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I used Lightroom for a while and edited some of my raw photos with it. Since Lightroom is non destructive the changes are not done to the raw images directly.

While using Windows and Linux I looked for a similar software to Lightroom and found Bibble 5 which can be used on both platforms.

The question is how can I migrate my photos including the editings from Lightroom 3 to Bibble 5.

The keywords / tags used in Lightroom aren't so imporant to migrate, because a have a good folder structure and can rebuild them easily, I just don't want to do the visual editings again for every photo.

I have about 700 photos in my Lightroom library (not that big) and they are all NEF (Nikon raw) files.

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2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately there's currently no 'painless/seamless/automated' way to make the switch and you will not be able to pull your files over with edits intact. Your best bet will be to export anything you've made adjustments to as a 16 bit TIFF and then import them into your new chosen application. By keywording the files (with the keywords Adjusted, or Modified, perhaps) and generating sidecar files you will at least be able to sort them by keyword once you've got them out of Lightroom.

Obviously there's no way to know what products will be released in the future that have the potential to make the transition more seamless, but speaking as someone who spent a number of years in the software industry 'in another life,' my personal opinion is that I wouldn't hold my breath waiting, 'cause you will likely never see this transition be made any easier by Adobe... It's just not in the companies best interest or bottom line to make it easy to shift to a competing product, so there's just no real incentive to spend a lot of development time there...

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Quite true -- the only way this is going to happen is if Bibble Labs implements it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jerry Coffin
    Commented Mar 1, 2011 at 23:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ Lightroom 2 at least uses an SQLite data base which you can scrape for the development settings and transfer them to Bibble. Assuming that Bibble has either an API or another way of setting development settings. But a quick and dirty hack-job of such a thing might be possible in a weekend of coding. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joey
    Commented Mar 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ So, I was curious enough about this that I went and checked it out. A few data points: (1) Lightroom does store (at least some) "edits" in XMP files (if so configured), e.g. fields like <crs:Exposure>+0.75</crs:Exposure> inside an xmlns:crs="http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/ block; (2) bibble does, too, but (a) the filenames are different (appending .xmp instead of replacing the suffix (e.g. .CR2) with .xmp), and (b) the changes are different, e.g. bopt:sat="51", referencing xmlns:blay="http://www.bibblelabs.com/BibbleLayers/5.0/", and in a different structure. \$\endgroup\$
    – lindes
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 22:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ So, as far as I can tell, even if one renames/copies the XMP file to the name that Bibble expects, it won't heed (and will remove) the Adobe-added adjustments, replacing them with its own (starting from scratch). So, I believe this answer to be basically correct, that it would require either Bibble to update their software to honor Adobe's way of representing things, or a 3rd party to right a conversion utility. \$\endgroup\$
    – lindes
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 22:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ 'Edits' in Lightroom parlance are stacked record of what changes were made to the file and the order they were made. In Lightroom it is possible to move back and forth within the editing stack, thereby undoing any changes that you may have made. What is stored in the XMP are the results of edits made in Lightroom, not the edits themselves. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay Lance Photography
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 23:24
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According to the Bibble website Bibble 5 supprts XMP files, if you set Lightroom to write changes to the XMP files that go next to the NEF files the changes should be in there.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ That's a good hint. I'll try that! \$\endgroup\$
    – apparat
    Commented Mar 2, 2011 at 19:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, but that's simply wrong. XMP files don't store Lightroom edits, only standard EXIF data... \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay Lance Photography
    Commented Mar 2, 2011 at 21:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Jay Lance Photography Have a read of: oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/04/… It states that XMP files DO store edits etc \$\endgroup\$
    – LC1983
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 17:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ No it doesn't state that. It states that the Results of edits are stored, not the edits themselves. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay Lance Photography
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 18:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @jay-lance-photography: uhh, it says "the XMP sidecar files contain the metadata, keywords and adjustments made to an image". "adjustments", "edits"... Same thing different word? The article might be wrong, I don't know, but it sure does seem to say that something is stored there that seems relevant to the questioner. If that's wrong, or unhelpful for some other reason, please explain more? (I don't currently have LR handy to investigate for myself. XMP is XML though, so it should be easy to see exactly what is stored.) \$\endgroup\$
    – lindes
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 20:40

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