Writing Develop Settings to File

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theturninggate

theturninggate

The Turning Gate
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So, I did something utterly retarded last night whilst reorganizing my folders and ended up losing my develop settings on nearly 2,''' photos in the process. Yes, folks, it pays to think before pressing buttons, as I've now found the hard way. Suffice to say, I'm not nearly as good with the Library module as with the Web. :oops:

Here's my question:

Getting develop settings into DNG files. How?

Right-click an image in Library, in menu go to Metadata and options: Save Metadata to File, Update DNG Preview & Metadata ... Will that do it? Are develop settings considered to be a part of metadata? I doubt it.

Does enabling the Write Develop Settings to XMP work to write information into DNG files, or does it only write to sidecars?
 
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theturninggate said:
Getting develop settings into DNG files. How?

Right-click an image in Library, in menu go to Metadata and options: Save Metadata to File, Update DNG Preview & Metadata ... Will that do it? Are develop settings considered to be a part of metadata? I doubt it.

Does enabling the Write Develop Settings to XMP work to write information into DNG files, or does it only write to sidecars?
Click to expand...


The "Save Metadata to File" will save the metadata into the DNG file or XMP file when not using DNG. You can also do this by selecting the images and use Control-S on a PC (Command-S on a Mac if I'm correct).

When "Write Develop Settings to XMP" is enabled, this is done automatically, even for DNG files. However performance drops considerably in my situation so "try before you buy" here. I've this option disabled and try to do a Control-S after each run.
 
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XMP refers to the information in the header of a file such as a jpeg, tiff, DNG. It's only a sidecar file for a raw file, where it can't write back to the original files. And yes it includes your develop settings.

If you want to test it, makes some really obvious changes to your DNG. Cmd-S to save it to the file. Now open that file in Bridge... can you see the changes? And when you look in Finder, is there a sidecar file? Then you're sorted!
 
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Great, I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

If only I'd hit Cmd-S last night before being stupid. I used to process my CR2 files, then convert them to DNG when I was finished. The settings were all saved in the files then, so I could remove and add files to my library with impunity once they were DNGs. I recently began converting to DNG on import, and wasn't thinking last night when I took some of those files out of my library. I realized too late the mistake, imported again to my great disappointment and frustration. :cry:
 
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Don't suppose you have a library backup which would include those images? You could merge the settings back in if you do.
 
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I don't. :cry:

But that raises at least one question on backups.

Is there a way to have LR backup its library without backing up the image files? (I'm worried about HDD space.)

Unfortunately, there's a lot about the Library module I just don't know yet. I've spent so much time working with the Web module, I'm a little behind in other areas (I don't think I've ever even looked at the Print or Slideshow modules, as I've had no use for them).
 
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There is an app someone contacted me about yesterday - it is Windows only, but might be useful somehow!

It is supposed to back lots of things up. I will try to dig out the link and post later.

Richard
 
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theturninggate;117' said:
I don't. :cry:

But that raises at least one question on backups.

Is there a way to have LR backup its library without backing up the image files? (I'm worried about HDD space.)

Unfortunately, there's a lot about the Library module I just don't know yet. I've spent so much time working with the Web module, I'm a little behind in other areas (I don't think I've ever even looked at the Print or Slideshow modules, as I've had no use for them).
Click to expand...
Matthew, catalog back up is only that. ADobe assumes you are using your own, what ever it may be, back-up strategy for the images. It also doesn't do the PReviews, because those can always be regenerated.

So you only have to figure on Catalog size for back up and delete really old ones , or put the Catalog back-ups elsewhere.

As they see HD space is cheap these days!

:)

Don
 
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theturninggate;117' said:
Is there a way to have LR backup its library without backing up the image files? (I'm worried about HDD space.)
Click to expand...

LR doesn't back up the images when it does a catalog backup. It only backs up the database.
 
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