Saving All Photo Edit data to .xmp file

Report · Jul 15, 2023

I'm using Photoshop Elements 2020 and would like to know if it's possible to have ALL edits made to my raw file saved to the .xmp sidecar. As it is, only the edits made in Camera Raw are saved to the .xmp file, and any additional edits made in the main editing window are not. These additonal edits can only be saved in the .psd, .jpeg, etc. formats. I usually save the file to .psd first, because this file being just as large as the raw file (around 50 mb), I assumed it retained much more data/information from the original raw file than a .jpg would - right? (for when I want to go back & do continuing editing up the road). The .jpg files are small (5-10 mb), so I believe that most of the unused information from the raw file is lost when converting to .jpg. So I end up with 2 huge files, .rtf and .psd, of 50+ mb ea., plus the small .xmp sidecar file, and then the final .jpg. I would prefer to not have to save that huge .psd file, and just have ALL edits saved to the .xmp file for continued editing later, without having to start over. I understand that this is how it works in Lightroom - all edit information, beginning to end, is saved in the .xmp file (and the image can be saved to .jpg or whatever, for export). Is there any way this can be done in Elements? In all cases, of course the original raw file remains untouched.

Thank you.

Report · Jul 15, 2023

Correction edit to my post: .RAF files, not .RTF

Report · Jul 15, 2023

Hi @CPK20

Do not save your RAF file as psd before editing. You are wasting time and disk space since you only need to 'OPEN IN THE EDITOR' to have the same data in memory.

All the edits applied in camera raw will be applied when you open the normal pixel editor.

The 'parametric' editing

is only avavailable in ACR.

If you want to save them after pixel and layers editing, for ulterior edits, save them as .psd.

If you think you won't need further editing it's ok to save as jpeg or flattened psd.