importing so that it would show me the file in Finder and it seems that they are referencing Aperture thumbnails which explains the quality. Why is iMovie doing this? Its useless if its going to use my thumbnails, I want my full images in HD!
I did try to drag a drop from Finder to iMovie which seems to solve the problem although I still believe there is some quality loss its not as bad as it is using thumbnails. This is definitely not an easy process!!
Am I doing something wrong here? It just seems silly that iMovie can't import an image with the original quality if it then is going to make an HD video.

On Import you could try unchecking Optimize video and choose Full Size. Your disk space however will get eaten up incredibly quickly choosing these settings as each hour of video = 40GBytes of disk space. So be forewarned about how big those files will expand as they come off the MiniDV tapes.
Another thing you will immediately see a difference in is how you move files from iMovie to iDVD. Share to iDVD while named in an intuitive way, is NOT the best way to get good quality DVDs out of iMovie. Instead you want to Share to Media Browser. Choose the Large Size setting. Then quit iMovie. Open iDVD, click the Media button, the Movies button. Find your project listed under the iMovie star icon and drag it into the iDVD project. Burn the Disc and see if you get a higher quality disk by Sharing to Media Browser instead of Share to iDVD.
If you choose a Blu-Ray burner, also get a copy of Roxio Toast. The encoding to Blu-ray that Toast provides will be top notch and prevent you from making mistakes as the recordable Blu-ray disks are more expensive than DVDs. So every mistake will be expensive.

Aperture thumbnail generation forever

Hello
I like to have all my pictures in one place to share them with apple tv, so I decided to give aperture a try.
I imported all images (about 36000 from 12 years) into one aperture library.
Before importing I switched off face detection and preview generation.
After finishing I had a 236 GB library, but aperture starts to generate some thumbnails.
Problem is, it freezes on generating them.
I used the activity window to hunt down what is happeing and found out that it stops when it comes to a specific picture.
So I managed to
1) start aperture
2) open activity window
3) stop the thumbnail generation when it starts
4) delete the picture where the aperture have problems
This way I managed to get from about 5700 thumbanisl to do to a number of 3500 thumbnails to do, but aperture keeps freezing at a single pic (the bad one)
But now, aperture starts thumbnail generation so quickly that I cannot open activity window and stop the progress before it reaches the bad one.
@Apple: could we have an option like "safe start" that won't schedule any processes for thumbnails before the user wants it?
So, any ideas out there? I tried everything I found like repairing, rebuilding, no help.
Is there any kind of log to look into? I am a newbie in mac os and aperture.
Regards
Klaus

This "bad" one is a video, some of the former bad ones were videos too, so does aperture have a problem in general with video files? Maybe its a good idea to just import all pictures and do the videos in a separate step afterwrds? Otherwise with 36000 pics (and about 300 videos between them) this is tedious...
Klaus,
Aperture may have a problem with videos, if you have a problematic video codec installed, if the video is corrupted, or incompatible with Aperture. What kind of videos did you import?
If you can, delete the whole project, so that you do not need to select the video and reimport only the image files.
Check, if you have the 3ivxVideoCodec installed - if yes, remove it,
see: Aperture 3: May be unresponsive or have slower performance with third-party video codec
This codec could have been installed for example by FlipForMac.
If you do not want to delete all of your last import, you could try to delete the bad video directly from the Aperture library package:
Quit Aperture. Ctrl-click the Aperture library and select "Show Package Content" from the pop-up menu. Open the "masters" folder and navigate to the Year-Month-day of your last import. If you can find the video there, remove it, but don't change anything else. Afterwards the video should show as missing. Delete the version from the library. The dates in the Library package are based on "Import session", not capture dates.
Before manipulating the Library, make sure you have a current backup.
Regards
Léonie
A list of supported videos is here, but it is not exhaustive:
Aperture 3: About Video and Audio formats in Aperture

How do I stop Time Machine from backing up Aperture thumbnails?

