Optimally Importing selected photos from Apple Photo into Lightroom Classic on a Mac

[RJS55]

I shot a few hundred photos on a recent trip with my iPhone 14.  They are in Apple Photos on my iMac running Sonoma 14.2.x.  I would like to optimally import them into LrC on the same iMac.

My dumb-but-easy way of doing this in the past has been to drag the images from Apple Photos into a folder on my Apple desktop, use the LrC Import function, and when completed, delete the folder.

But there has to be a better way and I am not sure I am capturing all the metadata etc. that I could be.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[JohanElzenga]

Don't drag them from Apple Photos, use Export and choose 'Unmodified Original' and check the 'Export IPTC as XMP' checkbox.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/pht6e157c5f/mac

[Conrad_C]

This looks a bit tricky, especially because you mentioned metadata. In Apple Photos I added a caption (description) to an image, and a keyword, and then exported it three dfferent ways from Apple Photos, then looked at the metadata.

File > Export > Export # Photos. I got the file with Apple Photos edits, and the caption, and the keyword.

File > Export > Export Unmodified Originals for # Photos. I got the file with no Apple Photos edits, and none of the metadata I added. It does what it says, it really is an unmodified original.

Dragged from Photos to a folder on the desktop. I got the file with Apple Photos edits, and the caption, but no keyword. I thought this would be the same as Export # Photos, but it apparently is not. Also, Photos warned me that it was exported at lower quality, and that I should have used an Export command instead,

So, two possible takeaways:

If you want to control the quality, don’t drag out of Photos, use a File > Export command instead.

If you want it to include any metadata you added, you can’t use File > Export Unmodified Originals.

[JohanElzenga]

@Conrad_C Exporting photos from Apple Photos works the same as exporting them from Lightroom. You have to export the original, otherwise a raw file is not exported but a derivative RGB file (tiff, jpeg) is. Because these are iPhone photos that may be fine. As I explained, you can choose 'Unmodified Original' and check the 'Export IPTC as XMP' checkbox. That will export the keywords in an XMP sidecar file. Edits will not be exported this way, and because these are proprietary, they would be useless in Lightroom anyway. You can try the 'Avalanche' app if you want to try to bring these across.

[RJS55]

Dear Johan,  Thank you for the clear advice.  

I followed your export instructions  and the files were exported onto my desktop as DNG and .xmp files just as you said.

BUT when I went to import them into LrC they all (!) showed up as JPEGs and .MOV files.  Not a DNG file in the bunch.  So I cancelled the import and am hoping you can give me further instructions as to how to import them as DNG files.  I am very confused.  --Rob

[RJS55]

Johan--Please ignore the previous message.  I see that the test files I tried wereall JPEGs aby mistake.  (I thought my iphone was always in RAW!)  I will try with DNGs...

[JohanElzenga]

DNG may create a problem, if Apple Photos writes an XMP file next to the DNG. Lightroom does not read XMP files next to DNG files, because it expects the metadata to be in the header of the DNG file, not in a separate sidecar file. Same for jpeg, by the way. XMP files are only used for proprietary raw files as far as Lightroom is concerned.