Losing Capture time on Export and/or re-import

[Photofan]

Hello

My usual workflow with lightroom is as follows:

1.Import Images into LR straight from card - directing them to chosen folder on import
2.Editing images in LR Develop Module
3.Exporting Images into same folder with new name
4.Deleting original images from disk via LR
5.Re-importing edited images into LR Catalogue

I do this to make sure that I dont have lots of duplicates on my hard drive and LR Catalogue.

When I re-import the edited images however, they have lost their original capture time and so therefore the sort by 'capture time' doesnt work correctly and they end up as being sorted by edit time - (or the date that they were exported with new name)

What settings do I need to set on import/export to ensure that the original capture time is always maintained?
Also - is there a way to get the re-imported edited images to import with their keywords and go into the collections they were in as jpg/Raw images ?

I hope someone can help because my Library is now not in the correct capture time order!

Thanks
Photofan

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

The problem is likely happening because you have selected something other than "Include: All Metadata" in the Metadata panel of the Export Settings dialog. Changing the selection to "All Metadata" will include the capture date info when you export, so it should then be available when you import the exported files. That option will also ensure that the Keywords will also be retained after export/import. However, the collections issue is not so clear-cut....collection membership will not be included in the exported files, so they will not fall into any static collections when you import them. However, if the collections are of the "smart" variety which are driven by keywords then the images should fall into the smart collections automatically on import.

OK, having answered your questions as best I can, here's one for you: have you really thought through your workflow thoroughly? I would think that the majority of photographers would never willingly delete their original files in favour of exported derivatives, they would view that as being similar to destroying their film negatives after making a single print. The point is that Lightroom's "non-destructive" system allows the user to continue to re-develop the original images as many times as they wish without any degradation of that original...and that capability is lost as soon as you bake a single set of edits into an exported jpeg and then destroy the original. But if you keep the originals, then suddenly decide you'd like a B&W version? No problem, create a virtual copy of the original then do the B&W conversion. Want to re-develop using the latest process version in Lightroom? No problem, simply update the process version and re-develop....and if you don't like it, simply step back to the previous version. These things are much more difficult to do if you're working from a derivative file that has a baked in a set of edits already.

Apologies for the lecture, but it's important to understand if you've weighed up the implications of your workflow. If you have, and are happy with it, then that's perfectly fine. I'd just be remiss if I didn't ask the question.

 

[Photofan]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

The problem is likely happening because you have selected something other than "Include: All Metadata" in the Metadata panel of the Export Settings dialog. Changing the selection to "All Metadata" will include the capture date info when you export, so it should then be available when you import the exported files. That option will also ensure that the Keywords will also be retained after export/import. However, the collections issue is not so clear-cut....collection membership will not be included in the exported files, so they will not fall into any static collections when you import them. However, if the collections are of the "smart" variety which are driven by keywords then the images should fall into the smart collections automatically on import.

OK, having answered your questions as best I can, here's one for you: have you really thought through your workflow thoroughly? I would think that the majority of photographers would never willingly delete their original files in favour of exported derivatives, they would view that as being similar to destroying their film negatives after making a single print. The point is that Lightroom's "non-destructive" system allows the user to continue to re-develop the original images as many times as they wish without any degradation of that original...and that capability is lost as soon as you bake a single set of edits into an exported jpeg and then destroy the original. But if you keep the originals, then suddenly decide you'd like a B&W version? No problem, create a virtual copy of the original then do the B&W conversion. Want to re-develop using the latest process version in Lightroom? No problem, simply update the process version and re-develop....and if you don't like it, simply step back to the previous version. These things are much more difficult to do if you're working from a derivative file that has a baked in a set of edits already.

Apologies for the lecture, but it's important to understand if you've weighed up the implications of your workflow. If you have, and are happy with it, then that's perfectly fine. I'd just be remiss if I didn't ask the question.

Hello
Thanks very much for your reply - I have just checked and the metadata panel had somehow been changed to copyright only - thanks

Yes I do know the dangers of deleting my originals and I only do this on my non-important RAW files when I have tweaked them in LR - just to save multiple images in various states of edit.

My next question then is - can I edit the capture time on multiple images in a batch or do I laboriously have to go through them all individually?

Thanks again

 

[Jim Wilde]

Hello

My next question then is - can I edit the capture time on multiple images in a batch or do I laboriously have to go through them all individually?

The problem is that the Metadata>Edit Capture Time command when used on a batch of selected images is designed to work by adjusting each date/time by the same increment as the most selected image (i.e. its primary purpose is to correct a batch of images all by the same amount when, for example, you had the date and/or time incorrectly set in camera). The problem here is that you have no date in the EXIF metadata on which to base the incremental change, so I suspect it would change all the selected images to the exact same date and time.....and I have no idea how they would then sort using Capture Time (possibly file-name would be used when capture times are identical, but I don't know for sure).