Hi,
My 2TB backup drive recently became full, and I became curious as to what was filling it up. I wrote a perl script to analyze the Time Machine backups, and I noticed that over 50% of my backup was filled with AP.Thumbnails and AP.Minis from the Aperture project directory. In particular, the AP.Thumbnails files in the backup consumed 737 GB of disk space!
The problem with the thumbnails files is that they are a single file that contains all of the thumbnails for all of the 40,000 photos I have in Aperture and it is now 20gb in size. Every time I add a new file to Aperture, the thumbnail file changes, and I get a new 20gb of data added to my backup. I add photos often which means that most of my backups have 20gb of Aperture files (which are easy to rebuild and don't need to be backed up).
I decided to try and stop Time Machine from backing up these files, and there seems to be no way of doing so (without telling Time Machine to skip backing up my entire Aperture project which I don't want to do). In Finder, you can do a "show package contents", but the Time Machine GUI doesn't allow this.
I tried to tell Time Machine to exclude the files via the GUI, but Time Machine sees the Aperture Library as a single package and won't let me exclude individual files from within the package.
I googled around, and found the attribute that Time Machine puts on files to exclude them from the backup. I used xattr to set the attributes:
xattr -w com.apple.metadata:comapple_backupexcludeItem com.apple.backupd <filename>
I also used this command on the iPhoto thumbnail files.
I used spotlight to find all of the files with this attribute using this command:
sudo mdfind "comapple_backupexcludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"
This command returned the iPhoto files, but did not return the Aperture files.
However, if I run "xattr" on the Aperture files, the attribute does exist!
During my next time machine backup, the iPhoto files were skipped as I wanted them to be, but the Aperture thumbnails were backed up again
I thought that maybe time machine was looking at the aperture package as an atomic unit, but iPhoto is stored as a package as well, and the attributes worked there on files inside the package.
Does anyone have any idea why time machine is still backing up these files? Is there any way I can get around this?
It seems to me to be an incredible oversight on Apple's part since both tools are Apple. The thumbnails files are very expensive to backup, and they are not necessary for backup since the are easy to rebuild from the original photos which are also backed up.
Thanks,
Ron

Shadow99999 wrote:
Hi,
My 2TB backup drive recently became full, and I became curious as to what was filling it up. I wrote a perl script to analyze the Time Machine backups,
No need to write your own script for that. there are a couple of already made nice GUI tools for this - TimeTracker http://www.charlessoft.com/ and BackupLoupe http://soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/
and I noticed that over 50% of my backup was filled with AP.Thumbnails and AP.Minis from the Aperture project directory. In particular, the AP.Thumbnails files in the backup consumed 737 GB of disk space!
The problem with the thumbnails files is that they are a single file that contains all of the thumbnails for all of the 40,000 photos I have in Aperture and it is now 20gb in size. Every time I add a new file to Aperture, the thumbnail file changes, and I get a new 20gb of data added to my backup. I add photos often which means that most of my backups have 20gb of Aperture files (which are easy to rebuild and don't need to be backed up).
I decided to try and stop Time Machine from backing up these files, and there seems to be no way of doing so (without telling Time Machine to skip backing up my entire Aperture project which I don't want to do). In Finder, you can do a "show package contents", but the Time Machine GUI doesn't allow this.
I tried to tell Time Machine to exclude the files via the GUI, but Time Machine sees the Aperture Library as a single package and won't let me exclude individual files from within the package.
I don't have aperture but I think most people exclude the whole thing from TM backups and back it up separately. but if you want to exclude a subfolder in a package that's easy too. just select the package in finder, control-click on it and select "show package contents". in the resulting finder window drill to the folder you want to exclude and drag it to the TM exclusion list in TM system preferences->options.
I googled around, and found the attribute that Time Machine puts on files to exclude them from the backup. I used xattr to set the attributes:
xattr -w com.apple.metadata:comapple_backupexcludeItem com.apple.backupd <filename>
I was not aware of this method for excluding stuff from TM backups. could you provide a link to where you found this?
I also used this command on the iPhoto thumbnail files.
I used spotlight to find all of the files with this attribute using this command:
sudo mdfind "comapple_backupexcludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"
This command returned the iPhoto files, but did not return the Aperture files.
that's because Spotlight never looks inside packages unless you start a search inside a package directly. iphoto seems to be the only exception. I don't know how it's done.

I have a lot image files on external WD hard drive USB powered .i just purchased aperture and have initated an import into aperture of all photos on thatdrive.it has about 1.75gig of images. how long will that take--been 24 hours already???

