Exported JPG opens as a RAW file in Photoshop

[Ldina]

2 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

This article
https://fstoppers.com/education/are-all-your-lightroom-development-settings-being-saved-your-exported-photos-460368
may be useful, it suggests that there is a Lightroom export option for metadata which may avoid this problem

Thanks David, for the article link and good contributions on this subject. I will probably make these changes in my LR setup. 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Ldina]

@lacerto Thank you for the added information.

I do not have a dedicated metadata viewer, only what is available in AP, LightRoom, ACR or PS, so I decided to upload a Zip file with different versions of the same file, In case anyone wants to review them. Anyway, here's what is included and some background on what I did and the software and platform I am using. 

1. I took a flash photo with my Canon 5Dmk2 and copied it to my desktop without importing it into LightRoom. I renamed the file IMG_5932-Never Opened.CR2. I didn't import it in any software, convert to DNG, or anything else, so this should retain the pristine metadata as written by my camera.

2. I copied a 2nd version of this file to my MacBook Pro desktop from my card reader and renamed it IMG_5932-Opened in AP ONLY.CR2. These are both left in Canon's native CR2 format. I opened this file in AP v2.0.4 Develop Persona (File > Open), made only a White Balance Adjustment, then open it in AP. I left the import setting from the Develop Persona to retain a "link" to the RAW CR2 file. 

3. The 3rd file is IMG_5932-Opened in AP ONLY.AfPhoto. I simply saved what opened in AP from the Develop Persona in step 2.

4. I saved the AfPhoto file in step 3 as IMG_5932-Opened in AP ONLY.JPG, using Affinity's standard High Quality JPG present, which includes all metadata by default. The other option is to strip all metadata, which I have not included. 

5. The final image is 20230318-IMG_5932.DNG. It is the same exact file, but was imported into LightRoom v6.14 on my MacBook Pro from the same card reader. My LR import routine adds the Date to the beginning of the file name, applies a custom camera profile, adds my name, address, copyright information, converts the CR2 file to DNG file format and adds it to the LR database. I didn't want to open this DNG file in Photoshop or Affinity Photo because I didn't want to take a chance changing any metadata that LR might have written to the DNG file on import, so whatever is in the metadata of the DNG file should be what Canon provided, or what LR added during the import process. If one chooses to open the file in Photoshop from LightRoom, the file that is saved by Photoshop and written back into the LR Catalog almost certainly alters the metadata when saving, but I did not include such a file. I wanted to preserve the data in the DNG file as imported, so that's why I didn't do this. I'm pretty certain that Photoshop does alter the metadata when saving a JPG, TIFF, PNG, etc, to flag it as a non-RAW file.

If a CR2 RAW file is imported into LightRoom, and is NOT converted to DNG, an XMP sidecar file is created. I believe this is done by LR upon import to house additional setting and slider fields when the raw file is adjusted inside of LR or ACR. Converting the file from CR2 to DNG when importing into LR eliminates the need for the extra sidecar file because the DNG format is designed to accommodate this extra metadata. I just wanted to note that AP did not generate an XMP sidecar file on my desktop. AP may not need this XMP file, or maybe it is written elsewhere. 

If anyone is interested in looking at the metadata and analyzing what is happening, I uploaded a zip file. Thanks.

Canon5Dmk2 Images.zip

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Tom Lachecki]

We'll strip Camera RAW metadata on export to raster formats (e.g. JPEG).

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Ldina]

1 hour ago, Tom Lachecki said:

We'll strip Camera RAW metadata on export to raster formats (e.g. JPEG).

Thank you, Tom!! I wholeheartedly agree. 👍😀

[Ldina]

22 minutes ago, lacerto said:

I guess this decision resolves the issue.

That it does! Thanks for your contributions, and to all others who chimed in.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that LR/ACR writes these RAW metadata tags to the DNG file, (and perhaps to the CR2 file or to its XMP sidecar file). It remains there even when I open that DNG directly into AP. If the appropriate metadata is not altered or stripped on export, the JPG will open ACR when other Photoshop users open the file. This change will solve the issue.

[Walter Rowe]

Look at Adobe Camera Raw preferences. Those control whether files open in camera raw. It happens a lot with TIFF files too. Users of other apps have reported this.

[Ldina]

1 hour ago, Walter Rowe said:

Look at Adobe Camera Raw preferences. Those control whether files open in camera raw. It happens a lot with TIFF files too. Users of other apps have reported this.

@Walter Rowe Thank you, Walter. Interesting! I have those settings verified now in my version of Camera Raw, so all is good for me personally (now that I understand what's going on).

I was concerned about the thousands of people who use ACR or LR for their RAW files, and who export JPGs, PNGs and TIFFs from AP with standard export settings (which embeds all metadata). People on the receiving end, (e.g., Ad agencies, newspapers, designers, photographers, etc.), would be confused when opening a JPG in Photoshop and having it launch ACR with a bunch of color slider adjustments. The changes Serif intends to make should prevent this from happening.