Micah Walter of Aperture Plugged In has released ApertureToPictage version 1.0. The update will allow wedding and event photographers to upload their photos to Pictage in a fast and easy manner. The new version includes major code rewrites and allows background export if you’re on Aperture 1.5.x (now standard in Aperture 2.0) and great time-saving features including the ability to create a new Pictage event from within Aperture. Here’s a quick rundown of all the great new features:

1. Upload speeds are now up to three times as fast as they were with the beta version.
2. There is now a really cool drag and drop user interface that allows you to edit and re-sort your Pictage categories.
3. The plugin now allows for queueing of jobs so you can rack up a number of batches and let it run over night.
4. You can also resume an upload if your computer crashes, or if you loose your internet connection. It just picks up where you left off.
5. Additionally you can also choose to save your exported files to disk for other purposes.

The update is provided free of charge to all Pictage Pro members. You can download the plugin through this link, but you must be logged into Pictage. The plugin is compatible with the new Aperture 2.0.

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Jaun Leon’s Aperture2Gmail is a useful plugin that offers easy ‘Gmailing’ from within Aperture. Features include: support for Gmail’s 20MB limit, and full compatibility with the Gmail user interface. This updates includes bug fixes and better naming for attachments.

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Aperture BorderFX is a nifty export plugin for Aperture 1.5.6 and later that will apply various borders to your shots on output. Version 1.0.5 includes bug fixes, new options, and an improved text inspector. Some of the new options include support for watermarks in the border, a Blur, and a Desaturate border effect

The plugin requires Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 or Leopard 10.5.1 and Aperture 1.5.6.

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Ken Welch’s Flash Album Exporter has been updated to version 1.5. The updates include additional IPTC and EXIF information options on export.

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Übermind’s Aperture to Picasa Web Albums allows for seamless export to Google’s Picasa Web Albums online service.

The plugin costs $24.95 and a free 15 day trial is available for download.

Version 1.3.1 adds the following features and fixes:

1 - Resolved sporadic export warnings for some licensed users
2 - Images with keywords now upload substantially faster
3 - New connection components prevent upload stalling

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Software development company, Übermind, has just announced an upgrade to their existing FTP Pro export plugin for Aperture. This new plugin, renamed ÜberÜpload, has been completely re-written from the ground up and offers the following added functionality:

FTP and SFTP support
Bonjour support for auto-detecting servers on the network
Safari-like organizable Favorites
Finder-style browsing of remote servers with Column and Outline views
Narrow down a list of files on remote servers with Spotlight-like search
Permissions on uploaded images and new folders simplified
Zip your images, individually or as one, on upload

The plugin is available from the Übermind website for $24.95 and there is a free 15 day trial. For more information please visit their website at www.ubermind.com.

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I have made a couple of minor updates to the DNGExport plugin that I released earlier this morning. This newer version fixes a problem having to do with the Embed Original RAW Image option. I have also added the initial implementation for the progress bar, however it is pretty rudimentary.

To download the latest version click here.

To download the Adobe DNG Converter click here.

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This weekend I decided to try my hand at creating a simple plugin that would allow me to export images as DNG files. My idea was simple enough - create an Aperture plugin that mimics the Adobe DNG Converter.

So, I spent a good portion of the day looking online for information on DNG. I downloaded the DNG SDK from Adobe and spent a great deal of time just trying to make heads or tails of it. In the meantime, I designed an interface that looks essentially the same as the Adobe DNG Converter’s preferences panel. This gives the user a few options on export.

Eventually I found out that the DNG SDK cannot write a DNG from an arbitrary RAW file format. In fact all it really can do is read a valid DNG file, and write one (isn’t that the same as making a copy?).

But then I realized all I really needed to do was to call the Adobe DNG Converter command line tool which is hidden inside the application’s package contents.

This isn’t ideal as the user will now see the little Adobe icon popping up over and over again in the dock, and the user must first install the DNG Converter before using my plugin, but it works.

So that I could say I finished an Aperture plugin in one day, I am calling this one a BETA release. Hopefully in the future I will be able to expand on it, adding more sophisticated options and freeing myself from the constraints of the command line tool.

So, if you would like to try it out, please download and install the plugin by following this link. You will also need the Adobe DNG Converter application, which is available for free from Adobe’s website.

A couple of release notes here. I haven’t implemented the progress bar, so don’t be alarmed. Maybe I will get that done on the plane tomorrow. Also, the plugin first exports the Master RAW file to your disk, does the conversion and then deletes the RAW copy. So if you watch in your Finder window you will see the files appearing and disappearing. And lastly if you try to export an image whose Master is not a RAW file (Jpeg or Tiff) it will still export the file, but it will skip the conversion to DNG and just leave it on your destination folder.

This pluign is meant to be essentially a macro. It doesn’t do anything you can;t already do with the Adobe DNG Converter application, but maybe someday it will!

Enjoy…

PS - I have only tested this on Leopard.

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Fraser Speirs of Connected Flow has some quick updates to FlickrExport:

1. Added a button to the registration sheet that takes you to a web page where you can retrive your serial number.
2. Fixed a number of memory leaks.

This brings the current version to 1.0.6. For more information and to download the latest version of FlickrExport, check out Connected Flow or download here

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If you are one of the many Pictage.com photographers out there who use Aperture, then you will want to check out their latest plugin.

This latest plugin has been completely rewritten form the ground up.

The new version offers background uploading, keyword categorization and the ability to select from your event list or create a new event from within the plugin. For more information on how this plugin came to be, please read my post over at Inside Aperture, or to download the latest version, follow this link. You must be logged into Pictage.com to download the plugin.

The Aperture to Pictage Plug-in streamlines your workflow by making image transfers between Aperture and Pictage easier than ever.

Enjoy the following benefits:

1. Seamless upload from Aperture to Pictage via integrated FTP engine
2. Create Pictage categories on the fly using Aperture’s keyword feature
3. Schedule and upload new events or upload to existing events directly from the plug-in

http://pro.pictage.com/products_apertureplugin.htm

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