I have had several issues so far with my new aperture program, and this is the fifth time i have tired to collect all of my images (or nearly all) onto a single drive and be able to file them from my mac notebook...obviously one huge problem is that every timie the dog walks buy he knocks the cord out and i basiclaly have to start over again...
but i have taped the cords in an managed to fly across country while keeping the whole import running---up near 24 hours constant now...
anyway, i ahve a bunch of questions but my main one is, i think from reaeding up here that it could take a fulll week to finish this transfer (even though i beleieve i made it very clear that i only want to index the fiels from their current location and not to move any of them around at all....
the only rush really is that i have my daughter's graduation pictuers and everyone wants to see htem but i don't really want to cancel this transfer after i have already spent 24 hours!!!
sorry to write so much...
thanks for any ideas....
Max

Max,
It really can take very long to import and process so many images - I would not dare to make a prediction.
Can you open the Activity Viewer?
From Aperture's main menu bar: Window > Show Activity.
This window will tell you the filename of the image that is currently being processed.
if you are seeing, that the import is still far from being finished, you might to pause certain tasks directly from this panel, like the generation of previews or scanning for faces. I'd let the import run, if you see that it is making progress.
Have you enabled very time-consuming options, like the generation of high resolution previes or scanning for faces and places? if yes, and the import is not making any progress at all, I'd disable thes options in the Aperture preferences for the initial import. You can add these later for the projects where you want to use these features.
Regards
Léonie

Why Aperture don't want to import ?

Since yesterday Aperture don't want to import images, and sometiemes even crash.
Any idea why ? And how to resolve this ?
Here is the trace from the console :
2009-07-23 16:10:28.010 Aperture[358] Main Thread Exception in Aperture: * -[NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: attempt to insert nil value
No backtrace available.
2
Jul 23 16:10:43 iMac-Daniel crashdump[367]: Aperture crashed
Jul 23 16:10:45 iMac-Daniel crashdump[367]: crash report written to: /Users/Dany/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Aperture.crash.log
Thanks for the help

Sys is not imported. In fact any schema ending in SYS is not imported.
This is because SYS is the datadictionary, and the datadictionary is automatically recreated during import.
If you have your own tables in the SYS schema, you will loose them, as you can't export SYS.
Happy New Year
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

I have my camera (Canon 5D MARK 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put ab

I have my camera (Canon 5D Mark 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put about 700 images in an untitled project folder, but all the images are the JPEGs. What am I missing?
Thanks,
upsjdris

Have you checked your "Import" settings for "Raw&Jpeg" pairs in the "Import" panel?
You can set Aperture to import raw, jpeg, or raw&jpeg.
If you imported Raw&Jpeg, but have set Aperture to use the Jpeg as original, you will see the imported image as Jpeg image, not as a raw image, even if the raw has also been imported. You can switch between Raw and Jpeg originals for selected images from the Photos menu:
Photos > Use Raw as original.
Regards
Léonie

Photo gallery thumbnails quality

Hi guys
Please see this link:
http://stsstone.businesscatalyst.com/gallery-by-stone-beige-limestone
The thumbnails render in low quality. How can I fix that?
Thanks
Micha

Hey Micha:
{module_photogallery,ID,rowLength,targetFrame,resultsPerPage,Width,Height,UseStandardMetho d}
You can add additional parameters to the Photo Gallery module to customize it further:
{module_photogallery,ID,rowLength,targetFrame,resultsPerPage,Width,Height,UseStandardMethod}
The following parameters are accepted:
ID - System generated ID (Do not change this number.)
rowLength - Set the number of photos displayed per row
targetFrame - Set the destination frame where the photos will open (such as _blank)
resultsPerPage - Set the number of photos displayed per page
Width/Height - Set the width and height of the thumbnail images. The default value is 80 pixels wide by 80 pixels high.
UseStandardMethod - Use the standard Thumbnail Generation. Set to False for better thumbnail quality (with increased file size).
Examples
This updated module tag displays 4 photos per line and a maximum of 12 photos per page. The thumbnail size has also been set to 120x120 pixels:
{module_photogallery,id,4,,12,120,120,true}
Note: If an image is 640 pixels wide x 400 pixels high and you set the thumbnail size to 120 x 120 pixels the thumbnail image will have a maximum width of 120 and a smaller height. Proportions are respected when creating the thumbnail image. Alternatively if the image dimensions are 400 pixels wide x 640 pixels high then the height will be 120 pixels and the width smaller. The thumbnail size dictates the maximum width or the maximum height of the image.
Knowledgebase has all this stuff so it is a good place to always check for the otions:
http://kb.worldsecuresystems.com/134/bc_1345.html#main_Photo_Gallery_Modules

Aperture 3.2 will not import any older libraries.

