How to import MediaPro and Lightroom catalogs into Daminion

This is pretty straightforward. MediaPro (formerly Expression Media or iView) and Lightroom can embed annotations in the image metadata (IPTC/XMP) and Daminion can import this metadata from the images.

To migrate from Lightroom:

• Open a Lightroom catalog
• Select all the images
• Navigate to the “Metadata > Save Metadata to Files” option on the main menu. If Lightroom’s Auto-Sync feature is turned on, you can ignore this step
• Import the folders that contain your images into Daminion. During import Daminion will extract all the annotations that Lightroom has saved in the file metadata.

Limitations:

• Lightroom only supports embedding annotations in media formats that have internal support for XMP data, like JPEG, TIFF, PSD…

To migrate from MediaPro:

As with migrating from a Lightroom catalog, you’ll need to embed MediaPro (iView) keywords in the metadata. Do the following:

1. Open a MediaPro catalog
2. Select all images
3. Navigate to the “Action > Sync Annotations” option on the main menu
4. In the window that appears check the “Export annotation to original files” option and click the OK button. Updating image metadata can be a time-consuming process, especially if you have large image archive
5. Import the folders that contain your images into Daminion. During import Daminion will extract all the annotations that MediaPro has saved in the files’ metadata.

Limitations:

• Daminion does not support MediaPro’s custom fields. However, you should consider the option of moving them to Categories before syncing them with the metadata.
• MediaPro only supports embedding annotations to JPEG, TIFF, PSD, NEF, DNG, and CR2 formats.