XMP Sidecar, NX workflow question

[davidkl]

Hi Kirk,
Been using PM for the past few months and I will say it's a great product and has changed my workflow. Here's what I now do:
1. Ingest .NEF files using PM with your recommended settings for generating XMP sidecar files.
2. Review, tag the losers, select all tagged, delete
3. Select the .nef file from PM launching NX 1.2, make image adjustments, save .nef, either generate .tiff or .jpg
4. Use Photoshop when needed for cloning, resizing, final output on selected images.

My question: I'm generating all these XMP files. Would my workflow work if I just embedded the limited info (I guess IPTC not XMP) into the .NEF file and carry through into the .Tiff and jpg files?  I'm not loving having all these tiny .xmp files round. If so what setting would I need in PM?
Thanks.
David

[Kirk Baker]

David,

Been using PM for the past few months and I will say it's a great product and has changed my workflow. Here's what I now do:
1. Ingest .NEF files using PM with your recommended settings for generating XMP sidecar files.
2. Review, tag the losers, select all tagged, delete
3. Select the .nef file from PM launching NX 1.2, make image adjustments, save .nef, either generate .tiff or .jpg
4. Use Photoshop when needed for cloning, resizing, final output on selected images.

My question: I'm generating all these XMP files. Would my workflow work if I just embedded the limited info (I guess IPTC not XMP) into the .NEF file and carry through into the .Tiff and jpg files?  I'm not loving having all these tiny .xmp files round. If so what setting would I need in PM?

I just tested a NEF file with embedded IPTC and saved as a JPEG with Capture NX 1.2 and the JPEG did indeed have the IPTC data in it.

So you could change your IPTC/XMP prefs to embed IPTC and NX 1.2 does appear to do the right thing and preserve your caption data through to the JPEG.

Use some duplicate files and experiment a bit...

-Kirk

[davidkl]

Hi Kirk,
Could you post a screenshot of the preferences that I should set to embedd IPTC and not create sidecar files?  I'm setting something incorrectly.
Thanks.
David

[Kirk Baker]

David,

Could you post a screenshot of the preferences that I should set to embedd IPTC and not create sidecar files?  I'm setting something incorrectly.

Sure, but if you already have sidecar files these settings won't cause them to spontaneously disappear...

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[davidkl]

works great - thanks Kirk.

[Hayo Baan]

David, Kirk's reply already answers your questions very well so my comments are just extra.

I almost have the exact same workflow as yours.  The only difference being that I only export NEFs to TIFF if I need to perform some editing in Photoshop (e.g. dust removal).  For the rest I keep only the NEF; the embedded full size JPG is more than adequate.

I generally don't use sidecar files but embed all the IPTC/XMP info in the NEFs directly.  This works very well!
My settings differ from Kirk's, but basically only in the order in which the IPTC/XMP data is used.
I have sidecar file first, then embedded XMP, finally followed by embedded IPTC.  I furthermore have it always write XMP to the sidecar (if it exists).

My reasoning for this is: I do all my IPTC editing with PM so the information is always kept in sync between the three sources.  However, in case I use another program to update the data, it is likely to either update the info in the sidecar file or the XMP data, not the IPTC.  This all depends on your software usage though, and is likely not to be too important as long as you know the impact of your choice 

See attached screenshot for my preferences.


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[davidkl]

Hi Hayo,
I'm not sure I understand the advantage of your settings. I only use Capture NX for processing .nef files (I don't use ACR). I will use CS2 on Tiff files when needed, but all my image adjustments to the .nef are done in NX.  I do also use IView for DAM.  Will your approach benefit me?
Thanks.
David

[Hayo Baan]

Hi David,

As I said, whether or not my settings would be of benefit depends on where your "other" applications (Photoshop/IView) write their changes to the IPTC/XMP data to.  I reckon you don't use Capture NX or Photoshop to update the IPTC/XMP data, so you can concentrate on I-View Media, because I guess you do use that application to manage IPTC/XMP data.

I'm pretty certain IView updates the data in the file, not in a sidecar.  Question now becomes: does it update the XMP or the IPTC data, or maybe both?

• If XMP, then my settings would be beneficial because then those are then used by PM as well (with Kirk's settings you would risk overwriting the XMP with the old IPTC).
• If IPTC, then use Kirk's settings for exactly the same reasoning.[/li
  
  • If both are updated, either is fine
  
  Another thing to keep in mind is keeping the NEF, TIF, and JPG XMP/IPTC data in sync.  Currently PM only supports syncing NEF+JPG pairs.  A request is out to allow NEF+TIF+JPG syncing as well (see http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=1476.0). This request also describes a work-around to sync NEF+TIF data with the current version of PM.
  
  Hope that clears up things a bit,
      Hayo