Lightroom 3: Streamlining Your Digital Photography ... - Ken Gilbert

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LIGHTROOM® 3: STREAMLINING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY PROCESS
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4. Th e Import screen closes
and returns you to the
Library Grid view with
the Catalog panel showing
the Current Import source
(see Figure 2–19). When
Figure 2-19
the import is completed,
this changes to say “Previous Import”. Before editing photos, switch to a
folder source (see Chapter 3).
If Lightroom fails to import any fi les, a dialog box appears at the end of
the import that states which fi les failed, and why, and provides buttons to
show the failed fi les in Finder or Explorer.
When importing existing fi les from disk, be careful applying metadata
Most times, you shouldn’t apply metadata presets to existing fi les on your hard
drive during import because the fi les might already contain custom metadata.
Th e import screen doesn’t indicate whether or not any metadata has already
been applied to the fi les being imported, and if the fi les do have custom metadata
applied, it isn’t shown. You’ll only know what metadata the fi les previously
contained aft er they get into the catalog.
For images already on your hard drive, it’s usually safer to apply any metadata
and presets aft er the import, so you can review the fi les in Library and add your
metadata as appropriate (see Chapter 3 for more on this).
However, if you are certain that no custom metadata has been applied to the
fi les, or you’re okay with overwriting/modifying it, you can apply your metadata
template, add keywords and Develop presets during the import. Just be careful
with this.
Lightroom respects XMP during import
If you’re importing raw fi les and they have .xmp sidecar fi les, Lightroom will read
the metadata settings from them, and the images will come into Lightroom with
those settings applied. Same with dng; a ny custom xmp settings found in a dng
when it’s being imported will be used as the starting point for processing the fi le
in Lightroom.
In the case of camera raw fi les that have been previously worked on, but do not
have sidecar fi les, those previous edits will not come into Lightroom. Make sure
any time you’re working on raw fi les in other soft ware that you save out the
metadata to sidecar fi les. Th is is discussed further in Chapter 9.