RT: Not Exporting EXIF for TIF or PNG files

Software RawTherapee
1

I’m new to RT. Have edited a few files & then imported them into LRCC. When the get there, most of the EXIF data is gone. Yup, read the manual, Preferences seems to be set correctly & searched here on the problem. There’s a 2016 post about the same problem for TIF files.

This is occurring for my Olympus ORF files. When I have them loaded in RT, all the EXIF data shows up in the EXIF Tab. Once the image is processed & exported as a PNG, its gone.

Has anyone found a solution to this issue?

2

Have you tried a jpeg instead of a PNG?

3

Until mid-last year, PNG didn’t have a standard for EXIF data. Prior to the standard, programmers just used the text chunks of the specification, there have been some conventions used by various softwares, but the “least common denominator” set most recognized was pretty small. Last year, a “eXIf” chunk was added to the specification, using a slightly modified format from the well-established APP1 segment where you’ll find EXIF in jpeg files. So, you might try insuring you’re using the most recent versions of each program, assuming both have now implemented the new standard.

TIFF’s problem is that the recognized set of fields is oriented to its origins as a common storage format for scanners. libtiff, the software library most use to read and write TIFFs, only allows encoding the original list of parameters.

I don’t know specifically what RT or LR do to encode or decode EXIF, but I wanted to let you know the problem isn’t as simple as one would hope.

4

Thanks Glen,

I suspected PNG was the problem. Didn’t know the history. Got TIF to work ok. Prefer to use TIF for finished files & DNG/PNG/PSB as adjustment files. Guess I have to loosen up on that.

5

hi,
there have been various bug fixes regarding this recently. I suggest you wait for the new release (v5.4) which is just around the corner.

6

Thanks much. Should have said I’m using v5.2. Looking forward to update.

7

On a side note, I learn something new every day: I’ve been programming my TIFF I/O in rawproc per the documentation; poking around based on this thread, I think I’ve found libtiff EXIFTAG #defines for all my favorite exif data, hopefully digestible by the TIFFSetField() and TIFFGetField() functions. If those work without extra programming, that’d clean up one of my disappointments with TIFF metadata, not being able to include camera and exposure parameters.

8

We currently have an issue with that in RT. Maybe interesting for you as well

9

FWIW, my most recent RAW processed to an uncompressed TIF using RT 5.2 on a iMac retained all the EXIF from the RAW including Olympus makers notes.