Question Regarding Star Ratings

[silv0224]

I've been using the star rating system on Paintshop Pro x8 Manage on my desktop PC for quite some time. However, I recently got a laptop and wanted to begin editing photos on that machine as well. However, when I try to access the same drive via my laptop, I no longer have any of the star ratings. I was under the assumption that star ratings are embedded in the image file but that cannot be true in this case. Anyone know where x8 stores this information and how I should go about managing this information in the future? BTW I use the shortcuts ctrl + 1,2,3,4,5 to rate my images. Maybe I need to use a different method? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[MarkZ]

The rating is stored in the EXIF of the file in a section labelled XMP-xmp. It shows up in PSP in both the General and EXIF portions of the information panel. I checked that the rating is written directly from Manage without the need to save.

You say you are accessing the same drive from your laptop - is that via wireless? Are you using PSP on your laptop to check the rating? For example, Picasa does not read the rating from the EXIF and has its own way of flagging files.

[silv0224]

I am using an external hard drive. The same drive for both machines, but the ratings only show up on my desktop. I had figured that it should be written directly but cannot seem to figure out why PSP on my laptop does not recognize this information.

[silv0224]

Apparently, if I right-click on the rated photos on my desktop in PSP manage, I can save the metadata to the disk. Then, I can go to that respective file on my laptop in PSP manage, right-click, and select "Read Metadata from File". This is the only way I've been able to transfer the star ratings from one machine to another. I'm not sure why this does not occur automatically...It's unfortunate that I have to manage the .xmp files. If any one knows of a streamlined process, it would be greatly appreciated!!! Or, I'm open to any suggestions for a better image management alternative. I'm starting to dislike PSP manage more & more...

[MarkZ]

What is the format of the files you are applying rating to - are they RAW or jpg? I think that information is missing from what you wrote.

For this test I had applied the ratings to jpgs. I checked again the EXIF information with an external program and found that the modification date for the images I had used was yesterday, at the time I had changed the star rating. This confirms that the data is read into the file when working with Manage to do the rating. Therefore, both computers should show the same information for a jpg file.

So, I suspect you are applying the ratings to RAW files. I tried applying the rating to one of my RAW files; the star rating shows up in Manage mode but there is no "rating" item in the EXIF according to the external check so the rating is somehow applied to a local PSP database and not written in the file. A RAW file is like a negative so PSP does not modify it and most programs will not do so either. If you edit a RAW file in PSP you can save the result only as a different format (jpg, TIFF . . . ).

I do most of my photos in RAW and use Corel After Shot (AS) for initial editing. When a file is edited, AS creates a small xmp file associated with the image file which contains all the information about the edit. Ratings can be applied in AS (plus various flags, keywords etc.) which are stored in the xmp file. AS can create a jpg or TIFF from the original - I create jpgs for additional editing in PSP. The quality of the jpg from AS, in my opinion, is better than the product from editing a RAW file in PSP. Ratings and keywords created in AS are transferred to the jpgs.

AS has a file management protocol that is far superior to that in PSP when the catalogs (optional) are used, not professional from what others say but good. It is a relatively inexpensive program. If you shoot RAW it is well worth investigating.