Importing RAW files with keywords from Bridge

Question

Hi everyone,
I downloaded the trial version of Aperture and have now imported RAW files (Canon 20D) with keywords and IPTC data applied via Bridge.
The import of the RAW files was no problem however the files lacked the keywords and IPTC data, which I applied in Bridge.
I also tried to import JEPG files and here Aperture could show me keywords and IPTC data.
Why does this not work for RAW files? What do I have to do in order to get it to work?
Thanks in advance for your advise
/David

Answer 1

When you add metadata (keywords etc.) to most proprietary raw formats (including Canon .CR2 files), Bridge doesn’t know how to embed that data in to the file—Canon and other manufacturers haven’t told Adobe (or anyone else) what the structure of these raw files is and how metadata can be stored within the file itself. Therefore, Bridge creates a ‘sidecar’ file to go with the raw file: the sidecar file sits alongside the raw file, with the same filename and a .xmp extension. This sidecar file contains any metadata you may have applied, as well as adjustments you have made in Adobe Camera Raw.
Unfortunately, Aperture doesn’t read these sidecar files when importing raw files, so you lose any adjustments from ACR (not surprising, since Aperture is obviously a different raw converter to ACR so the adjustments would be different anwyay), but also you lose any metadata you may carefully have applied.
There may be an answer, however. But it’ll cost. That would be to use iView Media Pro (which has recently been bought by Microsoft, but a Mac version still exists). There is a 21-day free trial for iVMP—since my suggestion is to use it as a temporary conduit for importing all your existing raw files into Aperture, you won’t necessarily have to pay the £129 GBP asking price for iVMP (others can debate the morality of that statement, however; fortunately I already owned iVMP and so didn’t have to worry about such things). I believe iVMP can read the XMP sidecar files created by Bridge. Create a new iVMP catalogue with all your raw files which you want to move into Aperture. It should bring all your existing metadata into the iVMP catalogue as well.
Then, import all the raw files into Aperture. As you have found, they’ll be without any metadata. As long as the filenames are the same in both the iVMP catalogue and the Aperture library, you can use Adam Tow’s application Annoture to transfer metadata from the iVMP catalogue into the Aperture library.
Sort of circuitous, but possible. If only Aperture read the metadata from those sidecar files, eh? If I’m wrong in thinking that iVMP imports the XMP metadata, then what you can do is get Bridge to convert all your .CR2 raw files into .DNG files. If you don’t know about DNG, read about it at Adobe. But briefly, Bridge is able to embed its metadata into the DNG files and iVMP is able to read that embedded metadata when importing DNG files into the catalogue. I know that for certain: I used iVMP and DNG files (from my own 20D) before using Aperture; when I started using Aperture (which I love, now) I used Annoture to transfer all my metadata from iVMP into Aperture.
Perhaps someone else will explain this better than I.