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Author Topic: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files  (Read 4335 times)

wolfnowl

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Schewe

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2014, 01:34:00 am »

Yep...good advise! Some of the advantages of using Lightroom vs. ACR.

A good motivation to use Snapshots (which are included in .xmp).
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MarkH2

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2014, 01:48:39 am »

As noted, virtual copies are not saved in the xmp.  However, snapshots of virtual copies are saved in the xmp.  So if you want your virtual copies and softproofs available in the xmp of the master, simply make snapshots of them.
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john beardsworth

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2014, 04:25:22 am »

Perhaps that article should go further? XMP is needed for sharing metadata with other apps, but I sometimes wish that Lightroom had simply moved on from XMP and not led people to think it's of great value in a LR workflow.

So much Lightroom work is left out of XMP that I'd contend the backup value of XMP is second rate. It's certainly no good backing up XMP files on their own. You'd lose stacks, virtual copies, history, pick flags, your smart and dumb collection organisation, all your work on books, slideshows, web galleries, saved print collections. You'd lose published collections, and any settings inside your keywords (eg do not export). That's usually a lot of lost work.

On the other hand, you do have to back up the catalogue. And if you do just this, and don't even bother with XMP, 100% of your LR work is safeguarded.

John

PS For those who do believe in XMP files, one problem with saving VCs as snapshots is that you can only do so one file at a time. Look up the Snapshotter plug-in which lets you save multiple VCs.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2014, 04:33:09 am by johnbeardy »
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Tony Jay

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2014, 04:51:09 am »

...PS For those who do believe in XMP files, one problem with saving VCs as snapshots is that you can only do so one file at a time. Look up the Snapshotter plug-in which lets you save multiple VCs.
That could be very helpful.

Thanks John

Tony Jay
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JRSmit

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2014, 05:11:22 am »

Perhaps that article should go further? XMP is needed for sharing metadata with other apps, but I sometimes wish that Lightroom had simply moved on from XMP and not led people to think it's of great value in a LR workflow.

So much Lightroom work is left out of XMP that I'd contend the backup value of XMP is second rate. It's certainly no good backing up XMP files on their own. You'd lose stacks, virtual copies, history, pick flags, your smart and dumb collection organisation, all your work on books, slideshows, web galleries, saved print collections. You'd lose published collections, and any settings inside your keywords (eg do not export). That's usually a lot of lost work.

On the other hand, you do have to back up the catalogue. And if you do just this, and don't even bother with XMP, 100% of your LR work is safeguarded.

John

PS For those who do believe in XMP files, one problem with saving VCs as snapshots is that you can only do so one file at a time. Look up the Snapshotter plug-in which lets you save multiple VCs.
+1. Actually, the xmp is included in the lr database as a (readable) blob.
So i do not care at all about having xmp sidecars.
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john beardsworth

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2014, 05:19:41 am »

Actually, the xmp is included in the lr database as a (readable) blob.
Sure, though you'd probably agree that what we mean by xmp is metadata written into sidecars and into some file types.

IIRC that blob is mainly to allow LR to preserve other apps' metadata.

John
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JRSmit

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2014, 03:00:21 pm »

Agreed. Also when doing searching on any readable field it reads the xml blob.
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luxborealis

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2014, 09:57:00 pm »

Thanks to both Mike and John. Very helpful.
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digitaldog

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Re: What Is Not Included In Lightroom XMP Files
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2014, 10:58:17 am »

On the other hand, you do have to back up the catalogue. And if you do just this, and don't even bother with XMP, 100% of your LR work is safeguarded.
I'm starting to finally see the light thanks to you John and Peter Krogh. That is in terms of the catalog having all the necessary data we need to save instead of relying on XMP.

It's useful for those of us working with DNG and hoping to keep the edits within the catalog for regular backup while not submitting those XMP changes to the DNG each and every time. Yes, I've said in the past it's not a real burden for my backup plan as that happens while I sleep unattended. But Peter has some good points about continuously backing up that big container. By turning off Auto save XMP, at a point where my DNG's are processed "enough" where that critical data should be embedded but no more (until I do so on a case by case basis), I'm finding the LR catalog is a good place to be storing this kind of data. Shame about the VC/Snapshot behavior.
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