8 Replies to “Lightroom, File Management and Metadata”

  1. johnsrichards

    Mike,
    Are there any differences in how Lightroom stores metadata in .PNG files vs. the other file types you listed .TIF, .PSD, .LPG & DNG?

    Reply
    1. wolfnowl Post author

      Hi John: The simple answer is that Lightroom doesn't work with .PNG files. You can use them for a watermark or a graphic identity plate, but since Lightroom is for digital images and no camera creates .png files, you can't import them into a Lightroom catalog. That's one of the differences between the Lightroom catalog and something like Adobe Bridge, which is essentially a file browser.

      Mike.

      Reply
  2. TheGirlFromEye

    hi Mike, great explanation, thank you, only one question, you say;

    "You can also instruct Lightroom to output that metadata information (including copyright info, keywords, etc. as well as the history steps) to the image metadata (the sidecar file in the case of raw files). You can either set Lightroom to do this automatically…"

    how I do I change this setting to do so automatically?
    cheers, Luke

    Reply
    1. wolfnowl Post author

      Hi Luke, and thanks for dropping by our little corner of the \’net! If you go to Edit/Catalog Settings (Win) or Lightroom/Catalog Settings (Mac), on the Metadata tab there\’s an option to \’Autowrite Changes to .XMP\’ Check that box.

      Mike.

      Now that you’ve pointed it out, I’ll update the post with that information!

      Reply
  3. Peter Pearce

    Hi ,when I export catalogue to my external hard drive I tick the box to also export negatives I have also saved all my meta data changes . When reading the file in preview from my hard drive all my post processing is missing , what have I missed.

    Reply
    1. wolfnowl Post author

      Hi Peter: Let me clarify a couple of things here. First, you\’ve exported the catalogue and the image files to your external drive, so you should have a complete dataset. You mentioned that you\’ve also saved your metadata changes to the files, either automatically or by selecting all of the images in the catalogue and using Ctrl/Cmd-S or Metadata/ Save Metadata to Files.

      I\’m not sure what you mean by \’reading the file in preview\’… what software are you using to do this? Is it capable of reading/understanding the metadata? A file opened in Bridge or Adobe Camera Raw for example should be able to read/interpret the processing steps in Lr. Remember that Lr isn\’t actually changing the image information itself unless you export it in some fashion (Export/Print/Slideshow/Web), in which case it builds a new image based on the original image and the processing steps it has recorded. If you simply examine a file using File Explorer or equivalent it won\’t be able to interpret the changes.

      Mike.

      Reply

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