How to retain focus point information in JPEGs exported from Lightroom?

Question

I just tried out a plugin for Lightroom that shows the used focus points and found that it works fine for RAW files (CR2), but fails for JPEGs. The plugin notifies me that the JPEG doesn't contain the necessary information to show the used focus points.

These JPEGs are exported from RAW files in Lightroom and all regular EXIF info (f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, etc.) is retained. However, the focus information is lost (this is also stated in the FAQ of the plugin).

Can I somehow retain the focussing data during an export to JPEG in LR?

^{I'm not affiliated with the plugin development, just a curious user.}

Answer 1

This information is stored in the maker notes section of the EXIF data. As this section's content is company (and probably model) dependant, proprietary, and undocumented, it isn't surprising that lightroom does not try to interpret it, and subsequently doesn't store it in the jpeg. If you create the jpeg with your camera's proprietary software and import that into lightroom, the plugin may be able to show the information. (canons zoombrowser does, at least)

The only possibility I'd see might be to copy the data with exiftool from the raw to the jpeg file.

(But thanks for pointing out this plugin — I'll have to install it immediately :))

Answer 2

I think ths is right-on with the suggestion of copying the MakerNotes with exiftool. To do this:

exiftool -tagsfromfile rawfile.cr2 -makernotes output.jpg

which should work. (I've tested it with Pentax RAW files but not with Canon.)

Further, finding a plugin that includes the MakerNotes in the exported JPEGs should do the trick as well. Several people recommendations for Metadata Wrangler, although from the known issues listed for that plugin, it appears to not be possible. That's probably a whole separate question....