Aperture 3.2 will not import any older libraries. Is there any way to get around this. I have 20 plus computers (students) running the older version and have upgraded mine just to see how good Lion is. Unfortunately, mine is where we gather all of the projects from the other computers so now we are stuck.
TIA

This does work but adds another step to the process.
Back in version 1 or 2 (before the "Add or Merge" dialog box) adding librarys was much easier. I could grab multiple libraries and drop them on Aperture and then leave for awhile and let them get imported. Now I can only do it one at a time because the dialog box often appears and delays everything. Is there anyway to default Aperture to ALWAYS ADD?

Why won't Aperture 2 support RAW files imported from Canon 60D when it does from my Olympus DSLR?

Why won't Aperture 2 support RAW files imported from Canon 60D when it does from my Olympus DSLR?

I'm afriad the fact that your Olympus dSLR is supported is no relevance.
The Raw from every model of camera is different. Note: that's every model not every brand. So, the NEF produced by a Nikon D40 is not the same as the NEF produced by a D60, the CR2 produced by a Canon 350 is not the same as the CR2 produced by a Canon 400.
Support for individual camera models has to be added one by one, and Apple will update the OS to work with the most recent version of the software. That's an incentive for you to keep up-to-date. So, for support for your 60D you'll need 10.6.5 plus Aperture 3 and/or iPhoto 11.
Regards
TD

I migrated my old IMac to new and Aperture won't let me import from camera

I migrated old iMac to new and Aperture will not let me import from camera from. Migrating created two users and I get an error message saying I do not have permission write. I have gone to get info and it says I have read and write permissions.
iMac 10.7.5 Aperture 3.4.5

nopriors wrote:
I used migration Assistant
That's the problem. Apple doesn't make it clear that you should transfer when the new Mac starts up, not later on with Migration Assistant.
which told me to enter a new name . I had the new computer and old with same name. I called the new user my name with word "old" so not the same name as old Mac.
The problem isn't the names, it's the (mostly hidden) User ID number (UID). See the pink box in Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what happened.
Your best bet is to use one of the workarounds (probably #4) in the green box there, to re-transfer your account. It will have exactly the same name and permissions as before.
If you want to change the name, you can, but it takes a minor finagle. Post back if you want to do that.

Aperture crashes when files are imported

I am using the Aperture 3 trial currently, and while it starts up just fine, whenever I try to import my iPhoto library Aperture chugs along for a bit, and then crashes. When I open Aperture again, most of my events are there (as projects) but they are almost all empty. A select few appear to have photos in them. If I try to import again, the same crash happens. If I import folders as projects from my pictures folder, it crashes. If I delete the Aperture library and try to import again with a fresh start, it crashes. Right now I really don't know what to do about this, I want to try Aperture, but I can't very well do that without being able to get my photos into it.
Admittedly, my iPhoto library is rather large (40,000+ photos), but iPhoto can handle this, and I should think Aperture was built for this.
Thanks for the help!

I am having a very similar problem. I purchased the full version and get the exact same results. I rebuilt my library using iphoto's rebuild tools and the crash still occurs. I have rebuilt the library using iphoto library manager and the crash still occurs. I am frustrated that I spent 200 dollars and I am unable to import my iPhoto library. Any help would be great.

