Hi Kirk,
Juerg,
But then I have a problem: some of my files have XMP embedded, some not. That could call for disaster in the future when using an Adobe application (mainly Bridge, even if very seldom) for the ones that have it embedded.
Just a question:
PM doesn't need XMP sidecar files. Capture NX2 doesn't use them. So there is no real need to have them generated in PM, but they get generated automatically by Adobe products. Could there be a function in PM that can be selected to automatically delete XMP files when present AND the embed XMP is selected for RAW files?
Unfortunately the choice of Capture NX2 wanting embedded XMP and Adobe products wanting XMP sidecar files is conflicting. If you want to get Capture NX2 to push your metadata from the NEF all the way through to JPEGs or TIFFs then you'll have to use embedded XMP.
Well, I looked a little back and I noticed that only a very few TIFF files that I generated out for NX have the XMP data embedded, and I'm now pretty sure they got added after the fact while doing some changes in PM. Means that I always had the XMP data missing. I acutally had (and still have) the PM preferences set as suggested on page 115 of the manual. Is that still you suggestion or do you think adding XMP is now the better way? Just asking because it's also mentioned that embedding XMP in to RAW files may cause problems with NEF files. And if I embedd XMP, shall I still always create and update sidecar files?
If you want to use Adobe products and you want to do RAW adjustments then you better make sure you don't embed XMP and use only XMP sidecar files.
I don't use Adobe (Bridge or ACR) for RAW adjustments. But once in a while I start Bridge to search for specific pictures on my HD. As I use a XP machine, I can't do that with PM without having to open the whole HD with all pictures in a single contact sheet. But still, all RAW files automatically get a XMP sidecar file.
There is a conflict there and there is no single solution. Your suggestion of deleting the XMP files is a possible solution but requires that you do some operation in PM before you go and use Bridge. Outright deleting the XMP file may not be prudent since any adjustments made in a usage of Bridge would be lost. PM would have to merge the XMP sidecar data into the embedded XMP data before deleting the XMP data. I think this would be best served by a Tool in Photo Mechanic that is manually run by the user.
One question: if you have PM and you have Capture NX2, what do you need Adobe Bridge for anyway?
I explained above why I use Bridge for time to time. But the tool you mentioned sounds interesting. Or even further, if I have a NEF file with both embedded XMP and XMP sidecar file, I can set PM to always update both as a standard. Going into Bridge it reads the embedded XMP before the sidecar file, but now I do make a change in Bridge, so only the sidecar file is updated.
Could there be a tool in PM that whenever a NEF file is opened in a contact sheet, PM automatically compares (perhaps by using a time stamp feature) the embedded XMP and XMP sidecar file, and in case the sidecar file is newer, it updated the embedded XMP or vice versa?
Juerg
