Copying and pasting metadata - double pasting necessary

[hamishr]

I edited Sony .arw files in Photoshop, via Camera Raw, and then exported to the same directory as .png files. I found that no matter how I exported from Photoshop, all the camera data was not being copied (this is a separate problem I need to solve) so in Imatch I used Ctrl-C on the .arw file to copy the metadata and pasted to the .png file using Ctrl-Shift-V with the all metadata option checked. I found that this worked fine for the first couple of images and then I found that I had to apply Ctrl-Shift-V twice (waiting inbetween for the processing to take place) for the metadata to be copied correctly. It seems that getting out of Imatch and getting back in makes it work first time again but it then stops working after the first few. Note that Photoshop did produce a separate xmp file. I am on Imatch version 2019.6.2 (about to update to latest update). Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

[thrinn]

There was a maybe (?) related bug, fixed in 2019.8.4. See the corresponding Release Notes,  #00925.
I would recommend to update to the current release.

[Mario]

Yes. Update to the latest version and then retry.
Close Photoshop. It may have files still locked. May cause issues.
Copying metadata is done by running ExifTool. ExifTool may run into problems with some of your files.
Did you check the IMatch log file for error messages and warnings?

Also, Copying all metadata between different file formats is a seriously bad idea. For example, the EXIF data of the ARW file will never match your PNG files. This may cause a lot of problems later when you process the PNG files in other applications.

XMP files are not used for PNG files, only for RAW files. But, as per definition, an XMP file belongs to all files with the same name in the same folder. If you have the PNG file in the same folder as the ARW, IMatch will merge metadata found in the ARW/PNG with the data in the XMP. This is in accordance to the XMP standard.

[hamishr]

Thank-you Thorsten and Mario. I have updated to the latest version and I exited Photoshop first before pasting the metadata, which seems to have done the trick. I understand your concern Mario over pasting all the metadata. What I am really wanting to have in the derived images is the basic shooting info  (speed, aperture, iso, camera) and the Create Date and Date Subject Created but I haven't worked out how to be selective about which metadata to include. Thank-you Mario for a wonderful program - I have used Imatch for many years but ony recently have started to plumb its depths - I find that it always has more to give.

[Mario]

Having shooting info in PNG files is rather unusual. This data is meant to be included by the camera when the image is taken. No camera produces PNG files.

The Copy Attributes command is usually the safest way.
Don't bother with EXIF or legacy IPTC. Just copy the XMP. It contains all the data you want, but in a file-format independent format and without any 'pointers' to specific data blocks in the image, which is often the case for EXIF and especially EXIF maker notes. These pointers are invalid when copied to another file.

You can also just create a custom Metadata Panel layout that contains only the tags you want to copy between files and then use the Copy/Paste commands in that panel to transfer data between files.

See Tips for Copying Metadata and Metadata Panel Layouts

[hamishr]

Thank-you Mario, very useful suggestions.