Can Lightroom exports keep autofocus point data in JPEG metadata?

Asked 9/19/2014

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A Lightroom plugin can display the autofocus points used in my original RAW files, but it fails on JPEGs exported from those RAWs. The exported JPEGs still contain normal EXIF data like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, but not the focus-point information the plugin needs. Is there any way to preserve that autofocus/focus-point metadata when exporting to JPEG from Lightroom?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

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This information is stored in the maker notes section of the EXIF data. As this section's content is company (and probably model) dependant, proprietary, and undocumented, it isn't surprising that lightroom does not try to interpret it, and subsequently doesn't store it in the jpeg. If you create the jpeg with your camera's proprietary software and import that into lightroom, the plugin may be able to show the information. (canons zoombrowser does, at least)

The only possibility I'd see might be to copy the data with exiftool from the raw to the jpeg file.

(But thanks for pointing out this plugin — I'll have to install it immediately :))

Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user32110

11y ago

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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Usually no. The focus-point data is typically stored in the camera maker’s proprietary MakerNotes section of EXIF metadata, not in the standard EXIF fields Lightroom commonly preserves on export. Because MakerNotes are brand/model-specific and often undocumented, Lightroom generally does not interpret or write them back into exported JPEGs.

Possible workarounds:

  • Use the camera maker’s own software to create the JPEG; it may preserve that metadata.
  • Copy the MakerNotes from the RAW to the exported JPEG afterward with ExifTool, for example: exiftool -tagsfromfile rawfile.cr2 -makernotes output.jpg

If your plugin can read MakerNotes in JPEGs, that may restore the focus-point display. But within Lightroom itself, there typically isn’t a built-in way to retain that data during JPEG export.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

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