Converting from Microsoft Digital Imaging to Lightroom

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GNH

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Hi all,

I am new to Lightroom, but I have hit an immediate problem. I have been using Digital Imaging which holds information within EXIF in the format that will display when you show Windows Properties for a jpg using Explorer.

I have seen various posts and information describing the differences and tackling the issues of getting lightroom vaues displayed by microsoft.

What I would like to do is to convert my titles and keywords from the Micrsoft format to the Lightroom format. I am looking for a conversion, rather than dual mode working.

Does anyone know hoe to solve this problem.

Regards

Gareth
 
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While I do not have a solution for you, I am stopping by to welcome you to the Lightroom Forums! :D
So many times I saw Microsoft trying to reinvent the wheel! :evil:
 
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It shouldn't be a problem. Lightroom should read the keywords as long as they have been written out to the jpeg embedded metadata and will read Digital Image Pro captions and display them in the Title field again as long as they have been written out to metadata. Lightroom will read the old format (Information Interchange Model) that Digital Image Pro used up to the last version and the last version used XMP, the format Lightroom writes to. Microsoft wasn't "re-inventing the wheel". They were using the standards in place when Digital Image Pro's library came out.
 
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Ken, we had a thread earlier, (lord knows when?) where the poster was relying on the keywords(et al.) embedded in the Windows NTFS file properties dialog. I don't think we were able to offer any reasonable advice to help him/her migrate those keywords to another tool.

Personally, I don't know anything about Digital Image, and I haven't thought about those file system keywords since that thread.

Are you familiar with the NTFS feature? Is it related in anyway to what is being asked here?


Although, just being IIM based would cause enough confusion, on its own :)
 
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I didn't know NTFS had anything to do with it. What little IPTC metadata XP "sees" must be written as IIM. Vista can "see" both IIM and XMP. Digital Image Pro's Library came out shortly after the PSE organizer and writes keywords, titles, and ratings using IIM. As far as I know, Lightroom should recognize them. The one curveball Microsoft threw is that they used the Title field for captions in Digital Image Pro and still do in Photo Gallery.

P.S., I did a search for "NTFS metadata" and came up with a bunch of threads that all seem to be related to disk management, but I don't speak very good engineer. I'm going to take a Tylenol now and have a long nap.
 
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Yes, there's an aspect to 'File information' in NTFS, where the keywords, title, description, and several other similar variables are actually stored in the filesystem, in a manner similar to other file attributes, such as ReadOnly, Archive, etc. and is accessed thru the file properties dialog.

If this is what Gareth, the OP is talking about, I don't think we ever figured out how to extract that data. It may take a programmer.
 
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Digital Image Pro's Library was designed to write keywords, ratings, and titles that would show up in the corresponding fields in the image data properties. I don't remember what EXIF metadata it displayed, but it could not edit that info. The keywords and titles that Gareth specifically mentioned should show up with no problems. I recommend that he import a single image with keywords and a title and see if they show up.
 
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Thanks for the responses. It looks like I will have to manually convert if I want to use Lightroom for my old photos.


I have used used 'Import Photos From Disc'
When I hover over the photo I select, the title appears in the pop-up box.
I select Choose, File Handling 'Add photos to catalog without moving'
Then Import
I have seen a few titles, but no keywords within LR.
I have tried the 'read metadata' option, but I cannot find a consistent answer.
I can't do further testing at the moment as Lightroom has crashed out and won't load.

Regards
Gareth
 
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Gareth are you on XP or Vista and which version of Digital Image Pro are you using? XP's image properties will display keywords and titles only if they are written in the IIM format. The last version of Digital Image Pro could read XMP. I am not sure if it wrote out using IIM or XMP.

I haven't used Digital Image Pro Library since late 2''6, but, as I remember it, keyword and titles are automatically written to the corresponding fields in the embedded metadata. Those two fields are two of the few that XP's image properties does show, so you can check and make sure that they have been written out the embedded metadata.

In late 2''6, I converted my library form Digital Image Pro to the version of Photo Gallery (Digital Image Pro's successor) that came with Vista Release Candidate 1. Photo Gallery on Vista had no problems reading the embedded metadata and when I imported them into Lightroom they came in without issue. Also, the proper fields in Vista's image properties were filled in.
 
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Hi Brad,

I have raised a support call with Adobe. Following the crash the library module would not work. I have deleted the Lightroom folder from application files and Lightroom restarted from scratch, so I am back up and running, but I have no idea what caused the problem.

Regards


Gareth
 
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kwdaves;39''8 said:
Gareth are you on XP or Vista and which version of Digital Image Pro are you using? XP's image properties will display keywords and titles only if they are written in the IIM format. The last version of Digital Image Pro could read XMP. I am not sure if it wrote out using IIM or XMP.

I haven't used Digital Image Pro Library since late 2''6, but, as I remember it, keyword and titles are automatically written to the corresponding fields in the embedded metadata. Those two fields are two of the few that XP's image properties does show, so you can check and make sure that they have been written out the embedded metadata.

In late 2''6, I converted my library form Digital Image Pro to the version of Photo Gallery (Digital Image Pro's successor) that came with Vista Release Candidate 1. Photo Gallery on Vista had no problems reading the embedded metadata and when I imported them into Lightroom they came in without issue. Also, the proper fields in Vista's image properties were filled in.
Click to expand...

I am running on Lightroom XP professional. I can see Title and Keywords displayed in Windows Properties. The title shows in the status bar in explorer when the jpg is selected. I am on the 2''6 version of Digital Image Standard (V11.'.422.')

I have Vista so I can see if Photo Gallery will process the keywords and title.

Thank


Gareth
 
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If they are visible in XP's image properties then they were written out using the older IIM format. Again, that should not be a problem for Lightroom to read. However, you can convert the IIM format to XMP in Photo Gallery fairly easily. Just go to the top level folder (usually Pictures in Vista and My Pictures in XP) in Photo Gallery and select all to select all your images. Then add a throwaway keyword to the selected images (I used "global"). That will convert the keywords and titles for all the images with embedded metadata to the XMP format. Later, after you have checked the image properties to make sure the throwaway keyword has been added, you can select all again and delete the throwaway keyword. All the metadata written using IPTC IIM will be converted to XMP. FYI, if you do this on XP, the metadata fields will appear to be blank, because XP doesn't "see" XMP.

Again, this should not be necessary. Microsoft used the standard fields for IPTC metadata when XP came out. If you open the images up on Vista, OSX and Linux in an application capable of reading IIM, the metadata should be visible.
 
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Hi Ken,

Great answer. I can use Vista Windows Photo Gallery and get all keywords updated and inported into LR. If I edit the Title, then that to gets imported into LR. Do don't happen to know a simple way to update all titles do you?

Many thanks

Gareth
 
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All the IPTC metadata including Titles should have beem converted to XMP. If it didn't do so, then try selecting all and then adding a single letter to the title and later deleting it.
 
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