Poor quality of video imported in iMovie 09

Hi,
I'm importing my Mini-DV videos into iMovie 09 and the quality of the imported video is very poor compared to the same video played directly from my camera on my TV.
I now it's been a long-standing issue but I haven't seen any real way of solving this issue.
Could someone help me there?
Many thanks.
Philippe

Hi Philippe,
Try the workflow on this site:
http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/
All credit to Karsten Schluter for his involvement in this project, and for promoting the site.
Another tip: Look for an e-book written by Steve Mullen entitled "The Ins & Outs of iMovie '09".
John

Aperture loses my pictures on import

I have recently migrated from one mac to another, now when I import to aperture it says "items will import to untitled project keep/delete on iphone" then regardless of what I choose nothing appears in the library. Is this a conflict from migration?
Do I need to create a new library? If so whats the cons of running more than one library
Cheers

billy,
Is this a conflict from migration?
How did you migrate over? i.e. transfer your Aperture library?
What is your Aperture version? And your iPhone version?
Is there anything special about the photos you want to import? HDR or something? Can there be unreadable photos or videos in the camera roll?
What are your import settings? Is the "Store files" set to "In the Aperture library"or a flder on your mac? Make sure it is not accidentally "In their current location".
I'd try first to import into a new Aperture library - just for testing. If you can import without problems into the new library, try to fix your current library. Perhaps there are permission problems or the Library needs repairing after migration, see: Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library: Aperture 3 User Manual
If you cannot import at all in any library, try to import from a card on your camera, to see if the iPhone is the problem. If you cannot import at all, try if you can import, when working from adifferent user account. This is to see, if you migrated problematic settings from your old mac to your current account. Then post back with your findings.
If it is the phone, check this article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3195?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
You may need to reset or restore the iPhone:
iTunes: Restoring iOS software
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

Can Aperture make JPEG dupes of imported RAW automatically based on camera?

I have a specific DSLR which I shoot with. I guess most photographers might also have 2 or more DSLRs they shoot with as well. Usually one older than the other as a second body or back up.
When I import RAW images to Aperture 2.x, I would like Aperture (either automatically or triggered by me) to process the importing/imported images to a default JPEG duplicate copy of the RAW. In other words, rather than shooting JPEG+RAW, I would rather just shoot all RAW and when those RAWs enter Aperture, I would like it to make JPEG duplicates. I realize I may loose JPEG quality but this is not essential as if an image selected for use, I will custom process that image and convert to JPEG.
Obviously, I would like those dupes to not be strait dupes of the RAW but, on a basic level, when the conversion happens, also adjust them based on a basic set of color corrections, etc. like the camera might do when making a JPEG in camera. So the conversion is more specific to the RAW coming from the specific camera model.
Can Aperture do this? and how do I set this up? It seems like this ability should be built in or a plug in. It would be camera specific though. A setting for a Nikon D300 would do this "make JPEG dupes of RAW imports" different from a setting for a Sony A700 "make JPEG dupes of RAW imports".
I envision a plug in or free list of default import settings you can save for specific cameras. Something akin to color palettes for design programs based on specific printers. For Epson XYZ printer I can download the Pantone color palettes for that printer and install them in InDesign, etc. Plug in conversion settings for specific DSLR bodies.

I'm not aware of any way to have Aperture generate hi-quality jpegs automatically from the raw file. Maybe there is someway to script it, but I'm not that much of an expert to advise you on that. It will generate a jpeg as the other poster indicated, but it's not a hi-quality file. The jpegs rendered from the embedded raw file are only about 500k, so obviously they are not of the highest quality.
Regarding the metadata, everything is there; camera model, res, aperture, shutter, and a myriad of other things. What's not there is the Nikon specialized stuff like custom picture controls, custom white balance, d-lighting and some others. If you use these features and like the raw converter in NX, you will find it necessary to use either the hi-quality jpegs from the camera (assuming you create them when you shoot) or have NX or View render and save jpegs or Tiffs from the Nikon NEF's. I've decided to shoot Raw+JPEG, import to Aperture using referenced libraries, make a new master from the JPEG and this separates the JPEG from the NEF in Aperture allowing you to see and use either. If the JPEGS are satisfactory, use them. If not, you have options; tweak the NEF in Aperture, show the NEF in finder, and drop into NX and tweak the raw with Nikon's proprietary camera controls and raw features then save out as Tiff or JPEG and drop back into Aperture. If you like Aperture's raw renderer enough to forego Nikon's picture controls, custom white balance, d-lighting etc..., you can skip the whole Nikon thing and just import the raw files. Come up with some custom settings and stamp the lot. Batch export the project to jpeg and drop them back into Aperture when finished. I think it's best to just let the camera create the RAW-JPEG. If you get good files or just need minor tweak, fix-lift and stamp and you're done. If not you have lots of options. JMO

Aperture 2 thumbnail quality grainy on imports

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