Indicator for existance of XMP file

[olidie]

When time counts I often edit and process pictures directly on the card without ingesting. Back home I ingest the card. Since I use nef files the iptc data is then written in the file. So only those pictures edited on the road have a xmp file with adobe camera raw settings. As I am looking for a simple way to see which pictures had been edited I hoped for something like a xmp variable that indicates pictures with existing xmp files in the contact sheet. It seems like there's no such variable.

Is there a simple way to highlight or indicate pictures with xmp files in the contact sheet? Sure I could just tag a photo before editing it but in a hurry I often forget to do this.

Regards,
oliver

[Kirk Baker]

Oliver,

When time counts I often edit and process pictures directly on the card without ingesting. Back home I ingest the card. Since I use nef files the iptc data is then written in the file. So only those pictures edited on the road have a xmp file with adobe camera raw settings. As I am looking for a simple way to see which pictures had been edited I hoped for something like a xmp variable that indicates pictures with existing xmp files in the contact sheet. It seems like there's no such variable.

Is there a simple way to highlight or indicate pictures with xmp files in the contact sheet? Sure I could just tag a photo before editing it but in a hurry I often forget to do this.

No, there is no such feature in Photo Mechanic.

-Kirk

[olidie]

Hmm, I guess I have to keep reminding me to tag the relevant pictures.

Thank you, Kirk!

[judophotos]

I have a similar problem to you Oliver, although not for the same reason.

I take around 3k images a day with two Nikon D3 cameras. During the day there are several instances when I want to tag the images in camera so that I can easily find them after they are downloaded. Unfortunately, the Nikon system does not allow that.

In the past I have used the 'Comment' facility on the D3 in an effort to find pictures quickly in Photo Mechanic but it does not work like a starred image. What I am now doing is adding a brief sound recording to the last frame of the sequence of images. After downloading, PM allows me to "Select photos with Audio" and then tag them and immediately find the pictures to adjust as necessary after seperating them from verbal captions.

I have only just started to use this and I think it might suit your purpose if you have a camera that will add sound to the images.

[FVlcek]

During the day there are several instances when I want to tag the images in camera so that I can easily find them after they are downloaded. Unfortunately, the Nikon system does not allow that.

D3 doesn't support tagging in camera? Every Canon and Nikon used to be able to easily (one button) "protect" photos which get transferred to Photomechanic on Ingest as a tag. Or did I misunderstood the issue?

Frantisek

[judophotos]

During the day there are several instances when I want to tag the images in camera so that I can easily find them after they are downloaded. Unfortunately, the Nikon system does not allow that.

D3 doesn't support tagging in camera? Every Canon and Nikon used to be able to easily (one button) "protect" photos which get transferred to Photomechanic on Ingest as a tag. Or did I misunderstood the issue?

Frantisek

The "protect" button does just that, protecting the image from deletion while it is in the camera. Once the image is downloaded there is nothing on the image, to my knowledge, to differentiate it from all the other images. I wish there was. It would make life a lot easier.

[Sven]

in PM click "View => Tagged" to show only the "protected" images.
Also note tag little checkbox on each thumbnail on the bottom right.

[FVlcek]

The "protect" button does just that, protecting the image from deletion while it is in the camera. Once the image is downloaded there is nothing on the image, to my knowledge, to differentiate it from all the other images. I wish there was. It would make life a lot easier.

Actually, it does a lot more. D'oh moment  - the protect (or lock) button sets the file attribute of the photo to read-only. This attribute stays with the file even if you copy it to computer. And Photomechanic sees the locked file as tagged, allowing you all the nice things like view only tagged (F3 hotkey), et cetera. You don't even have to ingest with Photomechanic, it will see read-only photos as tagged nevertheless. But it's better to ingest with PM, as 1) it ingest locked photos first, so you can work on the most important ones right away even if the rest is still being ingested 2) it clears the read-only attribute but retains its tagged status so you can edit the file but still keep it as tagged.

This has been one of the most important features of PM for years, that way you can quickly tag important photos in camera for example during a lull in action while shooting a football match, and quickly viewing only the tagged photos when you have just few minutes to upload them before deadline.

[judophotos]

in PM click "View => Tagged" to show only the "protected" images.
Also note tag little checkbox on each thumbnail on the bottom right.

The power of the forum!

Thank you Frantisek and SK you are absolutely right. I've just tried it and the tags show up perfectly. So now life will be a lot easier.

Interestingly the tags don't show up on Nikon's own ViewNX2 software or Capture NX2. It is another worthy reason to use PM.

Presumably Olidie can use the same method to identify his images with XMP data in camera too?

Thanks again.

[olidie]

judophotos, I am using this feature quite a lot. Still I often do not take the time to review the pictures on the camera but just open the card in PM. This makes it a lot easier to judge sharpness and overall quality of the shot.

[FVlcek]

Although I do agree that a small unobtrusive indicator and variable indicating associated XMP file would be nice (you could differentiate RAW files which were edited in ACR but not saved to JPG for example), I am not sure how would that work if PM itself created the XMP file during the ingest (during ingest you can have PM insert an IPTC stationary into the files, which would make it create XMP par for every RAW ingested). So that would be a feature a bit harder to implement correctly.

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi, Frantisek
That's exactly what I do...and perhaps most of us do - during ingest I have PM insert an IPTC stationary into the files and it creates an XMP file.
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[FVlcek]

Me too, I am populating IPTC fields like © and Transmission Reference during the ingest, so it creates XMP for all my ingested RAWs. That's exactly right why I am not sure about the proposed feature (XMP existence indicator to indicate which files were edited in ACR and which were not). In the case of plenty of people, such indicator wouldn't work at all - showing all files as having XMP. However, a simple variable like {hasxmp} wouldn't hurt, would it

[Luiz Muzzi]

I agree with you...it wouldn't hurt to have that variable...it would be a nice addition.
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[olidie]

Since I work with nef files all my iptc data is stored in the file itself during ingest and there's no xmp file in my workflow until a file was processed in acr.  I am not making use of the iptc data - so far - that can only be stored in xmp files. That's why I was asking in the first place. In my case the existance of an xmp file is a reliable indicator that the picture went through acr.