New Workflow Needed

[jmc]

I have been using Aperture for everything for 3 years, but I have a new gig that requires Photo Mechanic or Adobe Bridge for IPTC.  From what I gather, Aperture doesn't handle IPTC correctly.  I try to avoid using Adobe programs where possible, so I'm willing to pay to buy Photo Mechanic even though I already have CS3/Bridge.

The concern I have now is workflow.  I know I could import into Aperture, make my selects, edit, crop and then export to a folder that I would open in Photo Mechanic and apply IPTC.  This seems backwards as it gives away Photo Mechanic's ingest speed. 

So if I ingest into Photo Mechanic, make my selects, apply IPTC and then save to a folder and import into Aperture, edit and crop, will the IPTC be intact (exactly as if was in Photo Mechanic) when I FTP the files out of Aperture to the server?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Kirk Baker]

I have been using Aperture for everything for 3 years, but I have a new gig that requires Photo Mechanic or Adobe Bridge for IPTC.  From what I gather, Aperture doesn't handle IPTC correctly.  I try to avoid using Adobe programs where possible, so I'm willing to pay to buy Photo Mechanic even though I already have CS3/Bridge.

The concern I have now is workflow.  I know I could import into Aperture, make my selects, edit, crop and then export to a folder that I would open in Photo Mechanic and apply IPTC.  This seems backwards as it gives away Photo Mechanic's ingest speed. 

So if I ingest into Photo Mechanic, make my selects, apply IPTC and then save to a folder and import into Aperture, edit and crop, will the IPTC be intact (exactly as if was in Photo Mechanic) when I FTP the files out of Aperture to the server?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm not certain if Aperture will preserve the IPTC data all the way through to the upload, but you could instead turn some of those steps around (doing the Aperture editing and cropping earlier in the workflow) and have PM do the IPTC application and FTP upload parts.  So if you did it like this:

1) Ingest with PM
2) Make selections and copy them to a folder (no need to save as) with PM
3) Import into Aperture, editing and cropping
4) Export from Aperture
5) Browse the exported folder with PM, selecting and applying IPTC
6) Upload via FTP with PM.

HTH,

-Kirk

[crunge]

Aperture does not import IPTC in sidecar files. The IPTC will need to be embedded into the file itself in order to be readable by Aperture. Less of an issue with JPG; this may be more of an issue with raw files.

Also, don't waste time with XMP metadata (labelled with an * in Photo Mechanic) as that isn't recognized by Aperture either.

Aperture is somewhat frustrating in both these regards.

[nmf]

Why not :

 - ingest, rename, add basic IPTC caption and tag the selects using Photo Mechanic

 - open folder using Bridge and select your label or rated set

 - open those images in Camera Raw do edit (and if necessary open in CS3 for any additional work) then save to a job folder (you can even set up an action
   in CS3 to save you having to go through the menu system for this)

 - open folder in Photo Mechanic (this can also be set up as a Favourite if speed is important) and make additional IPTC and naming changes then use the
   same program to FTP to your clients

The only "clunky" bit is having to open the folder in Bridge though of course if you don't actually shoot RAW then this is not even needed as you can open jpegs in CS3 directly from Photo Mechanic.

I use this system on a MBP and don't see any slowing down with having PM, Bridge and CS4 open. 

As with all Adobe products you have to get the settings right though I can assure you Kirk has helped me and many others in the past so there should be plenty of information on here somewhere to help you. Once you have then you can also relabel the edits in Bridge so you can go back to PM and check images either side for options if you wish.

Crunge - Whilst Aperture doesn't recognise I would expect some other software does at present or will in the future so I suggest filling in all fields but also adding that information into other non-XMP fields so covering yourself both ways. For example my Rights Usage Terms are in both that field and the Special Instructions field.