Remove jpeg previews from raw files - should I, and how best to...

[areohbee]

I'm considering removal of jpeg previews from raw files prior to importing in Lightroom. Is it possible?, is it a bad idea, or good idea?

If not necessarily a bad idea, what would be the best command that works universally?

exiftool -bigImage= {file}

(with a space after the '=')

?

[Phil Harvey]

I wouldn't recommend it.  I have seen raw software that relies on this preview.

Also, BigImage is a Composite tag, so you would have to delete the tags it is derived from.

- Phil

[areohbee]

Thanks Phil - I guess I'll play it safe, although the latest version of NX2 has option to remove preview, so I may still want to offer it as an option, for Nikon users anyway, or even other formats (with warnings) if it is at least reliable in an Adobe-only workflow, hmm...

[Phil Harvey]

Interesting.  Could you email me an NEF that has been modified like this?  (philharvey66 at gmail.com)

Looking at a D600 NEF, the large preview is stored in SubIFD0.  ExifTool can not be used to remove this entire IFD (because it won't change the structure of the raw file this drastically), so wouldn't be able to remove this image cleanly.

- Phil

[areohbee]

Check your inbox  .
R

[Phil Harvey]

I got the images, thanks.

Yes.  SubIFD0 has been completely removed.  You can not use ExifTool to do this.

- Phil

[areohbee]

Thanks Phil - I appreciate you taking the time to look into it.
Rob