expression media

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Microsoft Expression Media 2

January 3, 2009 in Review, Software | No comments

It is probably not a good sign that about a week ago I noticed that Microsoft Expression Media has been updated to version 2. No, not the fact that a new version has been released is not a good sign – the new version was put into public beta in the first quarter of 2008 and the final version was released in the summer. So the product has managed to go completely unnoticed for at least half a year … is that a sign that I am not paying attention to the usual news feeds and photography sites or that the product failed to generate any interest? I invite you read on and decide for yourself! Read the rest of this entry »

Using Lightroom and Expression Media to Modify Metadata

July 15, 2008 in Helpful Hints, Software, Technique | No comments

A reader asked the following question:

My specific question is regarding how you were able to use both LR and XM2. Did you upgrade from iVMP and added LR into your Workflow after it got released?

I used iVMP before, but am exclusively using LR. However, being frustrated with its DAM capabilities, i am looking to go back to XM2. Were you able to migrate your LR catalogs to XM2? Any thoughts welcome. Thanks in advance.

I understand the frustration with the DAM (Digital Asset Management) capabilities of Adobe Lightroom – looking at both Bridge and Lightroom I sometimes feel that Adobe just don’t get DAM. But there is always hope for LR2. 😉

I have Lightroom and Expression Media working together nicely (see here ). The way that works for me is to write the metadata changes I make in Lightroom directly to the image files instead of to XMP sidecar files. This works well with JPEGs and DNGs.

XM can import the metadata changes (you have to initiate this manually).

If you simply want to go one way from Lightroom to Expression Media you are done at this point.

If you want to work with both programs you then write the changes you make in Expression Media to the files (manual command). Lightroom can import the change and you can continue editing in Lightroom.

This way of working is not perfect because it requires that you to remember to manually sync, but it seems to preserve all the data.

Using Lightroom with Expression Media to Add Metadata to RAW Files

November 3, 2007 in Software, Technique | 1 comment

In the past, I have used Capture One Pro (C1) to edit the RAW files (which I exclusively shoot) and then output JPEG files. I would then employ iView Media Pro to add metadata to both the RAW the JPEG files. I exported the metadata to a XMP sidecar file for each RAW file and archived the RAW with the sidecar XMP.

It turns out that this workflow is far from ideal: both the RAW and the JPEG files’ metadata needs to be kept in sync. If I go back to create another JPEG from a RAW that has already be processed, I have to manually copy the metadata from the RAW to the new JPEG because C1 3.x looses most of the metadata during processing.

When Adobe Lightroom (LR) came out, I started using it and eventually replaced C1 with it because (among other reasons) it supports XMP metadata very well. I can now add metadata to a RAW file and it will be preserved no matter what I do with the file in Lightroom (or Photoshop, for that matter).

But here the problems started: Read the rest of this entry »