Ever run into the problem that even though the preference option is selected, it doesn’t automatically save changes to the DNG file? If I manually force the update (via menu command) it works, but not otherwise.

Appreciate anyone’s thoughts on this.

Matt probably wanted to gloss over this because he didn’t want to get bogged down in terminology, but what the preference is saying is “update changes to the XMP block automatically.” Whether the XMP block is stored in a sidecar file, or in the XMP block part of the DNG file, the XMP block is updated with the develop settings.

Because and XMP file is an abstraction of what would normally be part of the file. Adobe doesn’t want to attempt to write into camera specific raw files, though, so it came up with the sidecar concept.

But the key take-way is that the preference is updating the XMP block, wherever that happens to be.

“Still I don’t get the problem about the whole point. If I want to give somebody my dng pic, I don’t go to Finder and copy the pic from there.

I export the pic within LR as a dng. The advantage is that whilst exporting it, all changes are written from the LR catalogue to the dng file during the export process. Am I correct?”

Perhaps an actual export would do this (perhaps someone else can verify this) but if you have more than one application sharing the same images that both understand DNG (i.e., Bridge and ACR along with Lr) then the only way they can communicate the processing develop steps is via XMP.

It is much better to wait until you are finished editing. The select all the files and write to them.

My two cents.

Updating the DNGs is the single most important thing you can do to work future proof when you don t want to be depended on a programm or let s even say one lr catalog.

one question – why does it make the files bigger?

Here’s a liitle tip, if you convert to B&W in LR the file will open in B&W and will remain in B&W in CR even after a reset to default!!! What you have to do in CR is click on the HSL/Grayscale button and uncheck Grayscale to see the original color image!

Adobe said in September 2009 “there are no known intellectual property encumbrances or license requirements for DNG”. (The license is reassurance for lawyers that Adobe won’t object if you use DNG. It certainly doesn’t claim that there ARE patents on DNG!)

ISO have not rejected DNG. In fact, they are using it in the revision of ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP).

DNG the same status as TIFF (until ISO take over): a free-to-use file format owned by Adobe. Who is worried about TIFF? So why be worried about DNG?

DNG still makes me nervous. I use RAW as the digital original. I do backups of these RAW files. This leaves me with two copies, one on the backup media and one in the LR structure. Works like a charm and ensures that I sleep well

If I would convert my RAW’s into DNG, the scenario shifts, As soon as I save edits to the DNG file I no longer have 2 copies of the original since the LR one is modified. This makes me nervous and ultimately forces me to make a backup of my backup. Net result, double the storage for my backups. This outweights the 20% size reduction of DNG files by a large amount.

Regards

/Thomas

IF you select saving the data as a Catalog Pref, when do the saves occur. Matt: you immediately move to the Finder without doing anything like a save, and the changes are visible in the file. How is this different from manually writing the changes? Why bother with the latter?