Faces stored in the XMP

Hi Mike,

Greg is right, face recognition is managed and stored in the catalog and I don't know of any way to store the data in the files themselves so that they can be used by other softwares.

A piece of warning about storing important organization data in the files themselves instead of in the catalog. Only a catalog can store albums, stacks, version sets as well as face recognition. Face recognition requires stacks to group similar faces, it requires storing the location of the each image for each face. That location changes when you crop...

Using a catalog allows super fast searches from hundreds of thousands of photos. As stated by Greg, nothing is lost when moving files from the catalog. Nothing is lost when you move your library and catalog to a new computer. Lightroom is able to 'convert' the organizer catalogs with FR.

However, you can save normal 'keywords' or tags in the files themselves. That is not 'face recognition', that is 'person tagging'  (in different categories or subcategories of your choice). So, nothing prevents you from also using that persons tagging together with face recognition. In other discussions, Greg has suggested ways to do this.

It is my understanding that the face recognition information is stored in .json files in the catalog's FaceAnalysis/Json folder.  The program should keep track of your recognized faces if you move them in the Organizer.  The information will be lost if you move them outside of the Organizer.