XMP and Lightroom

Cullant keeps your decisions in its own database. To get them into the tool you edit in, it writes XMP sidecar files.

What a sidecar carries

• the star rating
• the pick or reject flag
• the colour label
• the orientation

Lightroom Classic and Capture One both read this format. Import the folder after a commit and your culling arrives with it.

Cullant also reads existing sidecars on every scan, so a folder that has been through another tool arrives with its ratings already in place.

When they are written

On commit, along with the deletes and moves. Sidecars are a phase of the queue like any other, and you can see them listed in the review before they are written.

If you do not want sidecars, turn them off. Cullant then writes nothing beside your photos except its own database.

The rule about pairs

A shot of several files raises a question: how many sidecars?

• While every member of the group agrees on the rating, the flag and the label, they share one sidecar, named after the base name: IMG_0421.xmp.
• Once they disagree, the primary keeps IMG_0421.xmp and the other member gets IMG_0421.JPG.xmp.

That second form is what Adobe Bridge and exiftool use, so other tools understand it.

One thing to know: Lightroom Classic only applies IMG_0421.xmp to the RAW file, not to the JPEG. Cullant still writes the shared sidecar for both while their states agree, because that is what lets Cullant read its own work back correctly on the next scan. If you need Lightroom to see a rating on the JPEG specifically, give the two halves different ratings and Cullant will write the second sidecar.

Task tags

Task tags do not go into a sidecar yet. Mapping them to and from the dc:subject keyword field in both directions is planned. Ratings, flags, labels and orientation all work today.