# Importing images causes them to turn color



## missingelement (Aug 8, 2012)

So we have a client that likes to shoot B+W in camera at certain points in the day (I know!).  She wants us to keep these images black and white.  Now when we import them into Lightroom, it automatically change them to color. I understand fully why it does this.  So for us there is no way of knowing in lightroom which images were shot black and white.  So now our current workflow with this clients is to:

A: Go through the job and manually select the black and whites and import only them with a B+W preset
-or-
B: Look at the images in Photo Mechanic and manually select the images and give them a star rating which then we can see in lightroom and change them over to black and white. 

So my question is, 

1: Does anyone know how to turn this option off?  I'm pretty sure you can't though.  
2: Can anyone give me another workaround to filtering the images so I can see only the black whites? i.e. Once converted in lightroom I can filter by color treatment and select monochrome.  

I wouldn't really care too much but each one of these jobs is 5000+ images and about 800+ images are black and white. So doing it manually is A LOT of clicking and scrolling.


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## clee01l (Aug 8, 2012)

If you are importing RAW images, they will always be in color as that is how they are captured by the camera and any in camera settings will only be applicable to the in camera JPEG.  The embedded thumbnail in the RAW image file will show you (briefly) the JPEG thumbnail in LR or when viewed through Photo Mechanic or the Preview app.

If your client only want to see these as B&W, the shooting JPEG is the only way to preserve the in camera adjustments.  You could also shoot RAW+JPEG and have two images to import for each shutter click.


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## Brad Snyder (Aug 8, 2012)

Cletus, I think from the OP, that Brian understands the whys and wherefores of B&W raws. I think he's looking for a way to just identify them, en masse, so that he/they can re-apply Lr's B/W conversions.
I presume there's something hiding in the Maker's Notes or similar metadata location, but without invoking Exiftool, or PM (as he mentioned) I'm not sure how to go about searching them out. Because, of course you're correct, raws are in color, period. If he could click really superfast, he could catch them while Lr is still showing the embedded preview. 

Actually, now that I think about it, the raw+JPG thing might work in lower volume work flow, not sure about doubling 5,000 image shoots, though.


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## Mark Sirota (Aug 8, 2012)

Here's a crazy way which is reliant on a bug in Lightroom, so it won't work forever...

In the camera, lock the photos that you want to be B&W. Then when importing into Lightroom, rename the files on import.

Lightroom will fail to rename the black and white (locked) ones, because there's a bug in 4.1 which prevents this.

Now select all the unrenamed files (by searching for something in the filename, perhaps) and press V to convert them to black & white.

Now invert your selection so that you've selected all the color (renamed) files, and rename them to match the original naming convention.

Once they fix this bug with the lock flag, you'll need to come up with something else...


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## Bruce J (Aug 8, 2012)

If I had this to do more than once, I'd definitely invoke exiftool.  Use exiftool to find a tag in the Maker's Notes that changes, or appears, when the image is supposed to be B&W (compare a B&W with a color image).  Then, set up an exiftool batch file with that tag used in an "if - then" command to set a keyword or rating on those images.  Run all images through exiftool batch process.  Finally, import all images in LR, select the ones with the new keyword, and convert to B&W.  Takes a little time to learn enough about exiftool to get it set up right, but once you do, it's a few seconds to run each batch on new images through the process.  Good luck.


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## missingelement (Aug 8, 2012)

Cletus, Thanks for your response, but as Brad said I do understand why Lightroom does this and why RAWs are color. I'm just looking for a way to quickly Identify them. I know it's mostly wishful thinking, just looking for an out of the box idea.


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## missingelement (Aug 8, 2012)

Brad, We've tried the clicking really fast in lightroom technique, and it works although moving that fast as leaves room for mistakes. So we do it through PM now, but still... so much clicking!


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## missingelement (Aug 8, 2012)

Mark, Thanks for the suggestion although two things here:
1: We are not the ones taking the photo, we just process the RAWs for other photographers (Who think shooting B+W in camera is a good idea. We get the images on a HD not a CF card.
2: I'm thinking it would be faster to click on them in PM then to mark them in camera.


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## missingelement (Aug 8, 2012)

Brad, this might be the solution I have been looking for.  I'll look into it and let you know if I find anything.  Just got done going through the 2 jobs we have for this client right now and I have to click on 2000+ random images in PM to give them 5 stars to then read metadata in LR to then switch them to BW.  Not too much fun, and I don't feel like buying PM for just this one task. 

Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 8, 2012)

Is it impractical to catch them during the Import? The grid in the import screen shows the embedded preview, so how practical would it be to select only the B&W images, import them, tag/label them, then run a second import for all the rest which would be easier as no selections need to be made (so long as the "Don't Import Duplicates" option is selected), the B&W images will be unselectable. 

If the B&W images are grouped into a few batches, it might not be as difficult as it might sound.


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## Allan Olesen (Aug 9, 2012)

As already suggested, I would let exiftool write a keyword or a rating before import.

First, you have to find a usable tag which identifies B&W raw files. Try this command on a color raw file and a B&W raw file:
exiftool -colormode -colorreproduction <filename>

With photos from my Sony a77, this is the result for a B&W file:
Color Mode                      : B&W
Color Reproduction              : BW

...and this is the result for a color file:
Color Mode                      : Standard
Color Reproduction              : Standard

If your client's B&W files have the same tags, you can let exiftool find all the B&W files with this command which will list the filename of all B&W photos in the current directory:
exiftool -filename -if "$colormode eq 'B&W' " *.ARW

You have to replace ARW with the correct raw extension for the client's camera.

The above command is for Windows. It is possible that you will have  to switch the ' and " quotation marks if you use Mac. I don't really  know. But if you get them wrong, exiftool will complain that it can't find the file named eq and the file named B&W.

To let exiftool insert a rating of 5 in all B&W raw files in a directory, you can run this command:
exiftool -rating=5 -if "$colormode eq 'B&W' " *.ARW

Same notes as above apply to this command.

If you don't like to mess with raw files, I understand you. I prefer to create an xmp sidecar file instead. Lightroom will automatically recognize these during import and import the values (or at least some of the values) from the xmp file. Normally, exiftool has no problem creating xmp files. Unfortunately, xmp creation is not possible when using the "exiftool -if" command as above. So if you want xmp files, the only way is probably to script it. Phil Harvey, the creator of exiftool, has made an example in this thread:
http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/forum/index.php?topic=3549.0

Unfortunately, that is for Windows. You can do the same on Mac, but the syntax will be different, and I can't help with that (unless the syntax is similar to bash syntax in Linux).

Another workaround could be:
1. Make a copy of all raw files in another directory.
2. Run the modification command above on the copied files.
3. Export the rating tag for each photo to an xmp file using this command (remember the trailing dot):
exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -ext ARW -rating -srcfile %d%f.xmp .
4. Copy the xmp files back to the original directory.
5. Delete the copies of the raw files.
6. Import into Lightroom.

(And once again: ARW will have to be replaced with the correct extension for your client's raw files.)


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 16, 2012)

This is a long shot, but you could see if Rob Cole's ExifMetaLrPlugin will show that information.  http://www.robcole.com/Rob/ProductsAndServices/ExifMetaLrPlugin/index.cfm

(I add this with the warning that Rob's plug-ins are generally for computer literate users/geeks)


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