Missing Metadata (Does Photoshop CS6, Camera Raw, Bridge, Strip Out Data)?

[kiwilink]

I have been shooting Nikon Raw .NEF images and importing into IMATCH.  I have been focusing on Focus Mode and Shooting Mode (A Nikon Metadata tag).  I use Edit/Preferences to set IMATCH to bring in the tag and it works perfectly on my .NEF files.  However, when I use Adobe Bridge or Photoshop CS6 or Camera Raw to export or resave my images from .NEF to .jpg I am losing these two tags.  Using EXIFtool on the .JPG confirms the tags are no longer there.  Is there a way I can keep these tags?  Due to space I don't like to keep everything in raw .NEF.  Is there something I can do in IMATCH to convert these from .NEF to .JPG and keep the tags (Focus Mode and Shooting Mode).  I have attached a screen capture of an image so you can see the .NEF and the .JPG.

For years I have sometimes shot raw and then used Camera Raw to tweak them and then export/resave but I never thought I would be losing important Metadata.  I know the Bridge Export command lets you create Metadata templates but not at the detail that IMATCH does. 

Any suggestions on how I can keep this data so it makes it into IMATCH?  Thanks!

Kiwilink

[Mario]

Photoshop/Bridge only maintain and export a subset of metadata.

Especially maker notes are usually lost when re-saving because maker notes often contain "pointers" to specific bytes in the original file and copying them to another file may break these pointers, make them point at random data in the new file. Maker notes are not designed for being copied and vendors like Nikon who move precious metadata from the official EXIF tags into proprietary maker notes, encrypting metadata etc. do their users and ill service. Not that users complain, most don't know about this - until they recognize the missing data.

Bridge, Lr and Ps all handle metadata a bit differently, this is not really documented. Adobe usually glosses over such things.
You can pick from a few elements/metadata sets when producing output files in Adobe products (e.g. Owner Info or Keywords) and that's about it.
I suggest you ask Adobe support for details on how to keep all your metadata.

[kiwilink]

Mario:

Thanks for the reply!  The only program I have found that doesn't remove the Nikon data is ViewNX2 and I just read your comments over the last few years about using this SW so I guess I'll keep the original raw files just in case so I have all the Metadata!

Thanks again, Mario!

Kiwilink

[Mario]

ViewNX is an original Nikon product (and no longer supported when I'm informed correctly). Like Nikon Capture, Nikon View can do some special things with Nikon RAW files, but only with them. Not a generic solution.

ExifTool can copy a lot of maker notes so you may successful by using ExifTool to copy metadata from your original file to the JPEG files created with Ps/Lr. The ExifTool web site has many examples for that: https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html