Hi, Colin.
I’m on a Mac, so I don’t have Organizer. Images get placed in folders based on their sequence numbers, e.g.:
/Users/Lou/Pictures/Pentax_istDS/IMGP10/
/Users/Lou/Pictures/Pentax_istDS/IMGP11/
/Users/Lou/Pictures/Pentax_istDS/IMGP12/
/Users/Lou/Pictures/Pentax_istDS/IMGP13/
After generating an XMP file for each Raw file, I backup up to 4 folders’ worth (400 images = ~4 GB) to a DVD+R. I just use OS X 10.4’s built-in "Burn Folders" feature where you just leave a copy of /Users/Lou/Pictures/Pentax_istDS/ inside a Burn Folder and it backs up everything inside.
XMP seems to be the way to go, rather than the Camera Raw Database, since in the latter case you can’t merge databases together if you ever need to restore. PSE always seems to read from the XMP files first, so even if the Raw settings are in the database and XMP files, the XMP files always win!
I’ve heard that the DNG format eliminates the need for xmp or the camera raw database. The person stating this was using PSCS, so I’m not sure that it works the same in PSE 3. This would make your archiving simple since the DNG would have all of the information, includingn adjustments.
Can anyone confirm this? Does the DNG file include the ACR adjustments when using PSE 3?
I’d like to convert to DNG, but it isn’t worth the effort unless it makes the adjusted raw file self-contained.
Matthew,
I’m not sure if DNG eliminates the need for XMP, but here’s a recent discussion of it:
Lou M, "DNG — Whaddyathink?" #1, 12 May 2005 1:20 pm </cgi-bin/webx?14/0>
Thanks for the link. I didn’t even think that elements 3 could save an xmp file. I thought that the database was the only method of saving settings. If someone knows differently, please educate us.
See Step 2 of my updated workflow:
Lou M, "What is your Raw workflow?" #36, 18 May 2005 3:58 pm </cgi-bin/webx?13/35>
I’m not sure either that DNG eliminates the need for XMP.
It seems to me that RAW is like an unprocessed film, which means you can always go back and process it differently if you want. The minute you embed some processing info into the source file you’ve lost this ability unless you record the original settings elsewhere.
Apart from which having to produce a DNG from RAW is yet another overhead.
It’s a shame really that E3 doesn’t backup the XMP files. It means I’ll have to work outside of it.
Lou, thanks for sharing your method…I guess I’m lazy and just want one button to click that does it all.
Colin
Colin,
Yes, I can certainly understand that Adobe hides the advanced features of the Raw software from Elements users (such as chromatic aberration and whatnot). That’s no surprise and makes perfect sense.
What is surprising is that they don’t support/backup essential information such as XMP and thumbnails and rotation information (the latter two, at least, aren’t saved on the Mac; not sure about Organizer). That makes no sense at all. Anything that you can edit you should be able to save, no?
And yet Adobe whines about not getting access to Nikon’s white balance data. 😉
Lou….
Perhaps we should add this to the feature request list.
Colin
Yeah, Colin, I think I posted a diatribe on that forum a few months ago. 😉
