IMPORT - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process - page 52

4. h e Import screen closes
and returns you to the
Library Grid view with
the Catalog panel showing
the Current Import source
(see Figure 2-19). When
the import is completed,
this changes to say “Previous Import”. Before editing photos, switch to a
folder source (see Chapter 3).

2

Figure 2-19

If Lightroom fails to import any i les, a dialog box appears at the end of
the import that states which i les failed, and why, and provides buttons to
show the failed i les in Finder or Explorer.

When importing existing i les from disk, be careful applying metadata
Most times, you shouldn't apply metadata presets to existing i les on your hard
drive during import because the i les might already contain custom metadata.
h e import screen doesn't indicate whether or not any metadata has already
been applied to the i les being imported, and if the i les do have custom metadata
applied, it isn't shown. You'll only know what metadata the i les previously
contained at er they get into the catalog.

For images already on your hard drive, it's usually safer to apply any metadata
and presets at er the import, so you can review the i les in Library and add your
metadata as appropriate (see Chapter 3 for more on this).

However, if you are certain that no custom metadata has been applied to the
i les, or you're okay with overwriting/modifying it, you can apply your metadata
template, add keywords and Develop presets during the import. Just be careful
with this.

Lightroom respects XMP during import
If you're importing raw i les and they have .xmp sidecar i les, Lightroom will read
the metadata settings from them, and the images will come into Lightroom with
those settings applied. Same with dng; a ny custom xmp settings found in a dng
when it's being imported will be used as the starting point for processing the i le
in Lightroom.

In the case of camera raw i les that have been previously worked on, but do not
have sidecar i les, those previous edits will not come into Lightroom. Make sure
any time you're working on raw i les in other sot ware that you save out the
metadata to sidecar i les. h is is discussed further in Chapter 9.