Does Lightroom store focus distance or autofocus/manual-focus data?
Asked 3/14/2016
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2 answers
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I’m extracting metadata from a Lightroom catalog to analyze my photos. I’d like to know whether Lightroom stores either of these in the catalog, or whether I need to read the original image files instead:
- focus distance (the distance the lens was focused at, e.g. near vs. infinity)
- whether the shot was taken using autofocus or manual focus
I’m using a Nikon D7000. From what I’ve found so far, these details may be in EXIF maker notes rather than standard metadata. Is that correct, and if so, does Lightroom keep that information in its catalog or expose it anywhere?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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Most cameras that record the focus distance in the EXIF data attached to a photo store that information in the "maker notes" section of the EXIF info. The maker notes section allows manufacturers to place any information they wish inside a file without having to worry about a common standardized protocol for designating this information. Unfortunately, most Adobe products ignore the information contained in the maker notes section of the EXIF info. They often also strip this information from the EXIF info when converting and exporting an image file that contains maker notes in the EXIF info. At the very least they don't display any of the information contained in the maker notes section when displaying EXIF info from within Adobe applications. For example, when converting raw .cr2 files from a Canon camera to .dng files using the adobe file converter all maker notes info in the EXIF info is gone from the converted .dng file.
That being the case, you'll probably need to use an application other than Lightroom, or any other Adobe product, to accomplish what you wish to do.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Usually, no: Lightroom does not reliably store or expose focus distance or AF/MF status in its catalog.
Those details, when they exist at all, are typically written by the camera into the image file’s EXIF maker notes, which are manufacturer-specific metadata. Lightroom/Adobe products generally don’t display maker-note fields, and they may ignore or strip them during some conversions/exports.
So for your two assumptions:
- AF vs. manual focus: generally not available from the Lightroom catalog; if your camera recorded it, you’d need to inspect the original file’s metadata, often via a tool or plugin that can read maker notes.
- Focus distance: sometimes recorded as an approximate focus distance in the original RAW/EXIF metadata, but not consistently, and not usually visible through Lightroom itself.
In short, if you need this data for visualization, read it from the original RAW files rather than the Lightroom catalog. Whether it exists depends on the camera/lens and how that maker-note metadata was written.
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