Color class and star rating in Capture NX

[Serge Nelissen]

Hello,

Why don't I see the color class or star rating applied in PM in Capture NX ?
Isn't there a _standard_ place to store that info in the EXIF ?

Thanks a lot,

Serge

[Kirk Baker]

Serge,

Why don't I see the color class or star rating applied in PM in Capture NX ?
Isn't there a _standard_ place to store that info in the EXIF ?

Not in EXIF, but in XMP.  We put that information in XMP data.  I don't think Capture NX has any facility for displaying/editing 5-star ratings or color labels at all...

-Kirk

[Serge Nelissen]

Hi Kirk,

Capture NX has color class (called 'label'), maybe it doesn't store it in XMP ?

Serge

[sdevan45]

I second this.  Capture NX does have a color class rating.  I'm not sure how they store it either.

[Serge Nelissen]

Hi Kirk,

Would you be interested in getting 2 NEF files, one without and one _with_ color class (label) applied in Capture NX so you can see where Capture stores the color class ?

Serge

[Kirk Baker]

Serge,

Would you be interested in getting 2 NEF files, one without and one _with_ color class (label) applied in Capture NX so you can see where Capture stores the color class ?

Sure. Contact me privately for server upload instructions.

-Kirk

[bjornh]

Hi

I'm currently evaluating Photo Mechanic and I really like it so far. I have star rating working between Nikon NX (View 1.1.0 and Capture 2.0) and Photo Mechanics but I can't get the color labels to work. Looks like Nikon is not aware of what I set in Photo Mechanic and the other way around. It here any solution for this?

/Björn

[Kirk Baker]

Björn,

I'm currently evaluating Photo Mechanic and I really like it so far. I have star rating working between Nikon NX (View 1.1.0 and Capture 2.0) and Photo Mechanics but I can't get the color labels to work. Looks like Nikon is not aware of what I set in Photo Mechanic and the other way around. It here any solution for this?

I don't have Capture NX 2.0 yet, but if anyone would know how to get things to work, it would be Jason Odell:

http://www.luminescentphoto.com/

But if I had to guess, the best bet would be to configure Capture NX2 and Photo Mechanic to use the same label names and colors.  Photo Mechanic uses the same format as Adobe's products when writing to XMP.  So you'd have to adopt an XMP workflow and tell PM to either embed XMP into your NEF files or create sidecar files, and for PM to write edits (Color Class, Ratings, and Tag) into IPTC/XMP metadata.  You can make these settings on the IPTC/XMP tab and Files tab of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog.

If you want to adjust a NEF in NX2, letting me know what edits you performed on the file, I can see how they are storing color labels.  It may be that Nikon has adopted the Adobe 'standard' as well and we would be perfectly compatible with it as long as our Color Class names matched those used in Capture NX2.

Contact me privately for server upload instructions so you can send me a sample file.  Click on my name to the left of this message, then click on the 'personal message' link.

HTH,

-Kirk

[bjornh]

I did some further testing and I'm starting to wonder if it's not a bug in Nikons software.

I did a sync of names and colors between PM, ViewNX and CaptureNX.

Any changes done in the nikon software when changing labels is directly shown in Photo Mechanic (correctly). But the problem is that when I change in Photo Mechanic, The Nikon software show the new label but retains the old number.

 

[Kirk Baker]

I did some further testing and I'm starting to wonder if it's not a bug in Nikons software.

I did a sync of names and colors between PM, ViewNX and CaptureNX.

Any changes done in the nikon software when changing labels is directly shown in Photo Mechanic (correctly). But the problem is that when I change in Photo Mechanic, The Nikon software show the new label but retains the old number.

Number?  Like a label index?  The Adobe method of color labels is entirely name-based, there is no number associated with the label.

Photo Mechanic uses an index and a label, but since Adobe doesn't use an index, there is no 'standard' place for us to impart that information.  We write our index to our own data which as far as I know is not used by any other application besides Photo Mechanic.

Having some sample files would help me find out how Capture NX2 is maintaining that information.

-Kirk

[bjornh]

It looks like Capture NX is using some combination of label and urgency value. If I change both in PM it will be correctly updated in Capture NX.

Of course I can supply you with files if you need. Just tell me want you need and how to upload it.

Thanks for your quick response. A definite plus when considering buying

[George Sass]

I have the same issue, but am hoping the new version, Nikon Capture NX2 will help solve this.  According to Nikon, NX2 now has "Support for embedded XMP data, including star ratings and color labels compatible with Nikon View NX and 3rd party products."  So far I haven't been able to get one program to recognize the other's ratings.  Any ideas?

[ostonica]

I have set up my PM preferences according to the settings shown on P344 on Jason Odell's NX2 ebook.
ie:
1. Reading IPTC/XMP  (a) read XMP before IPTC  (b) orider (i) Read embedded XMP (ii) read embedded IPTC
2  Writing (a) add both IPTC and IPTC4XMP
              (b) For Tiff based Raw photos check both Add embedded IPTC and IPTC4XMP
              (c) If sidecar files exist only update IPTC4XMP is present
3.  When viewing photos in RAW+JPEG mode use metadata from RAW.

When I change any star rating in PM, NX2 or ViewNX, it immediately shows up in the other two applications.

All metadata in NX2 uses the XMP standards which helps enormously. According to a posting on the Nikonians forum this morning, to enable the color labels to be seen in both NX2 and PM you need to customise the default labels in NX2 to Adobe Bridge CS3 compatible in the drop-down options, but I have not checked that out yet.

Jim Swift

[bjornh]

Kirk,

Did you get the files and my description? Is it possible to solve this? I'm still evaulating PM and I really like it for the speed and I think it could be a good center in my workflow.

[ostonica]

Kirk,

Did you get the files and my description? Is it possible to solve this? I'm still evaulating PM and I really like it for the speed and I think it could be a good center in my workflow.

I am now using PM with NX2 and both ratings and colour classes set in PM show up fine in NX2. This is made possible by the fact that NX2 uses XMP for its ratings and labels.  The key to making colour classes work is that the NAME of the colour class must be identical in all three apps. The colour class is recognised by its name, not the number. All three apps allow you to customise the names of the colour labels.

With the quality of the NX2 images I am sure that a lot of people will be moving to the combination of PM and NX2. I have just completed a move of all .nef images in Lightroom to working with the PM NX2 combination. I am not yet as proficient with NX2 as I was with Lightroom, but that will come with practice.

Jim Swift