Hasselblad Work Flow

[dstein575]

As best I can tell,  converting Hasselblad Raw photos into a sortable file that can be managed in Aperture is cumbersome at best and needlessly consumes huge amount of memory.  Shooting with a 39 megapixel Hasselblad back, I wind up with four photo files and 600 megabytes of memory use

The starting raw file is 50 megabytes.
First I download the raw images (3FR files) onto my hard disk.  
Next I import 3FR files into the Phocus Capture file.  I can only view thumbnails of the 3FR files so its hard to rate photos before I import them.  This produces a replica file in the FFF format in the Phocus's Capture folder, doubling memory consumption.
FFF files can be read by Aperture, but are uncorrected images and therefore don't take advantage of Phocus's lens correction capabilities.  If I want Phocus processed and corrected images I have to create and export from Phocus a Tiff file.  The Tiffs produced by Phocus are about 250 megabytes.   These can then be imported into Apeture to be managed.  Aperture places a copy of the Tiff file into its own folder.   Until I delete files, I've consumed 600 megabytes of computer memory from an initial 50 megabyte file.

Am I doing something wrong or is this just the way it is.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

David

[Dick Roadnight]

As best I can tell,  converting Hasselblad Raw photos into a sortable file that can be managed in Aperture is cumbersome at best and needlessly consumes huge amount of memory. .
David

I was looking for answers... but, perhaps, as I have photoshop CS4 master collection and lightroom and phocus, is Aperture worth the space?

I understand that there is an internet album printing service available for it, but I can presumably process in PS CS4 and then export to aperture?

[Fons]

I am also puzzled by the fact that Phocus needs 3F and cannot use 3FR files. This while MacOS X >10.5.2 supports both full rendering of both formats, hence Phocus should be able to do the same. Anyway, I do:

- copy 3FR to disk
- import to 3F in Phocus (rename and place in final location)
- process in Phocus to full jpg (compression artifacts are not visible due to low compression option)
- delete 3FR files
- import 3F and JPG in Aperture by reference (so no extra copy)

I am amazed how well Phocus processes the raw files, especially the fixing of hot pixels.


Cheers, Fons.

[Phil G]

I am also puzzled by the fact that Phocus needs 3F and cannot use 3FR files. This while MacOS X >10.5.2 supports both full rendering of both formats, hence Phocus should be able to do the same. Anyway, I do:

- copy 3FR to disk
- import to 3F in Phocus (rename and place in final location)
- process in Phocus to full jpg (compression artifacts are not visible due to low compression option)
- delete 3FR files
- import 3F and JPG in Aperture by reference (so no extra copy)

I am amazed how well Phocus processes the raw files, especially the fixing of hot pixels.


Cheers, Fons.

I work in a similar way when importing I write .fff files to a named folder eg. HBA090515 (scratchpad)  on my  working drive ( a striped pair) and copy onto internal and external backup this folder contains 'corrected' .fff's

I then import into aperture as referenced masters so I am only creating versions and Mettadata and each image is only taking up 50MB + back ups one on seperate internal HDD and one on external preservation HDD then I scrap the .3FR on cards or portable HDD

Its a pain to have to reapply corrections in Aperture2 which are not as good as Phocus but I can use the DAM and other features of Aperture which is much quicker and if I need a high res corrected copy I go to the Master and process out using Phocus

Hopefully Aperture and Phocus will converge at some point in the future but that's my work around

and at 7p a GB the storage hardware costs are minimal

Regards

Phil

[John.Williams]

The 3FR is simply a compressed (lossless) of the FFF file. What the he$% is a FFF (Flexible File Format) anyway?

It is a TIFF/EP version 6.0; a 16-bit TIFF file.

Hasselblad writes the history of the RAW recipes into the "Private" tag in the header; otherwise this is a very public file format. De-mosaicing and sensor calibration data is all embedded in the file.

If you are using Aperture, you can achieve better results by importing the 3FR into Phocus, then export as 16-bit TIFF because you end up with lens corrections and the Hasselblad RGB color space. Import these exported TIFFs into Aperture and not a lot of work to be done.

Article is here: http://hotwire-digital.com/training/softwaremenu/78-using-apple-aperture-with-hasselblad-3f-phocus-raw-workflow

Be well, stay inspired.

John

[Dick Roadnight]

If you are using Aperture, you can achieve better results by importing the 3FR into Phocus, then export as 16-bit TIFF because you end up with lens corrections and the Hasselblad RGB color space. Import these exported TIFFs
John

I have Aperture, but have never installed it ... does it do anything that Photoshop does not?

I look forward to seeing David Grover in London next month.

[jduncan]

The Tiffs produced by Phocus are about 250 megabytes.   These can then be imported into Apeture to be managed.  Aperture places a copy of the Tiff file into its own folder.   Until I delete files, I've consumed 600 megabytes of computer memory from an initial 50 megabyte file.

Aperture can use referenced files. There is no need to duplicate the files.  Looks like   you do not consume 600MB you use 550MB during the process if you insist on duplicating the files.