Okay, this one's gonna get pretty technical pretty quickly. But hopefully, you can keep up. I think this is important information that you need to know. So let's go ahead and reveal it. So, as we know, everything we do in Lightroom is 100%, non destructive. So we can take any image with any settings.

And we can always just say that before and after. So I'm just going to jump into the library here. And I can always hit backslash and take this image back to its original unedited appearance, or bring it back or click Reset. And everything's back to the very start including the crop. So where are these settings stored? You may wonder where are these settings stored.

Now, I'm going to tell you a bit of a long story about the way this used to work pre Lightroom. And hopefully this will help make sense of everything. So I'm just going to jump over to a very different application called bridge. So prior to Lightroom, we had to use a little application called bridge to manage Images. So bridge was a lot like I guess, the library module. So I can see here I can go into my travel photos and I can go into my Cambodia photos.

And I can see all these photos here, just as we can see them in Lightroom. So prior to Lightroom, we worked in this application called bridge. Now if I go back to the desktop here and have a look at this image here, when we wanted to make adjustments to the image, we had to go into another program called Camera Raw. So when RAW files first came out, Photoshop couldn't manage RAW files. So it needed a raw processor and they created a thing called Camera Raw. So if I open this image in Camera Raw, you can see it looks very similar to Lightroom Develop module.

So in many respects Lightroom is the bridge and Camera Raw jam together with a few other little output modules to boot. So if you look at this image here, you will see I can go in here and I can say Camera role defaults. And you'll see the image with no adjustments. So this is the raw file with no adjustments. And if I go to my image settings, these are the edits I've done to get this look and feel. Now there's one more thing that hasn't been revealed.

And that's the crop. It's actually a massive crop on these images, you can see right there. So when I click on the cropping tool, it shows you the absolute rule, file, crop and all. So that's what's going on right there in with the raw file. So I'm just going to cancel out of that. And I'm going to come back to bridge Now, you might wonder, where are all those settings saved?

Well, because this is an F, that is a Nikon electronic file. There's actually legal reasons why Adobe cannot save the settings in the file. They can't be embedded in the file. So if we look at this little folder on my desktop, and it's going to double click on this folder, Codex MP, you'll see there's another little file in here called an XML file. Now, this is Then the metadata file. xml stands for extensible metadata platform.

And that's a format of metadata that Adobe created. And all the adjustments that are made to files from Nikon or Canon or Pentax or whoever you want to mention have to be saved in this XML file. This is how it used to work. Now if I click on that XMP file, you'll see it's tiny 23 kilobytes because it's tiny text. And if I press the spacebar, we'll be able to actually see into it. So this is what the metadata looks like.

It's just a whole bunch of text a whole bunch of code to and you can see, you know, Camera Roll related issues, tone curve, and so forth. lens correction, all the potential Camera Raw settings are recorded in there. So this is called the XMP file, or it's also called a sidecar file. Now, the important thing to notice is this. If this sidecar file is separated from the image, what's what's what happens? I'm going to drag that side cat file out of that folder, and just put it on the desktop and watch what happens to my email.

Make sure I go back to bridge, look at that. It's just gone back to the edited file. So no adjustments, no crop, no nothing. There's my raw file. And if I put that XMP file back in, then the adjustments come back. So that's how the sidecar file works.

This was an old system prior to Lightroom, the XMP sidecar file. So jump forward to Lightroom. And Lightroom actually works very differently. Lightroom stores the XMP files centrally in the database, they're not stored with the image. So what this means is by default, if you were to look at your images, your raw files in particular, outside of Lightroom, you wouldn't actually see the adjustments that Lightroom has made. Now that can sort of freak people out a little bit.

They're like, hang on, where are all my adjustments? Well, by default, you cannot say them anywhere but Lightroom unless you export the file, But we can change that if we go up to the Lightroom menu here and under the catalog settings, so not preferences, but catalog settings, you'll see there's under metadata here, there is an option to automatically right changes to XMP. Now this is turned off by default, this is turned off by default, so it doesn't happen. So that's why you don't see the Lightroom adjustments in other applications. I personally like to turn it on, I want to see the adjustments in other applications. But more to the point I want the security of having my image adjustments with the image on my external hard drive.

So if my catalogue got lost or whatever, and I was dislocated from that from Lightroom, I've still got all my corrections or adjustments in the image. So why on earth would Adobe turn this off for you thinking? Well, their rationale is they believe it slows Lightroom down it's an extra process writing XMP right Adding the changes to XMP files, it's an extra process that slows down your computer and takes extra time and effort. Well, I don't personally find that to be such a concern. And even if it is, that's it. For my to my mind, it's worth it for the security of having the settings with the image.

So I certainly turn it on. But I want to show you what happens if I turn it off. So I'm going to turn it off now. I'm going to turn it off. And I'm going to come back into my Cambodia folder here. So we're looking at these images.

Now, if it's turned off, you certainly can save after making a bunch of images, a bunch of adjustments to images, it's recommended that you you select them all. And you go photo and you go save metadata. So let me just see if not sorry, it's under metadata not photo. There we go save metadata to file. So if you've got this option turned off, which it is by default, you can certainly go save metadata to file with Command S and that will force an XML file to be created. I don't do that because I just leave it on permanently I have it happening automatically.

