Some Tips for Using a Film Scanner (or any Scanner) with Aperture

After writing the post the other day about using negatives in Aperture I spent a bit of time with my film scanner scanning some old film. This got me thinking about how I could streamline things a bit and work with Aperture for importing and managing my scans.

Automatically Import your Scans into Aperture

The first thing to do is set up a workflow to have your scans automatically imported into Aperture. While Aperture doesn’t support a watched folder out of the box, there’s a great workflow that you can download from Automator.us that sets one up for you. It’s actually set up for working with tethering shooting, and was developed before Aperture added this functionality, but it works perfectly in conjunction with stand alone scanner software.

Step1

So, the first thing to do is set up your scanner software to save its scans into a certain folder that you want to use for this purpose. I have created a folder in my pictures folder for this called “Film Scans”.

Step2

Go to the automator website (use this link) and download the Aperture Hot Folder workflow.

Step3

Once it’s downloaded copy the resulting App to your applications folder and run it. Follow the onscreen instructions which walk you through setting up the workflow. It’s pretty straightforward so you shouldn’t have a problem. It will ask you for the folder you want to watch, so select the folder you created in step1. It will also ask you to select a project so you can either use an existing one or create a new project for the purpose. It will also ask you if you want to import your images into the Aperture library, or leave them in the folder and import them as references.

Step 4

Start scanning. Once you save your scan it will automatically import into Aperture. This is very useful if you’re batch scanning a bunch of slides or a whole strip of negative.

Step 5

When you’re finished, quit the Aperture hot folder application and it will shut down the watched flyer. when you want to start scanning again, just relaunch the hot folder application first. (of course you can just leave it running in the background if you want)

Adjusting Date & Time

The problem with scans is that they have no metadata, so you’ll have to add it yourself. The first thing you might want to do is change the date and time. If you’re scanning old negatives you may want them to have the date they were taken rather than the date you scanned them at. This is relatively straight forward in Aperture.

Step 1

Select the image you want to change

Step 2

From the Metadata menu, choose Adjust Date & Time

Step 3

Enter the new date and time from the pop up sheet.

Be sure to check the box that says “Also change master file”. This will change the date on all the versions and also the master. (Otherwise it will just change the current version)

Create Custom Metadata for Film Type

If you want to keep track of what type of film your photos were shot on you can easily add some custom metadata to track this.

Step 1

From the Aperture menu select Presets > Metadata…

Step2

From the cog menu in the bottom of the Metadata preset manager that opens, choose Manage Custom Fields

Step 3

In the sheet that slides out click the plus button at the bottom

Step 4

This will create a new field in the custom presets sheet. Enter whatever you want to call it into the field. In this case I’ve gone with “Film Type”. If you want to create another preset for film speed go ahead and click the plus again to create another entry

Step 5

Click Ok and then close the metadata preset manager

Ok, this has created a new custom metadata type. however if you go to the metadata vie on an image you wan’t see it. So, what ou now want to add it to the standard view in the metadata tab of the inspector so you can easily add the information to your images.

Step1

Switch to the metadata tab in the inspector, and from the popup where it says general, go all the way to the bottom of the menu and select Edit

Step 2

Here you can change what’s displayed for all the metadata view presets (and create new ones). For the purposes of this exercise we’ll amend the “General” preset. On the right hand side of the panel simply scroll down the list of metadata fields and when you come to “Film Type” check the checkbox and this will add it to the view. Click ok when you’re finished

Step3

You should now have the extra metadata field in your metadata tab.

So, that’s about it. If anyone has any more suggestions on working with film in Aperture please feel free to post it in the comments. By the way, if you’re interested in some of the images I was using in this example, I have a blog post about them over on my photography blog if you want to check it out.

More on this topic:

1. Some Quick Tips for Managing Your Interface
2. Introducing Film Candy, Our Second Premium Preset Pack
3. Using the Keyword Control Buttons In Aperture
4. Some Tips for Using Plug-Ins with Aperture
5. Using Lightroom With Aperture: A Workflow