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CorinBishop
CorinBishop
Participating Frequently
June 26, 2019
Question

Import develop settings from JPEG and apply them to a RAW.

  • June 26, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 2278 views

I hope this come across clearly.

I have a bunch of processed JPEG's. A lot of processing was done and I can see all the edits that were done in the Raw Data in Photoshop File Info.

However, I had to restore a backup of the RAW images and their XMP sidecar's to a previous version. So now I've lost the edits I've done.

Is there any way to take the processing data from the JPEG header and 'import' it on to the original RAW?

Obviously, when I open the image in LR it shows no develop settings so copy and paste of settings isn't possible that way.

The Raw Data is in XML format and the XMP format is obviously different, so no copy and paste of the information there.

Is there a way of parsing the XML data to XMP? Or force LR to copy/paste the settings from a JPEG to a RAW? Or anything else?

thanks

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    5 replies

    CorinBishop
    CorinBishopAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 29, 2019

    Just tried it with one image. I copied the whole exif and change the filename/applied settings. It read them into the RAW perfectly!

    I was worried that the original XML format wouldn't be read, but Adobe read it, applied and then saved the new xmp format.

    Going to look at the exif tool now so I can just take the fields I need and to automatically change the settings in bulk. Easy enough to write a little script for that.

    Thanks a million. Lifesaver.. (well, bit dramatic. Certainly big timesaver!).

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    June 29, 2019

    Glad you're making progress.

    I'm fairly certain you can write one command line that will process an entire folder hierarchy, copying the XMP-crs fields from JPEGs to sidecars, setting AlreadyApplied to false. The examples at the end of the man page give lots of examples about doing similar things. But my experience (after using ExifTool for over ten years) is that it still takes quite a while to re-read the documentation and examples and carefully construct and test that single command line :-<

    CorinBishop
    CorinBishopAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 30, 2019

    Hi John, I'll all done.

    I was going to try a one-liner, but I found it just easier to output the exif to files. Then I ran a batch rename/replace on the lot. It was only 55 images.

    worked perfectly. All settings back!

    thanks a million for your help.

    CorinBishop
    CorinBishopAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 29, 2019

    Sorry. John. Thanks John. Yes, Tony, I'll respond back asap!

    CorinBishop
    CorinBishopAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 29, 2019

    Thanks Tony. I'm going to give that a try now. Will report back!

    Tony_See
    Tony_See
    Inspiring
    June 28, 2019

    Wondering how far you have got with this issue Corin?

    It seemed like a complex task, but can you post back so we can move on or mark this correct for you?

    Thanks

    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    June 26, 2019

    If you can see the XMP-crs fields in Photoshop's File > File Info > Raw Data window, that's good -- it means you exported the JPEGs from LR with the option Catalog Settings > Include Develop Settings In Metadata Inside JPEG. ("crs" stands for Camera Raw Settings.)

    You can use the free utility ExifTool to copy all the XMP-crs fields from file.jpg to file.xmp, a sidecar for the corresponding raw file file.nef (or whatever the extension is). When you copy the fields, you'll have to set XMP-crs:AlreadyApplied to "false" (it's set to "true" for exported JPEGs).

    Then when you import the raw into LR, or do Metadata > Read Metadata From File for an already imported raw, the settings should import. 

    ExifTool is powerful and robust and can probably process all your folders of raws and JPEGs with a single command line. But it has a steep learning curve. It could be a daunting task if you don't have previous experience with command-line scripting. Even if you do, expect to take several hours to get everything right. There are lots of good examples at the end of the documentation: https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html

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