I've just started using Lavalu to outsource my editing and I'd love to start having them simply email me the XMP files instead of shipping DVDs across the country. I use Lightroom, and am trying to import the NEFs along with the XMPs from Lavalu into Lightroom.

The XMPs are in the same folder as my raw files, but I'm having difficulty... the images don't look the same as they do in the JPEGs I got from Lavalu... it's as if Lightroom is taking the settings from the XMPs and then adding more tweaks (auto settings or something?) on top of that without me telling it to.

Does anyone else do this? Am I making sense?

Does Lavalu edit in Lightroom?

I'm pretty sure that they use ACR, which produces the XMP files. But Lightroom can also use XMP, and so when I import the files (that I got from Lavalu) into Lightroom you can see the changes they've made, but then Lightroom feels the need to auto-adjust or do SOMETHING, so I wind up with files that look overprocessed.

I'm kind of at a loss, because I've done this as part of my archival strategy, having LR save the XMP files alongside the parent RAW files, and then upon re-introducing those images back into LR, all the adjustments I made show up fine, with no "additions" like you're experiencing.

The only thing I can think of is that they're editing in a program different than LR that is adding additional information to the XMP that LR doesn't know what to do with. For example, I know LR puts additional info into the XMP that is LR specific information that only LR cares about, so maybe this is happening in reverse. Have you looked at the actual XMP file?

Camera calibration presets?

Not using any... would that really make a difference?

And I realize that may be a really, really stupid question but I'm asking it anyway.

Ooooh. That could be I'm not sure those get saved in the XMP.

I'd ask LavaLu what they're editing in, and if they're using Camera presets, like John mentioned

-Jeff

Just because both programs create XMP files, that doesn't mean that the other program will be able to read those files. You cannot exchange xmp info between Lightroom and Aperture. That's just what the file is named, it's not a standardized format.

Right, but I believe that Lavalu uses Adobe Camera Raw to do their editing, so I'm assuming that the file format would be the same.

I'll contact Lavalu and ask about their settings.

Thank you for your help, everyone... and this topic isn't closed... any new flashes of brilliance, please share.

LR and ACR have different XMP structures for sure. Only some of the info goes either way. I don't know the specifics or if there is a work around. Does it look right if you open it in ACR? like in bridge with a Command-R?

Maybe Kevin Swan or someone that really knows those file structures will chime in....

~Bill

Yeah, I'm pretty sure ACR and LR XMP files aren't the same and can't be used by each other. Maybe they've changed it, now, but that used to be the case.

So I realize that this is an ancient thread, but thought it would be helpful to find some resolution!

XMP files between ACR and Lightroom will work perfectly. As long as you have the most recent updates and aren't a couple versions apart, things will work just fine.

Now... for Ryan's problem... Did you ever get it fixed/resolved? What was it in your case?

-Leon

Leon - all is working well now... I take the XMPs, put them in the same folder as the images I'm working on, import them into LR, and viola! Picture perfection. No idea what the problem was before but it's all good now.

I just started using XMPs with my new color corrector and the updating using new XMP data is a little weird. I bet it was a mess in August and the fault was not yours. Now if I copy new XMP data into the existing synch'd Lightroom folders, when I go into lightroom, it has a little icon in the library module which allows you to copy the xmp data from disk and updates the images. No need to reimport everything.

Does what I wrote even make sense? God, it looks like hieroglyphics to me now. It looks like complete GeekSpeak...wow...wait...it is. Doh! I am a geek...wait...I knew that. *sigh*