DNG files missing recorded corrections

[Wendtjanice]

The ExifTool has been working great. Recently thought we used it and now it is not bringing over important information.

We use the ExifTool to make XMP files from DNG files. It has always provided all the information of the adjustments completed to the DNG file. But recently it stopped working. Now it is not bringing over the White Balance correction. It put it to a default instead of the recorded value.

I have tested the DNG file with several other programs to make sure that the White Balance is within the DNG and it shows in Lightroom 4, 5 and 6 as well as in Bridge. But when I use the tool to strip out the information the White Balance is no longer correct.

It was working fine last month but now it is no longer working. Do you know what might be happening?

Thanks, Janice

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Janice,

Can you tell me what exiftool command you are using and what information is no longer coming over?  Also, any ideas what could have changed in the last month to stop this from working?  Did you change the command?  Update ExifTool?  Or change something else?  If it was an ExifTool update, what versions were/are you using?

- Phil

[Wendtjanice]

Dear Phil,

What is not coming over is the White balance settings.
We used your tool in Windows. It works the same with all the different computers we have tested. Windows, 7, 8 and 10.
Also we have tried the latest update as well as previous versions.
Photoshop has updated a couple of times since we last had the tool working.
We tested DNG files that we created from raw files as well and the White balance will not come over on any of the new DNG files as well.
All versions of Lightroom can read the White balance settings. Versions of Lightroom that can read it is Lightroom 4, Lightroom 5 and Lightroom 6.
I save the data to the DNG with the corrections and then test in Bridge with the original files to see if the White Balance comes over with it but it does not. Also the text does not show the adjustment.
This image should show a white balance setting of custom  Temperature 5550 Tint +9. The data in the XMP does not reflect this adjustment.
I am providing the DNG that we adjusted, saved and then used the ExifTool.
Thank you, Janice Wendt

[Hayo Baan]

The DNG file does contain the colour temperature as well as the tint:

Code Select Expand

$ exiftool -G0:1 -ColorTemperature -Tint 07022016_DerekSara_Lidia_WED-2769.dng
[XMP:XMP-crs]   Color Temperature               : 5550
[XMP:XMP-crs]   Tint                            : +9


If you don't get this, I'd like to know what the exact command is that you used to extract the info. Also what version of exiftool are you using?

[Wendtjanice]

We are using the 10.24. on windows.

I know I see it when I read it in the DNG file but it is not coming over to the XMP file.

Thank you,
Janice Wendt

[Hayo Baan]

How do you create the XMP file?

[Wendtjanice]

We drag the set of files over into the exif tool and it creates the xmp files for us.
It is creating all the other data but the White balance is not coming over.
We are using Windows 7.

[Wendtjanice]

This is the syntax that we are using to write the xmp
exiftool -k -o %d%f.xmp

Is this creating the issue that is not writing the temp and tint?

[Phil Harvey]

Only tags with the same names in XMP will be copied over using this technique.  If there are other tags you want copied over you will either need to redirect them to another tag or create a suitably-named user-defined tag.

Check the XMP tags documentation for a complete list of available XMP tags.

- Phil

[Wendtjanice]

White balance is a normal tag that would always be contained. It can be read in the metadata and always a part of XMPs that Adobe creates.
I guess I do not understand why it is not being saved in the xmp.

[dsinai]

Hi Phil - I work with Janice and I am trying to figure out the correct syntax to create XMPs that pull everything that is stored inside the DNG.

This is what I named the file:  exiftool(-k -a -u -g1 -o %d%f.xmp)

I found this in your examples:
exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg
Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1)

Even with this name, the tool is not extracting the correct white balance information in the XMP.

Can your reply with how I should name the tool in order to get every piece of meta data that is contained in a DNG file?
Thanks
David

[Hayo Baan]

As Phil wrote, with the -o option only the known tags in the XMP name space are exported. The ColorTemperature tag in the XMP-crs group is not in this list. It probably should be there though (@Phil?).

However, instead of using -o %d%f.xmp why don't you simply extract the xmp block from the file using -b -XMP -o %d%f.xmp ? This will extract all xmp (exactly!) as it is stored in the file, note though that this will not create xmp tags from e.g., exif data that wasn't already in xmp (something your original command might have done in some cases).

[Phil Harvey]

OK, I see the problem with XMP-crs:ColorTemperature.  It is flagged as a tag to Avoid when writing (indicated by the "/" after the format in the tag documentation).  There are a number of XMP-crs tags that ExifTool avoids writing due to name conflicts with XMP-exif tags.  However, there is no XMP-exif:ColorTemperature (or any other XMP:ColorTemperature for that matter), so it shouldn't be flagged as "Avoid".  I will change this in the next release.

But we need to figure out what you are trying to do.

A) If you want to copy the EXIF tags from the DNG into XMP, then your command is correct (but you can drop the -a -u -g1 because they don't do anything).

B) If you want to copy XMP tags from the DNG to XMP, then you should preserve the original groups by adding -xmp:all.  If you do this, then ExifTool will write the XMP-crs:ColorTemperature.  (Either that, or copy the xmp as a block, as Hayo suggested.  Then even tags unknown to ExifTool will be copied.)

A+B) Or maybe you want to do both (which may be a good idea), in which case you should use this command:

exiftool -o %d%f.xmp -all -xmp:all -ext dng DIR

(I have added -ext dng so only DNG files will be processed.)

Unfortunately you can't put -xmp:all in the brackets of the exiftool.exe name because the colon is not allowed in a Windows file name.  Instead, you could either create a shortcut that adds these arguments or use a .bat file, whichever you prefer.

- Phil

[dsinai]

Phil and Hayo - We appreciate your quick responses.

Thanks
David

[dsinai]

Please look out for a donation from david@sinaifamily.com.  We love your tool!