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Aperture to Flickr in one step
In my last post I talked about getting your images into Aperture and applying basic adjustments and edits to your images. Now I want to move on to getting your images out of Aperture and getting them in front of your intended audience.
Aperture version 1.5 gave us a very long list of improvements and added features. One thing Apple did in version 1.5 is to release it's file export API to developers so that they could develop plug-ins for Aperture. Several developers have taken advantage of this new open API including:
Getty Images, Digital Fusion, flickr, iStockphoto, Photo Shelter, Pictage, Soundslides.
The one that I want to talk about today is the Aperture to flickr export module by connectedflow.com
Those of you that use flickr know that uploading photos to your flickr feed is normally a several step process at best. Before Aperture v 1.5 I would export my images out of Aperture into a temporary folder on my desktop, load them into an image editor to apply sharpening and maybe a copyright watermark (both can now be done in Aperture), then I would either use the upload facility on flickr.com or a 3rd part stand-alone application to upload my images and add descriptions, keywords, etc. Then even after all that I would log on to flickr and add my images to photo pools, photo sets and then add geotagging information. Now all of that can be done without leaving Aperture!
This plug-in is so easy to use that there is no need for me to go into a detailed explanation of how to use it. Just download it and give it a try. The plug-in is in beta right now and is free for the time being.
One of the very cool features I do want to mention here is of particular interest to serious flickr geeks (like me) that like to geotag (tagging images with geographic location data) their images. If you notice on the flickr export screen there are Latitude and Longitude fields and next to them is a tiny little Google Earth logo. If you have Google Earth open and the display centered on the point where your photo was taken and then you press the little icon, the longitude and latitude from Google Earth will (somehow) be inserted into the fields in the flickr export plug-in ... cool huh?
The following is a list of some of the features of the export plug-in (from their website)
- Edit photo titles and descriptions, and add tags to them.
- Save your Flickr bandwidth allowance - FlickrExport for Aperture can resize your photos before uploading.
- Create a new photoset with your photos, or add them to an existing photoset.
- Automatically send your photos to a Group Pool on Flickr.
- Choose from a list of your Flickr tags and add them to your photos before uploading.
- Automatically add an Aperture keyword to each photo uploaded.
- Add Flickr photo ID and URL to Aperture metadata.
- Replace existing photos on Flickr with updates versions from Aperture.
- Edit Geo data before uploading.
The Aperture to flickr export module is still in beta at this time but the website is listing retail price of £14 (about $26 U.S.) for when it is released.
For more information on this product please visit http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/aperture/
If you want to see some of my images on flickr click here.
Until next time,
Keep shooting.
Allen Rockwell
Allen Rockwell Photography
Hi Allen, thanks for the mention. Just wanted to let you know that 1.0b5 was released about an hour ago: http://www.connectedflow.com/blog/?p=52
-- Fraser Speirs, Connected Flow.
This is a great tool. I have begun using Flickr as an offsite back up of my Aperture Library. I just keep all the photos hidden by default and make the better ones public for friends and family. This plugin makes it sooo easy.
I've been using Flickr for much longer than Aperture so I've already built a long list of tags there. Is there a way to export these tags from Flickr and import them into Aperture as keywords? I know FlickrExport has a tagging feature, but I'd like my keywords to be stored in Aperture as well.
Stephen,
Importing them into Aperture is the easy bit, just launch the keywords HUD and press the import button.
Getting the keywords (tags) out of flickr seems to be the tricky bit. But the flickr API certainly allows this to happen, that's how the Aperture to flickr export module gets them. Maybe someone will write a little app that gets your flickr tags for you and saves them to a text file so that you can import them. I wouldn't mind having that app myself.