NEF files not showing Labels or Stars

[amdaddio]

Hello,
I have suddenly been having some issues with labels and stars that are applied in Photo Mechanic not showing up in Bridge or Photoshop. Initially the labels that I've applied had been showing up in the other programs, but now they are not. I had not changed anything in my Preferences when this started to happen.

I tried applying the settings that were in the posting:

Bridge labels not showing on NEF files
« on: April 17, 2008, 11:12:57 AM »

But this does not change them from not showing up. I am running Macintosh OS 10.4.11, Photo Mechanic 4.5.3.2, Nikon D3 NEF, Photoshop & Bridge CS3. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andy

[Kirk Baker]

Andy,

I have suddenly been having some issues with labels and stars that are applied in Photo Mechanic not showing up in Bridge or Photoshop. Initially the labels that I've applied had been showing up in the other programs, but now they are not. I had not changed anything in my Preferences when this started to happen.

I tried applying the settings that were in the posting:

Bridge labels not showing on NEF files
« on: April 17, 2008, 11:12:57 AM »

But this does not change them from not showing up. I am running Macintosh OS 10.4.11, Photo Mechanic 4.5.3.2, Nikon D3 NEF, Photoshop & Bridge CS3. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Are you creating XMP sidecar files for your NEF files?  If so, are they being updated when you make changes to the star rating or color class?

-Kirk

[amdaddio]

I believe I am creating the XMP sidecar files... could you please guide me through the process? And as I mentioned, the ratings had been transferring, but now they are not and I had not made any changes to Photo Mechanic, Photoshop or Bridge Preferences...

Thanks
Andy

[Kirk Baker]

Andy,

I believe I am creating the XMP sidecar files... could you please guide me through the process? And as I mentioned, the ratings had been transferring, but now they are not and I had not made any changes to Photo Mechanic, Photoshop or Bridge Preferences...

If you look at the folder containing your images with the Finder, do you see filenames ending in .XMP?

-Kirk

[amdaddio]

Hi Kirk,
I have been setting the preferences for the .xmp sidecar files... after my last posting, I had gone through and made a change in the preference from how I originally had them, clicked "OK" then gone back and reset them to the way I had them in the first place (I'm attaching a screen capture for reference) and now they seem to be working fine... but it is strange as I had not made any changes to the IPTC/XMP preferences when they had suddenly stopped showing the labels and the stars... they do seem to be showing up fine now, but any ideas as to why this might have happened in the first place? I did notice that some of the .xmp files are upper case and some are lower case... I did have a conflict a while back between Photo Mechanic and Lightroom, one application would write the .xmp files as uppercase and the other would write them in lowercase, and each program would only read a specific set (the uppercase or lowercase)... Please let me know if there is anything in my preferences that need to be adjusted. Thanks for your help with this.

Andy

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

Andy,

I have been setting the preferences for the .xmp sidecar files... after my last posting, I had gone through and made a change in the preference from how I originally had them, clicked "OK" then gone back and reset them to the way I had them in the first place (I'm attaching a screen capture for reference) and now they seem to be working fine... but it is strange as I had not made any changes to the IPTC/XMP preferences when they had suddenly stopped showing the labels and the stars... they do seem to be showing up fine now, but any ideas as to why this might have happened in the first place? I did notice that some of the .xmp files are upper case and some are lower case... I did have a conflict a while back between Photo Mechanic and Lightroom, one application would write the .xmp files as uppercase and the other would write them in lowercase, and each program would only read a specific set (the uppercase or lowercase)... Please let me know if there is anything in my preferences that need to be adjusted. Thanks for your help with this.

Without having your previous settings as a reference, it would be difficult to answer.

As for the filename extensions and the difference in case, unless you're using a case-preserving and case-sensitive file system, there will only be one XMP sidecar file and both applications will find the file correctly.

-Kirk

[amdaddio]

Hi Kirk,
Thanks for your reply. With regards to the screen capture that I sent, are those settings correct for my needs? My goal is to have labels, ratings, and all xmp/IPTC info transfer to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Bridge...

