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Plugin nightmares #1
Allister Jenks's picture
by Allister Jenks
September 22, 2012 - 2:38pm

I want to scream. I already growled at my Mac.

I've been applying updates to OS X and Aperture as they come out. I always do, and I rarely have problems. Until now.

I just opened Aperture and imported some new photos for the first time in 2 months. When opening the application it said it had to convert the library for version 3.4. Whatever, go ahead.

All was going well. I tagged, flagged and adjusted. I was a little surprised that the first photo I adjusted showed up with absolutely no adjustment blocks in the inspector, but subsequent photos automatically brought up the ones I had used in the previous photos. Odd, but no big deal.

Then I went to edit using the BorderFX plugin to add my watermarking. It had lost my preset! It took me ages to fine tune that preset and it was nowhere to be found. So I spent some time recreating it and sent the resized, watermarked jpegs back to Aperture. I didn't think to inspect them at this stage.

Next step was to fire up FlickrExport. Which asked me for my license key. Huh? This had all been working! I found my license key and got it entered and proceeded to set up all my preferences for it and finally upload the photos. As always, I popped over to Safari to refresh my Photostream page and got rather a surprise as the tiny photos appeared!

Despite the original jpeg being 1200 pixels wide (I confirmed this in Aperture) the uploaded ones were 488 pixels wide. I double checked my settings and sure enough it said “JPEG - original size”.

While checking the watermarked jpegs were in fact the correct size, I noticed that the monochrome creative commons graphic I had specified in BorderFX had been placed on the photo with bright blues and reds! What!?

I've gone through the entire process several times now and I cannot see where the colour for the CC logo is coming from nor why the photos are being shrunk from 1200 to 488 pixels wide.

Is anyone else having these sorts of problems?

Ruud Hennequin's picture
by Ruud Hennequin
October 21, 2012 - 8:33pm

Hi,

I encounter the same problem that my imported presets in Silver Efex Pro as well as my user presets are gone.
Trying to locate them in the Mac’s Library folder, I saw the was gone as well.
But that is not true. It is hidden! At thing since Lion.

You can unhide it with this hint:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110704093233123

Then:
In the Finder, click on the Go menu and then select Home.
Open the Library folder, followed by the Preferences folder, followed by the Nik Software folder and then finally by the Silver Efex Pro 2 folder
The presets will be stored within the UserPresets folder and ImportedPresets folder.
So they are still there, but the plug-in seems to have lost the connection.

I a figuring out the next steps…

Ruud (Aperdutch)

Ruud Hennequin
-----AperDutch---

Ruud Hennequin's picture
by Ruud Hennequin
October 21, 2012 - 10:10pm

Hi,

Just to inform you that I have sent this message to Niksoftware:

Hi,
I am using a Macbook Air with OSX 10.7.5.
It appears that in SEP my user presets and imported presets are missing since updating to Lion and a newer version of Aperture. Searching the internet, the cause seems to be the App Sandox says Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4391?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

I had the same issue with the BorderFX plug-in but after updating to their latest version is was OK again.

However, updating to SEP 2.006 the presets are still missing.

Can you inform me what to do? Wait for a newer version of SEP, or re-importing them again (I found they were still there in my Library file after I set it to ’ unhidden’.

Ruud (Aperdutch)

Ruud Hennequin
-----AperDutch---

Martin De's picture
by Martin De
October 23, 2012 - 4:53am

If you want to contact the creator of BorderFx just go to http://www.iborderfx.com, hit the contact tab and fill in the form. I did that a few years ago and had a replay within a day.

Kind regards,
Martin

Greetz, Martin

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
October 23, 2012 - 8:52am

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

Ruud Hennequin's picture
by Ruud Hennequin
October 23, 2012 - 3:15pm

Thanks Joseph and yes I signed up for the mailimnglist just now.

Yesterday I received the official Niksoftware reply to my question above:
(it is more or less the same as your suggestion in the other post you refer to, but a simpler path to follow; also I wanted to know if this is the official route, because BorderFX resolved it with a new version and I want to avoid duplicate presets in Niksoftware decides also to resolve it with an update)

This is Niksoftware’s answer:

Dear Ruud,

Thank you for contacting Nik Software. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please go to the location listed below:

Macintosh HD | Users | <user name> | Library | Preferences | Nik Software | Silver Efex Pro 2

Once there, you will want to drag the folders for “User Presets” and “Imported Presets” to your desktop. Then, open Silver Efex Pro 2 and re-import these recipes by clicking “Import” under “Recipes” within the Silver Efex Pro 2 interface.

*In Mac OS Mountain Lion or Lion, the User Library can be hidden. You may access it by selecting Finder, and then select “Go to Folder” and enter /usr/lib/ and hit “Enter”. In this folder you will find ‘Imported Presets’ and ‘User Presets’

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email or call our Customer Service Department toll free at 1-888-284-4085 (+1-619-725-3150 outside of the US). Our office hours are Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm PST.

Best Regards,
Alec
___________________
Alec Randall
Customer Service Rep
Nik Software, Inc. | Photography first®

Ruud Hennequin
-----AperDutch---

Allister Jenks's picture
by Allister Jenks
September 23, 2012 - 11:35am

Does anyone know how to get hold of the author of BorderFX, Reinhard Ueber? There is absolutely no contact information on the BorderFX site or in the plugin interface.

Allister Jenks's picture
by Allister Jenks
September 23, 2012 - 12:12pm

OK, I managed to solve the size problem. Seems at some point I managed to redefine the size of the “JPEG - Original size” preset.

I’ve also ascertained that BorderFX outputs the CC graphic correctly when I use it as an Export plugin. But for the life of me I cannot fathom where the colour is coming from for the Edit approach.

Allister Jenks's picture
by Allister Jenks
September 23, 2012 - 12:38pm

And the colour problem is now solved too. Quite how an imported jpeg file can have blown highlights and shadows is beyond me! The red and blue I was seeing were cured by Option-Shift-H.

Sigh. I swear I’ve never seen that happen before.

So I still lost my BorderFX presets but the rest was operator trouble. :-(

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
September 23, 2012 - 6:14pm

Thanks for keeping us updated Allister.

Were you able to track down the creator of BorderFX?

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

Allister Jenks's picture
by Allister Jenks
September 23, 2012 - 7:05pm

No. Everything I could find online leads to the BorderFX site, although there are mentions as recent as a year ago of people “writing to the author”. On the site itself I can find no means of contacting him. Some people have commented on the blog posts (which are undated) with questions and there are no responses there.

While I got past the major problem, I still have a few small gripes with the plugin which I’d like to bring to his attention. Fortunately they have workarounds.

Stuart Taylor's picture
by Stuart Taylor
September 23, 2012 - 9:47pm

Allister,

I have just had similar problems … all my fine-tuned BorderFX presets gone ….. no option but to recreate them. I also had an issue with my PhotoMatixPro plugin …. had to re-enter the registration details and also thought I’d lost the presents. However I subsequently found that the presets had to be loaded and dod not show up in the menu preset lists. Most frustrating …… I have yet to check out some other plugins such as Nik Software Silver Efex pro.

Stuart Taylor
HighlanderImages Photography

Stuart Taylor's picture
by Stuart Taylor
September 23, 2012 - 9:50pm

….. Just checked SilverEfexPro plugin and have lost all the custom and imported presets. Apple’s QC process leaves a lot to be desired of late!

Stuart Taylor
HighlanderImages Photography

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
September 24, 2012 - 6:16am

Stuart,

Thanks for reporting that. That’s unfortunate. I’ll post something on the front page to warn other users.

@PhotoJoseph
— Have you signed up for the mailing list?

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