Transferring key tag data

[northlondon43]

Hi everyone. I currently have PS Elements 10 and am thinking of supplementing it with Lightroom 4. I've read lots of posts/threads regarding using both in tandem but have not seen the answer to one vital (for me) question. If I start to organise my photos in L4 will all the tagging I've done in PS come across as I certainly wouldn't want to start again?

Thanks

Adrian

[darkslide]

The EXIF data will be visible (and modifiable) in Lightroom

[northlondon43]

Hi Ian. I know that exif data (focal length, aperture etc) will be there but I'm referring to the key tags which I don't think are exif data?

[bambleweeney]

The tags should be embedded in the jpeg and tif but not as far as I can see in raw files. I just did an export from Lightroom and looked at jpeg, tif and raw files for tags and they were present in the jpeg and the tif data.
I imagine it will be the same for PS Elements ... hopefully

[northlondon43]

Thanks Paul.

[northlondon43]

I've downloaded the trial version of L4 Paul and then imported a few JPEG with tags from PS Elements 10....can't for the life of me see the tags in L4....any suggestions? Thanks

[bambleweeney]

Ok here's what I did. I exported a photo from Lightroom and poked around in its innards with an editor and added a keyword 'toast' - I know that's not a keyword I've used in Lightroom. I then reimported it with its new keyword and lo and behold the imported image is now tagged with the 'toast' keyword.
Are you looking in the right place in Lightroom ? If you look at the thumbnail view in library then on the right hand panel there will be a dropdown tag called 'Keywording' - open that and you should see the tag(s) assigned to that image. If you're not then ..... I'm stumped. I can't imagine Elements doing keywording any differently.
Have a quick search on the internet to see if anybody else has had this problem if not then send me a tagged jpeg and I'll probe its innards to see what's going on.

[darkslide]

Hi Ian. I know that exif data (focal length, aperture etc) will be there but I'm referring to the key tags which I don't think are exif data?

I'm sorry Adrian - brain fart there - of course you're correct, I didn't mean EXIF at all - my apologies.

In any event, keywords should be carried over if they're correctly embedded in the original files. Given that both programs come from the same editor, I think it's probably just a case of searching in Lightroom (As suggested by Paul) - I'll take another look when I get home.

[northlondon43]

Thanks again Paul and Ian. I did briefly look in the keywords tab last night and there was nothing there but I'll take a closer look tonight. If no joy I'll take Ian up on his kind offer.

[Mike Buckley]

Adrian, a couple of points...

I have never used Elements or Lightroom for tagging images, but I do have considerable experience with cataloging photos and discussing many issues with both experts and novices about the subject. (Notice my automated signature.) I can assure you that once you learn how to use the two programs with regard to assigning tags and embedding them in the physical image files, both programs will read the tags assigned using the other program. I am even aware of a particular method that Lightroom uses to embed tags in the XMP metadata fields of the physical image file that is apparently usually different if not completely unique to how other Digital Asset Management products do that.

You mentioned that you're considering adding Lightroom to your digital toolkit. If you want to supplement the image-editing capabilities of Elements with Lightroom, that's understandable. However, if you want to use Lightroom only because of its cataloging capabilities, you might also want to consider evaluating other programs that were designed primarily or exclusively for that purpose.

[dan marchant]

I can't remember the exact language but when you set up Lightroom it gives you the option to create a catalogue or import/use an existing one. Import the PSE catalogue and all the tags will be there when you view the images.

[northlondon43]

Hi everyone. I've just imported all my photos from 'My Pictures' on my Windows PC to Lightroom (I don't appear to have a PSE catalogue Dan). Very strange....to begin with my stacked photos don't appear, only the original. Key tags appear on a few photos but not on the majority and it doesn't seem to matter if the tags on on RAW or Jpeg files. Can't work out what the heck is going on.

[northlondon43]

To be honest, after spending two hours on the internet trying to work this out, I'm utterly fed up with the lack of guidance and intuitive nature of L4 just (what I thought) was simply trying to import photos from my hard drive that have already been imported into PSE 10, keeping the tags.....having finally found where the PSE10 catalogue file is on my pc it still doesnt help............

[northlondon43]

Hissy fit now 50% over... :-) Trial and error brought me to 'File' 'Write keyword tag properties and info to photos', though lord knows why I needed to do this and Mr Scott Kelby never mentions it in his book.
However the other 50% is still annoyed that my stacks aren't coming over when I import, i.e. if I have a jpeg and RAW stacked only the RAW is importing...why? :-) sigh, Adrian

[dan marchant]

Hi everyone. I've just imported all my photos from 'My Pictures' on my Windows PC to Lightroom (I don't appear to have a PSE catalogue Dan).

If you used PSE's organiser to organise and tag your images then you most certainly do have a catalogue - you just need to locate it and import it into Lightroom. All this hard work you are doing is wasted effort. I recently moved from using PSE over to using Lightroom 4 and the set up took minutes. In fact it took less than a minute to locate the PSE catalogue and the rest of the times was just LR doing the work of importing it.

You can verify the existence of your PSE catalogue by loading the organiser and going to Help > System info. This will display a message which includes the current catalogues name and location.

Exit PSE and load LR then go to File > Upgrade Photoshop Elements Catalogue. Lightroom will use the data from your existing PSE catalogue to create a new LR catalogue.

[northlondon43]

Hi Dan

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I'd found the location of the catalogue. I've already tried your suggestion, i.e. File> Upgrade Photoshop.... Lightroom then returns me to the import screen, when I import I'm back to square one vis a vis tags and stacks. I'll try again tonight.

Adrian

[Mike Buckley]

Adrian: As a reminder, I have never used Lightroom or Elements for tagging images. I'm wondering if the issue you are experiencing with stacks is that perhaps Lightroom is not designed to import all information, such as the details pertaining to stacks, even though it is designed to import most information.

[northlondon43]

Hi Mike, you may well be right though it would seem strange that software from the same company want fully compatible. After all it's just xmp data. After searching on blogs it would seem some people have had similar experiences to me.
Adrian

[northlondon43]

Mike, Dan et al. I think I've finally sorted things out. What has been totally throwing me is that after I upgrade the PS catalogue the import screen comes up asking me to import photographs. I've then been importing from folders on my hard drive, hence, I think, the problems with tags/stacks. What I needed to do (and this isn't shown in the adobe videos) is to cancel that screen as it then returns me to the library screen where all my photos are with tags and stacks!!

Thank you everyone for your patience (god knows you need it with me) but I would still say that the import catalogue sequence is not as intuitive as it might be.

Take care

Adrian

[Mike Buckley]

I would still say that the import catalogue sequence is not as intuitive as it might be.

God invented software as a challenge to mankind.