Brushed Pixel

Bridge the gap between Aperture and external RAW converters!

Catapult is an Aperture plug-in that allows you to use DxO Optics Pro, Adobe Camera Raw or Nikon Capture to perform RAW conversions with images from your Aperture library. Catapult will stack the converted images with your RAW masters in Aperture, and archive the settings used to produce the converted image for later use.

Nikon RAW shooters can use camera features that are only available through Nikon Capture while still maintaining your library with Aperture, including Active D-Lighting, automatic lens distortion correction, auto lateral colour aberration correction, and image dust-off.

How It Works

Use the Catapult edit plugin to export your RAW files to a “drop” folder. Convert the RAW file to a JPEG or TIFF and save it to the “pickup” folder.

To support non-destructive editing, Catapult can archive sidecar files produced by Adobe Camera Raw and DxO Optics Pro, or a settings file exported from Nikon Capture. When you want to make changes to your JPEG/TIFF image later, just edit that image using Catapult — it will export the original RAW file used to create the image as well as the associated sidecar/settings file, allowing you can continue where you left off.

Catapult’s help documentation includes guides for getting started with DxO Optics Pro 7, Adobe Camera Raw, and Nikon Capture. However, you’re free to apply this workflow to other software too.

Batch Workflows Not available in Catapult Lite

Catapult’s batch mode lets you export several RAW images at once. Catapult will watch the pickup folder for new files and automatically associate them with the exported RAW images by matching file names (it will also automatically find matching sidecar files). You can then import the whole set of processed files at once, and Catapult will stack each converted file against the corresponding RAW files.

No need to shoot NEF+JPEG!

Nikon photographers can use this as an alternative for shooting RAW+JPEG. You can use Catapult and Nikon Capture to produce superior conversions of NEF files compared to the in-camera processing, while honouring all the in-camera settings that the in-camera processing provides. This allows you to save space on your memory cards while shooting!