Import catalog develop settings without overwriting keywords

[evanotteren]

I'm hoping to find a workaround for a problem I am facing. I have exported as catalog a batch of images to my editor who is working through color and light adjustments on the files. While he is working on that I would like to continue working through tagging faces in the master catalog, including the same images he is working on in the exported catalog. When I get the color and light adjusted catalog back from him is it possbile to import only develop settings without writing over my keyword/name metadata?

[johnrellis]

"is it possible to import only develop settings without writing over my keyword/name metadata?"

There's no option to do that directly, but you can do it in multiple steps:

1. Do Import From Another Catalog with the option Preserve Old Settings As A Virtual Copy.  This will create a virtual copy of each photo in the original catalog that's also in the imported catalog, and those virtual copies will have all the metadata changes you've made to them.

2. Select all the photos in Previous Import, those photos newly imported from the editor's catalog. Do the Syncomatic plugin's Sync Stacks Or Masters To VCs, selecting Masters to Virtual Copies and checking just Develop Settings. This will copy the develop settings from the editor's photos to the corresponding virtual copies that have your changed metadata.

3. Select the special collection Updated Photos. Then select each virtual copy and do the menu command Set Copy As Original.  That makes the virtual copy (the one with your metadata changes and the editor's develop settings) the original (master) and the photo imported from the catalog the virtual copy (Unfortunately, Set Copy To Original only works on one photo at a time due to a LR bug.)

4. Go to Previous Import, select all the virtual copies, and delete them.