Importing a RAW file into Lightroom Classic along with its XMP file

If you’re not sure if XMP information was read in with the photos, select any number of the photos and (if in the Library module) choose Metadata > Read Metadata from File. For example, if you made edits in Adobe Camera Raw, which saves edits in an XMP sidecar file, the Read Metadata from File command will bring them in.

However, be aware that Read Metadata from File probably won’t bring in image edit metadata from non-Adobe applications. If we’re talking about annotation metadata (title, description, keywords…) added in non-Adobe applications, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge can read those. However, the situation is different wth image edits.

The reason is that raw editing applications from various companies use different raw processing engines and do not edit or store their edit data in the same way. For example, if you look at two or three raw editing applications, these might be done differently in all three:

• Whether a certain adjustment is available. One application might have Masking for sharpness, another might not. One might have a parametric curve, another might have a point curve. 
• How the same adjustment works. Three applications might calculate Highlights recovery in different ways. 
• What the same adjustment is called. One application might have an option called Noise Reduction, another application might call it Denoise. 

For all of these reasons and probably more, you can’t rely on XMP image edit data from one application to be readable in another. In the unlikely event that image edits do transfer, they are very likely to not look the same. It is more likely that it will not work and you’ll have to start over with the edits in the second application. So if you choose Read Metadata from File and nothing happens (except maybe some annotations in the Metadata panel), that’s why. My guess is this is what happens with DarkTable. It would be interesting to see if XMP image edits can even be transferred among any two of the free open source raw editors, my guess is no.

XMP read/write works great between Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw because they use the same raw processing engine.

 

I have a number of photos in RAW format previously edited in another software (DarkTable). Is there a way of Lightroom Classic taking into account the edits I made to these photos previously by reading the associated XMP file when I import the RAW file into Lightroom Classic?

By @FloraGem

No. Lightroom Classic cannot understand Dark Table edits, and Darktable cannot understand Lightroom Classic edits.

Best to have Dark Table export/save the files as TIFF, so the edits will be incorporated into the TIFF file.