Now, the real issue, I think, is this, okay, the real issue, I think is this. So let's look at an image here any old image, we'll do let's, let's say we take this image here. Now, when I had export settings to metadata turned on, then the XMP file was created. So if I go back to Lightroom, back to bridge, sorry, and I go into my travel photos and into Cambodia, and we can see this image right here as well. So here's this image here. With the settings that I've applied in Lightroom, back here, now remember, I have just turned off the export settings.

So watch this, if I go into the develop module, and I let's just pull the saturation down. Let's just go bang, and pull the saturation down. Now I've converted the image to black and white. So what's what happens when I go to bridge, you'll see no dice, the black and white conversion has not registered, because I've got export to XML turned off. So let me go back here and let me go Command S to save. So now it says it's going to save the metadata file.

So I say continue. And now when we go back to bridge, it updates, because I just exported the black and white conversion to the XMP file. Okay, so with me, I hope this is not too confusing, because I think it's useful to get an understanding of now, when I go back here, it's black and white here, and it's black and white here. So everything is good because I save but watch this. Watch what happens if I go File, sorry, catalog settings and turn automatically right changes to XMP back on. So I'm going to turn it back on.

And I'm going to double click on saturation to bring back the color. So now when I go back to bridge it automatically updates. Yeah, so there's no need to save or export anything, it automatically updates in other applications, right? all makes sense so far. But now watch this. Here's the rub.

Here's the rub. And I believe this is the real reason why Adobe turn it off by default, because if I from bridge, open this image in Camera Raw, and make further adjustments to it, so I've just converted it to black and white again. These adjustments have just been saved in the XMP file, but not in the Lightroom database, because bridge and Camera Raw can't access the Lightroom database. So when I click Done, this image gets converted to black and white in bridge. But when I go back to Lightroom, watch something funny is going to happen. Now takes a moment to register Lightroom takes a moment to register and what's going to happen is a little exclamation mark is going to appear in the top right hand corner because Lightroom is going to receive a conflict Lightroom is going to say hang on Something funny is going on.

According to my central database, this image should be color. But according to the embedded XMP file, this image should be black and white, some other application has changed this image. So what what should I do? So I just take some moment for this little exclamation mark to appear. This is a common scenario in class that I have to pad out at this point and entertain you with a few stories while we wait for this little exclamation mark to appear. So any minute it should appear.

So when it appears, and I click on it, I'm going to get a message saying the metadata for this file has been changed by another application. What do you want to do? Do you want to override the metadata from the Lightroom central database which would mean force the black and white information to be converted to color? Or alternatively, do you want to import the metadata from the XMP file and let it override The catalog or the Lightroom database. So sounds confusing. It sounds very confusing, but I'm doing my best to make it relatively simple.

So hopefully you're keeping up. So just give it a moment for this little exclamation mark to appear. Hopefully it will be appearing very shortly. And we can click on it. And we I wish there was a way to force this to happen more quickly. But, but ultimately, I believe this is why this is why Adobe turn it off by default, because they don't want people seeing this little exclamation mark and getting confused by it, and having to contact them to say, what's going on.

Why am I getting this message saying that I've been images have been affected by another application. So any minute, it's going to appear? Goodness, I was dreading this moment when I recorded this video because it's the same in class. As I said, it can take a long time sometimes I think, oh, should I restart? Lightroom? Well, let's accelerate the process.

Let's say let's try that I'm going to quit Lightroom. And I'm going to restart Lightroom just to force this situation to occur because you need to see the symbol and you need to see the menu that appears. So I've restarted Lightroom. There it is, that's done the job. So up here in the top right hand corner, you can see this symbol here. So it's not the it's not the missing negative symbol.

It's a different one. It's the metadata conflict symbol. So when I click on it, I get a message saying the metadata for this photo has been changed by another application. What do you want to do about it should Lightroom import the settings from disk, which would mean I accept the camera or adjustment to override the Lightroom adjustment making the color black and white? Or should we override the settings which would do the opposite, it would push the Lightroom color image over on top of the camera rule edit. So nine times out of 10, probably 10 times out of 10 You will want to override settings.

So if the image you're looking at in Lightroom has its correct appearance, then override settings is totally going to be the option, because that's what you how you want to keep it. So if we just jump back to bridge here, the image is black and white in bridge here, it's color in Lightroom. When I click override settings, the symbol goes away. And when I go back to bridge, the image converts back to color. So that's what's going on there. And that's, I believe, why Adobe turn off automatically right changes to XMP.

That's why they turn it off by default. To avoid people having this confusing experience. I personally recommend turning it on. Not so you can see your adjustments and other applications so much but so you can ensure that your adjustments stay with the images. Yeah, with the Sorry, that was a funny pause there wasn't it? I was just thinking as I was speaking what I was gonna say next.

So it's important that the adjustments, stay with the images, I believe, and it's a valuable backup and security feature. So I always say automatically, right changes to XMP. Now, if you're not looking at your raw files anywhere other than Lightroom, perhaps this doesn't matter so much, but I still think it's valuable to turn it on for the security. Sure, you can just go Command S to save later, or Ctrl S on Windows, but it's easy to forget to do that as well. Why not let Lightroom just automatically do it for you in the background. So XMP files and Lightroom central database lots of metadata to understand