Aperture 2 Quick Tip – Shooting RAW+JPG

This entry is part 12 of 27 in the series Aperture Work-flow

This little tidbit is probably available in a bunch of different places but I thought I would post it here because it comes up in the Apple support forums so often, I get asked about it a bunch, and as someone highlighted the Apple Aperture documentation is extremely esoteric on the matter. If you have a Canon or Nikon DSLR you probably have the option to shoot RAW+JPG. This is pretty cool given that you can have your cake and eat it to. RAWs for post processing and a pretty good representation that you can email or distribute immediately with all of the in-camera goodness of the manufacturers latest greatest secret sauce. I use it for a couple of purposes, especially now that CF cards are really really cheap.

Now if you do shoot RAW+JPG you will end up with two files for every image. One with an NEF/CR2 extention and one with a JPG extention in the same folder on your card or wherever you copy the files to. When you import these into Aperture it will look like you only have the RAW image when in fact Aperture imports both. Secretly behind the scenes Aperture will store the JPG along with the RAW file. To get at the JPG and view it or use it or whatever all you have to do is right click on the RAW version and choose “New version from master JPG” or use the shortcut option+J. This will convieniently create a new version from the JPG.

Say you do shoot RAW+JPG and you want to see all of the JPG files and maybe email them to a client or blast them up to flickr or whatever. Here is a three keystroke sequence that will give you an album with all of the JPG versions as the album picks (on top of the stack for that album):

Command+A – select all
Option+L – new album from selection
Option+J – new version from master JPG

If you happen to stack your originals and only want your project stack picks to show up as new JPG versions just close all stacks as the first step (Option+;). One last thing for the squeamish – if you try to delete the newly created version you will most likely get the very confusing and misleading message that you are about to delete a master and all versions – ignore it. It just gets rid of the version that you just created it does not remove the imported “Master JPG” file.

Series Navigation«Aperture 2 Quick Tip – Managing PreviewsAperture – The Seven Deadly Sins»

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Published:: 01.14.09 / 10pm

Category:: Apple Aperture, Articles

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mjperini 01.15.09 / 10pm

I rarely shoot JPG’s, but on a shoot that was for print & web and included many items, I used a feature of the Canon 1 series that allows recording RAW and JPG to separate cards simultaneously. Very helpful. I suspect the D3 probably has it as well. You can even give the JPG card to the client if they’re in a hurry.
I put the JPG’s into iPhoto and RAW into Aperture.
I didn’t know the procedure you outlined above but even with it, I do wish Aperture could indicate on the thumbnail which is which. Maybe in v.2.5

RB 01.16.09 / 9am

Michael,

Great idea for the badge on images with RAW+JPG – maybe we should all go to the feedback page over at Apple and suggest it.

Ian 02.18.09 / 5pm

Thanks for this but no matter what I try I cannot get aperture to make a new master from jpeg for all the selected images? I select all then option+j and it only creates one jpeg. Am I missing something?

Thanks

Ian

RB 02.18.09 / 7pm

Ian,

This works for me I do it all the time. Make sure that “primary only” mode is not selected also make sure that all of the selected images actually have an associated master jpg

Ian 02.19.09 / 2pm

RB, Thank you so much. It was the primary only mode! You have saved me MUCH frustration.

Thanks again

Patrick 02.22.09 / 7pm

RB -

Thanks you so much for this tip! I have been trying to do this off and on for months. If I take 80 RAW+JPG photos and download them to iPhoto, I would see 160 downloaded photos. If I took the exact same card and download it to Aperture, I only see 80 downloaded photos. I have looked and looked through the documentation, but this is the first place that solved the problem. YIPEE!

Alethea 08.12.09 / 8am

Thanks for the info! The only thing is, it seems that doing this creates a copy of the “hidden” master jpg, which seems like a waste of memory space. Do you know how this could be avoided?

Christopher David 02.04.10 / 11am

Brilliant! I’ve been trying to make this happen for quite a while.

RB 02.04.10 / 11am

Christopher,

Thanks for the complement and I am glad you found it helpful – seriously guy you gotta get the Organization eBook – it is way more than just explaining things you already know – it is more of a how and why work-flow book fine tuned through years of professional Aperture use in my own prolific photo adventures.

William 02.07.10 / 10pm

Thanks! This really helped a lot.

RB 02.08.10 / 11am

William,

Glad it helped – albums/album picks/stacks are a key Aperture work-flow tool. With shortcut keys you can fly through your work.

RB Design – Aperture 3 RAW+JPG Part Deux 02.11.10 / 10am

[...] lot slower for some reason – the actual set JPEG as master seems to take way longer than the old way. Share and [...]

RB Design

Aperture 2 Quick Tip – Shooting RAW+JPG

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