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for future information, the whole import-as-a-catalog thing is how I manage using Lightroom on my desktop and laptop. Whenever I am on a trip or whatever using my laptop (which has limited storage space), I’ll just start up a temporary catalog on there and do all my imports, backup, tag/sort my photos, etc while on the road. Then, when I get back home I’ll export everything from the laptop “as a catalog”, including the negatives and previews (see screenshot), and then import that into my master catalog on the desktop. This keeps all my edits and metadata/flagging/collections intact. Makes the whole process pretty easy, and a lot less prone to losing things…which I have done using other methods 🙂
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Very interesting! I’ve seen the “Export Catalog” thing, but I’ve never had to use it, since I do all my editing on my “mobile workstation”. 🙂
Just FYI the metadata that gets written to the XMP files do not include the full history of edits that were made on the photo. I was always under the impression that XMP was sort of a backup of all my edits, flags, etc. that would stay with the image no matter where it went, but it turns out this is not the case.
Would all this metadata be embedded inside the image (instead of being written to a sidecar file) if the image itself was a DNG file?
Like, what if when I imported pictures from a memory card into Lightroom I chose “Copy as DNG” instead of simply “Copy”? If the actual picture file was a DNG, would all the information what you mentioned wasn’t stored in the XMP file be embedded within the DNG file, and thus show up when opened in other programs?
The metadata in a DNG file is actually still XMP data (it can be stored in other formats too, such as exif). The difference is that it just gets recorded right into the DNG file itself rather than in a sidecar file. So, with DNG its the same story as the .xmp sidecar files, there’s still no edit history, collections info, flags, etc. That stuff only exists in the catalog – so back it up!
I have changed my opinion over time about converting everything to DNG. I used to do it to every photo, and sort of wish I hadn’t now.
I wrote up a little thing about why here if you’re interested.Thanks @mrstevens. Good stuff to know.
We’re now making use of Lightroom’s feature of creating .xmp files. Darktable reads them fine which is neat! Just another quick question, though… How do I get Lightroom to recover from an .xmp file? (Supposing I had one coming from Darktable.)
As long as the XMP files are in the same directory as the raw images (not in subdirectories, but just mixed in there with the raw files), and have the same filename as their respective raw images, Lightroom should read them automatically.
If not, assuming the images have been added to Lightroom, go to the metadata menu and click “read metadata from file.”
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