And to follow up on the case sensitivity issue; previously when I had tried to go back and forth between Photo Mechanic and Lightroom (this was quite a while ago when Lightroom was at level 1.0+, not 2.0) I definitely had some weird issues where one program would use upper case and the other lower case for the .xmp sidecar files and it seemed that the sidecar files would not transfer between the programs...

Eventually I had to go back to a previously backed up version of the files from another hard drive to resuscitate them... I had posted about this on the Forum at the time. I have not tried going back to using both Lightroom and Photo Mechanic since then, as it was a hair-raising experience since I had numerous corruption problems...

So, given the settings that I have sent in the screen capture, are they correct? Would or should the .xmp /IPTC info transfer between Photo Mechanic and the Adobe programs, including Lightroom? Any info or help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time and attention to this question and topic!

Thanks,
Andy

[Kirk Baker]

Andy,

Thanks for your reply. With regards to the screen capture that I sent, are those settings correct for my needs? My goal is to have labels, ratings, and all xmp/IPTC info transfer to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Bridge...

And to follow up on the case sensitivity issue; previously when I had tried to go back and forth between Photo Mechanic and Lightroom (this was quite a while ago when Lightroom was at level 1.0+, not 2.0) I definitely had some weird issues where one program would use upper case and the other lower case for the .xmp sidecar files and it seemed that the sidecar files would not transfer between the programs...

Eventually I had to go back to a previously backed up version of the files from another hard drive to resuscitate them... I had posted about this on the Forum at the time. I have not tried going back to using both Lightroom and Photo Mechanic since then, as it was a hair-raising experience since I had numerous corruption problems...

So, given the settings that I have sent in the screen capture, are they correct? Would or should the .xmp /IPTC info transfer between Photo Mechanic and the Adobe programs, including Lightroom? Any info or help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time and attention to this question and topic!

They look good.  The only other setting you need to set is on the Files tab.  Make sure you have your "Add tag, color class, and rating to IPTC/XMP" popup menu set to "For all photos".  See attached photo.

-Kirk


[attachment deleted by admin]

[amdaddio]

Hi Kirk,
To follow up on this post; would these exact settings (shown above in the screen captures) that we've set up for "Files" and "IPTC/XMP" also work with Adobe Lightroom, or would any other changes or preferences need to be adjusted? Do you know if anything would need to be changed in the Lightroom preferences for maximum compatibility? I am upgrading to Lightroom 2.0 and would like to retry integrating that into my workflow with Photo Mechanic and I wanted to confirm with you the correct preferences and anything else that may need to be changed, adjusted, or set...

Thanks,
Andy

[Kirk Baker]

Andy,

To follow up on this post; would these exact settings (shown above in the screen captures) that we've set up for "Files" and "IPTC/XMP" also work with Adobe Lightroom, or would any other changes or preferences need to be adjusted? Do you know if anything would need to be changed in the Lightroom preferences for maximum compatibility? I am upgrading to Lightroom 2.0 and would like to retry integrating that into my workflow with Photo Mechanic and I wanted to confirm with you the correct preferences and anything else that may need to be changed, adjusted, or set...

The settings we've outlined above should work well with Lightroom 2.0.  The only thing you'll have to be aware of is that Lightroom doesn't automatically check for updated XMP sidecar files after you've updated them in Photo Mechanic.  It consults its own internal database for XMP data and this database needs to be re-synced with the XMP sidecar files.  I don't know the specific command in Lightroom but I understand that there is such a command in there somewhere.

HTH,

-Kirk

[AnthonyAdachi]

The only thing you'll have to be aware of is that Lightroom doesn't automatically check for updated XMP sidecar files after you've updated them in Photo Mechanic.  It consults its own internal database for XMP data and this database needs to be re-synced with the XMP sidecar files.  I don't know the specific command in Lightroom but I understand that there is such a command in there somewhere.

Would that be done in Lightroom by control clicking on a range of selected images and then choosing the menu item -> Metadata -> Read Metadata from file?

Or is there some other method?

Take care,

-Anthony