Photo Mechanic 5 and Adobe Camer Raw 8

[fotograhn]

I would really appreciate if someone took the time to explain this in an easily understandable way for me, even though I know that this issue, or at least similar, has been discussed several times before. I have read the IPTC/XMP topic on the Camera Bits wiki back and forth, however I cannot find a relevant answer that's really up-to-date with current versions of the mentioned applications.

The problem I'm experiencing is that the rendering adjustments I'm doing in ACR (cropping, dodging, burning, etc…) are lost when I want to edit the same image a second time, i.e. the next day. When I re-open the image from PM5 for further adjustments in Photoshop, I'm back with the original untouched image instead of where I left off the day before.

This is my typical workflow:
   1. ingesting raw files from card, and applying Global IPTC Stationary Pad
   2. setting Color Class and editing the IPTC content in PM
   3. CMD+E to edit the selected photo in Adobe Photoshop CC, e.g. launching Camera Raw
   4. Saving a JPEG copy with the same name to the same destination folder (PM combines RAW+JPEG into single thumbnail)
   5. CMD+U uploads the JPEG to a remote destination FTP server

So far, so good. At least everything looks good in the contact sheet. Continues...

   6. After a while I want to make another adjustment to the very same raw image, again hitting CMD+E, finding myself at the un-edited original version of the raw image. Huh?!

My question: How should I configure the Photo Mechanic IPTC/XMP Preferences tab to be fully inter-operable with Photoshop CC (ACR 8) at all times? The Camera Raw Preferences is set to save image settings iar ".xmp" files.

I'm running:
- Photo Mechanic 5.0 build 13915 (a16ea99)
- Adobe Camera Raw 8.1.0.43 (Adobe Photoshop CC 14.0 x64)
- Mac OS X 10.8.4
- Canon RAW-files (.cr2)

Attached is what the IPTC/XMP Preference tab looks like in PM5, slightly different from earlier versions.

Many thanks in advance!


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[Kirk Baker]

Your settings look good to me.  Can you send me one of your RAW files and your XMP sidecar files so I can look into them?  Send me a personal message and I'll give you instructions on how to upload files to our server.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[fotograhn]

Kirk,

thank you for your prompt reply. In the mean time I investigated this further, and found that the problem might lay in Adobe Photoshop / Camera Raw, as the .xmp sidecar file did not always update as supposed.

After a couple of hours with online support from Adobe Technical Center in Bangalore, India we found the missing link. Eureka!

This WAS my workflow:

• I make a selection of raw files in PM5
• I hit CMD+E to edit in Photoshop (opens Camera Raw)
• Making my exposure adjustments
• I hit CMD+S to save JPEG's with same name in same location
• I hit ESCAPE to leave Camera Raw (if I hit ENTER the images will open in Photoshop)
• Back in PM5 all changes are made to the JPEG copy, but not to the RAW file (.xmp sidecar file)

From now on, after editing in ACR, I will actually use the mouse/trackpad and manually click the "Done" button, found bottom right in the Adobe Camera Raw interface. When I hit Escape all changes are forgotten by ACR and it stops writing to the .XMP. It may take a few fractions of a second longer, but it will work.

It might look fully natural to you when I explain it like this, but in my stubborn eagerness to find a suitable (time saving) keyboard shortcut I simply got it all wrong.

Question: Any ideas how to find a keyboard shortcut that works in ACR, that will represent "Done" and not the default "Open Image"??

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