Using Automator to Import Photos into Aperture
I’ve written several articles about Automator, and so here’s one more that Aperture users might find useful.
Here’s how I use it: I recently wrote a blog entry about using Eye-Fi for uploading Wirelessly. Though I could use this device to upload directly to Aperture, I typically discard most photos and choose only a few from a particular shoot to import into Aperture. The process of dragging selected photos into a selected Aperture project is not that difficult. But an Automator workflow makes it even easier.
This workflow simply imports selected photos into Aperture and applies an assigned keyword to them. For my particular purposes, I’m doing two daily photo projects in which I have to import photos into Aperture everyday so that the processed photos can be posted on my Flickr account after processing.
For one daily project, here’s the workflow set up I created. It’s very simple and straight forward.
Both workflow actions can be found in the Photos actions library. I saved this workflow as an application and put that application into the Eye-Fi folder where my daily photos are imported to. Photos that I want imported into Aperture are simply selected and dragged on top of the Automator application. When it runs, it labels the selected photos with a keyword and imports them into the selected project. It’s a great little time saver. Anything that can reduce a few clicks on in the process is cool with me.
By the way, Automator is a great program, but if you want to get a little more power in your automation, Applescript is the way to go. I just discovered this useful site devoted automating Aperture using Applescript. It includes a AppleScript for importing photos into Aperture.
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