Aperture 2: Max Supported File Size

Ok, this is ridiculous. I found out from an Apple support agent that Aperture currently has a supported file size limit of 250MB.

This is why I have been getting the maroon, "Unsupported Image Format" error all the time. For now the workaround I have come up with is to restart Aperture and switch to view Previews ONLY.

I guess the way it works is, Aperture only uses the video card RAM to load images into for viewing/editing. Quitting Aperture dumps the memory and switching to "Quick Preview" (P) helps prevent Aperture from filling up the video RAM so quickly. At least this way I can export the needed images and keep working.

Rant follows:

250MB. This is a joke. Most RAW files are 10-50MB each depending on MP and compression. That's not bad. However, anybody that has round-tripped a file through Photoshop knows that once you create a multi-layer PSD and lose the camera maker's compression on that RAW format, a 12MP file starts around 150MB. Now add a few adjustment layers, sharpening and some touch up and you're about 220-300MB. Some of my files hover around 1GB+ and the panoramas are almost always 1GB+. ALL of my Hassy H3D stuff is north of 100MB before I even open them. Forget about medium and large format transparency scans. They're out of Aperture's league (and honestly, I am probably expecting too much with the LF transparency scans).

I want to ask the guys at Aperture this:

How, with almost ANY 35mm SLR file that has been round-tripped through Photoshop being over the 250MB cap, am I supposed to use Aperture for my "Professional" photography workflow?


Currently running the most up-to-date (at this time) Aperture 2.1.4, Photoshop 11.0.1, Nikon D3 RAW workflow.


Everybody needs to submit feedback to the Aperture team to let them know, this MUST change! Do your duty.

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Oh, and I updated my website again. It was sorely needed IMO. I also fiiiinally got around to editing my blog template to match the site. Feedback (good and bad) always welcome. See you next time.

Aperture 2: Nikon D3 NEF Support

...is great BUT has one MAJOR issue for me. It is clipping the color detail too early. This means I am getting monochrome shadow areas on my colored subjects and it looks really bad.


Let me expound upon this and give some examples:

Aperture's raw conversion for the Nikon D3 is clipping the color from shadows.... generally. (About 99% of the time.) It is possible that the couple of images I haven't seen the problem occur in have color detail just above the clipping threshold.

This really makes for some ugly images. I know, I said that already, but now you can see it for yourself.

In the samples below, watch the shadow on the brown wall behind the subject as well as the shadow areas on the neck in the close up. Note that the red strap in the file with the color clipped has almost no red left. (It should still be red!)

I have a couple of sample images side by side here:

Here is the same image, one processed with AP2 and the other through ACR:

- FYI, I don't have any of these issues with D200 NEF's.


This next image I took, I was playing with to see how far I could pull the file and still retain shadow detail (It is grossly underexposed. The pocketwizard batteries had just died). The image is in color and looks alright when opened with ACR but when I open it in Aperture, there is basically no color at all left in the image. This leads me to believe that Aperture's D3 raw conversion is throwing away color information at a specific level. The preview image somehow didn't clip the color information while the actual raw file did.
(The first image is with Quick Preview on and the second is the actual NEF.)

Here is a more recent example. This is a quick shot I took of a friend. Check out his skin tones in the right side of the image.
(The first image is through ACR and the second AP2.)

Now, I have posted about this in the Aperture Discussions forum as well as in the DPReview.com forum and not had much luck as far as intelligent conversation goes. I guess there either aren't many others experiencing this phenomenon, they are too lazy to speak up about it, or they can't see the difference and/or don't care.

Personally, I expect more out of Aperture 2.0. Let's get an update to fix this. I would love to be using Aperture to process all of my files but with bugs that affect my images, I will have to stick with ACR for the time being.