Aperture 3 color issue(s)

[Artful Dodger]

Interesting issue seems to have started up today with Aperture 3. I went out and shot a few photos today as well as having some photos still on my SD card. Upon importing my photos all my thumbnails look as nice as thumbs do, once I select and open any photo it displays nice and bright then at the point of it being fully loaded/opened it seems like a dull "chalk like film" has been applied and all the colors look dull and washed out.

This didn't start until this last update I loaded the same set of photos in iPhoto and on my MBP running Aperture 2 and not one color issue(s). I did the old check and repair prefs and so on, a few restarts and it is still there. It will take anywhere from the first time I open a photo to opening 6-8 and it does it again but only in A3, sigh…

I went back to my D90, as my new camera is the D7000 and tested the photos of each and that doesn't seem to matter, it still does it. Anyone else have this issue start yet or at all? I can't say I'm thrilled about this issue and I'm going to install LR 4 (trial) and see if it does the same thing(s) to try and isolate the issue.

Only other pet peeve is A2 hasn't been updated for new cameras and that is a whole different topic…

Any thoughts would be great!

[initialsBB]

If I'm not mistaken, Aperture 3.3 now uses the RAW files' embedded previews from the camera for faster import. As soon as you click on a photo, a new preview file is generated straight from the RAW file, thereby bypassing any preset you may have used in your camera. On the import tab, you can select wether or not to import this embedded preview; and I think this means that if you want your imported photos to be like your camera preview, you'll have to create an adjustment preset to apply on import as well, but someone may have another idea.

[OreoCookie]

It seems to me that the RAW processor Aperture 3.3 uses has been much improved, there are quite a few new options (e. g. White Balance allows you to use grays, skin tone or the traditional UI). So it's not surprising that if you render RAW files in the default settings, and the default settings change that what you see will be different.

Regarding jpg previews vs. RAW files, the effect you describe sounds rather normal. jpg files to many look better when they contain more bold colors while people usually prefer a relatively neutral RAW conversion to start edits with.

[Artful Dodger]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Regarding jpg previews vs. RAW files, the effect you describe sounds rather normal. jpg files to many look better when they contain more bold colors while people usually prefer a relatively neutral RAW conversion to start edits with.

Thanks as that makes sense. I just started adding my photos to my iMac (see sig) from my MBP so I didn't really notice much of a color shift per se until viewing on the iMac and after the last update. It's weird because all the files of photos before that were in Aperture, have stayed the same, no change from the thumbs to full screen

I always changed the WB anyway but it was just a shock to see it pop up different a few days later and about 85 photos later

[glennp]

Originally Posted by Artful Dodger

Upon importing my photos all my thumbnails look as nice as thumbs do, once I select and open any photo it displays nice and bright then at the point of it being fully loaded/opened it seems like a dull "chalk like film" has been applied and all the colors look dull and washed out.

Seems to be a bug in a recent Aperture/Camera RAW update. I'm seeing the same thing with my Canon 5DmkIII files. Previews look fine on the camera and when loaded into Aperture using the embedded JPG previews but once Aperture 3.3 renders them, dark and muddy. LR4 does not have the same issue BTW, they look/render fine. Also, it doesn't effect the RAW files from my little Olympus E-PL2.

There was a discussion on the Apple Support forums that said using the Auto Light Optimization/Preserve Highlights feature was the culprit (which I have enabled on the 5DmkIII). Turning off that option would be a workaround until the bug is fixed.

Found it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

[TonyK]

Originally Posted by glennp

Seems to be a bug in a recent Aperture/Camera RAW update. I'm seeing the same thing with my Canon 5DmkIII files. Previews look fine on the camera and when loaded into Aperture using the embedded JPG previews but once Aperture 3.3 renders them, dark and muddy. LR4 does not have the same issue BTW, they look/render fine. Also, it doesn't effect the RAW files from my little Olympus E-PL2.

There was a discussion on the Apple Support forums that said using the Auto Light Optimization/Preserve Highlights feature was the culprit (which I have enabled on the 5DmkIII). Turning off that option would be a workaround until the bug is fixed.

Found it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

On reading the thread on the Apple site I see where it was a setting on the 5DIII and not an issue in Aperture.

Also, as the thread pointed out, RAW and Preview files are different. Using the embedded Preview file means the camera itself has done some processing to the image (Preview JPG). RAW files come in clean unless there are presets that are ran at import.

It might bear investigating.

[Artful Dodger]

I reset and went through everything in my camera however, all the photos prior to the update were from the same camera and when those open/view, they are all fine, just my last batch was changed, nothing from the camera but I understand what is being said. I just shot some stuff this morning and I'm going to try and see what's going on if it still is.

I'm just not tickled about this change and right now I'm glad this isn't my livelihood and had hundreds of photos do this

[glennp]

FWIW, the recent Aperture 3.4.1 and/or OS 10.8.2 updates have resolved the issue for me. Aperture renders now match the renders from LR and Canon's software for the files that were giving me troubles before.

[Prodo123]

This is a common issue that arises in Aperture 3 at times.
Sometimes it goes away on its own; sometimes an update fixes it. If it persists try rolling back your RAW engine to a previous version.
Currently the most recent iteration of Aperture has not caused this issue for me.

Let me make this clear: this is NOT an issue with the previews, RAW files or the camera. Don't worry, your photos are perfectly fine.

It's a bug within the RAW engine that Aperture uses to process the previews; no matter how many times you tell Aperture to generate the previews, it will come out green because the processing engine itself is buggy.

One thing I had never tried was a JPEG export. Does the issue persist when you export the photo?

[Artful Dodger]

Originally Posted by Prodo123

This is a common issue that arises in Aperture 3 at times.
Sometimes it goes away on its own; sometimes an update fixes it. If it persists try rolling back your RAW engine to a previous version.
Currently the most recent iteration of Aperture has not caused this issue for me.

Let me make this clear: this is NOT an issue with the previews, RAW files or the camera. Don't worry, your photos are perfectly fine.

It's a bug within the RAW engine that Aperture uses to process the previews; no matter how many times you tell Aperture to generate the previews, it will come out green because the processing engine itself is buggy.

One thing I had never tried was a JPEG export. Does the issue persist when you export the photo?

I have not tried that but I will check this out as I don't export JPEG's.

[egis]

I am on a cross country shoot. I have depended on Aperture for years. No longer. With this version, I have just gotten fed up. I have presets for my images I import from my Canon 7D...Aperture makes then gray and chalky...been looking at this crap since the last version

Well, I am downloading LR4, and just migrating...I am fed up with this "professional" product.