Managing RAW + JPEG

If your camera supports shooting both RAW + JPEG simultaneously, and you shoot in this format, there are some considerations to take into account when importing and organizing RAW and JPEG pairs in Aperture. For the most part, Aperture handles this very well. The engineers really seem to have thought the process through when designing this functionality and it can be very useful once you know how it all works.

The first thing to take into consideration is making sure you have the correct settings when importing the RAW + JPEG pairs. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, there are several options that you can select when importing RAW + JPEG. You have the option to import only the RAW files and ignore the JPEG files, or vice versa. You can also choose to have Aperture import both files. When you do this, Aperture keeps them both bundled together, but you are only working off either the RAW file or the JPEG file.

Again, which you are working with is one of the options on import. You can set either RAW or JPEG as the master when choosing to import both. The following table breaks down the options for you:

Both (use JPEG as original)	Imports both files, sets the JPEG file as the file that you are working off of
Both (use RAW as original)	Imports both files, sets the RAW file as the file that you are working off of
Both (separate originals)	Imports both files separately into your library. Be warned that if you do this there is no way to merge them back together
JPEG files only	Only imports the JPEG files. Ignores the RAW files
RAW files only	Only imports the RAW files. Ignores the JPEG files
Matching RAW files	If you had previously only imported the JPEG files, this option will import the corresponding RAW files and link them again

When you have a RAW + JPEG pair in Aperture you can easily switch between them. To do this control + click (or right-click) on the image and choose Set RAW as original if your image is currently set as JPEG, or Set JPEG as Original if your image is currently set as a RAW file.

You can tell which format your image is currently set to by the little badge in the bottom right-hand corner of the image. If it is a little R it is set to RAW and if it is a little J it is set to JPEG.

If you have an image in one format and you want to create a new version in the other format you have to duplicate it first. So, for example, let's say you have an image that is a JPEG file and you want to have a RAW version to compare it to, but you also want to keep the JPEG version.

To do this carry out the following steps:

1. Select the image.
2. Then control + click (or right-click) on the image and choose new version from original.

   This will create a new version without any adjustments.

3. Then control + click (or right-click) again and choose Set RAW as Original.

   If your original is a JPEG just choose the other option.

Note that you can choose to duplicate the version rather than choosing to create a new version from the original. However, you should be aware that any adjustment would be applied to it. This can sometimes be a bad idea as some adjustments work slightly differently when applied to JPEG and RAW files. Also, if you have a preset set on import for your RAW file to better match it to the JPEG as discussed earlier, when you switch to a JPEG, those adjustments will be applied to the JPEG file as well. If you had a contrast adjustment, for example, so that your RAW file matched the contrast of your JPEG, then that contrast adjustment would be applied to the JPEG file, which was already rich in contrast, resulting in an image with too much contrast.

Working with in-camera black and white images

One example of when it might be useful to work with RAW + JPEG is if you are shooting black and white images. Often, when taking black and white photographs, a photographer will use the monochrome picture style in their camera. The problem is, when you import your RAW files back into Aperture, the picture styles are lost. If you shot everything in black and white then it's not really an issue, but if you had mixed black and white and color on the shoot, it becomes a problem when you import the files into Aperture. You will not be able to tell which ones where monochrome and which ones were in color. Luckily there is a fairly straightforward workflow to get around this problem.

It is important to note that for this workflow to work you must set your camera to shoot in RAW + JPEG. Whether you want to use the in-camera black and whites as the final version of your monochrome images, or you want to do your own black and white conversions is up to you. But for this workflow to work, you must start by shooting RAW + JPEG pairs. Once you have finished your shoots, carry out the following steps when working with Aperture:

1. Open the import dialog box and select your source. (Select the card containing your images. Make sure you are importing into a new project.)
2. Under the RAW + JPEG Pairs drop-down menu, set your images to import both with JPEG files as originals.
3. Once you have imported all your images go to the browser and make sure you're in grid view by pressing the V key to toggle through the view modes until you switch to the grid view.
   
4. Select all the images that are black and white and label them with a color label. (It doesn't matter which one; just make sure to use a color label and that you use the same one for every image.)
5. If you want to use the in-camera black and white conversion, you can skip this step and go straight to the next one. If you want to use your own black and white effect preset, with the images still selected, apply the effect. Now select all your images by pressing command + A. You can now skip ahead to step 8.
6. In the search bar at the top of the Aperture window, click on the magnifying glass icon and at the very bottom of the drop-down menu you will see a section for labels. Click on the first circle, which, when you hover over it, the tooltip tells you that it means no label. Choosing this will filter the browser so it only shows images without a label.
   
7. If you had correctly labeled all your black and white images, they should now disappear from the window. Now select all your images by pressing command + A.
8. From the photos menu choose Use RAW as original.

   This should now convert all your color JPEG files to RAW.

9. In the search bar click on the X at the right-hand side of the search bar to de-select the filter.

You should now have a project with all your black and white images either set as JPEG files or black and white RAW files, and all your color images set as RAW files. You can also use this technique for other kinds of images too, which don't have to be just black and whites. If your camera supports a particular style that you like shooting with every now and then, but don't use it for every image, then you can use this workflow to isolate those images too.