This guide covers uploading photos from a folder. Your photos must be stored locally on your computer or on an external hard drive. They can’t be stored in the cloud. When you upload a project, you set the location of your photos on your computer. When you download the edit metadata, Imagen downloads it to this location.

For real estate photographers, see these guidelines.
 

Create a project and upload photos

1. If you are using Photoshop or Bridge, see Photoshop and Bridge: Verify using ACR for editing.
    
2. From the Projects tab, click Create a new project. Then, choose Edit only.
    
3. Confirm that your original photos are downloaded locally. If they are from a cloud-synced folder, make sure they are fully downloaded. Also, don't upload photos from SD cards or from network drives. Copy the photos to a local folder before continuing.
    
4. Drag and drop the folder containing the original photos, or click Browse to find them. If you want to select specific photos, use Drag & Drop. Imagen needs the EXIF + capture metadata from your camera. It supports JPEG, TIFF, or RAW files. 
   
    
5. Name your project, and choose your AI Profile and the photography type. JPEG photos can only be edited with JPEG AI Profiles and RAW photos with RAW AI Profiles.
   
    
6. (As needed) Click the + sign next to an AI tool to add it to your project. Hover over it to see a GIF of how it works. If you don’t find the AI tool you want, scroll down for more tools in the Other AI tools list. The AI tools you add to your project appear as chips at the top of the list.
   
   
   
   If you choose AI tools from the Other AI tools list, you might need to choose between an AI tool you’ve already chosen and a newer one from the list. For example, you can’t have Crop and Portrait Crop in the same project. You need to choose one or the other.
   
    
7. Click Edit to upload your photos and start the editing process. If the upload stops unexpectedly, the next time you open Imagen, the upload will continue.
   
   Photos are uploaded in DNG format, and the Adobe DNG Converter shows up in the status bar.
   

Photoshop and Bridge: Verify using ACR for editing

Imagen uses XMP files to store the edits it makes to your photos. When you use Photoshop or Bridge, you need to review edits with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), which is the default setting. Verify that the default settings aren't changed.

• In the ACR preferences, go to File Handling, and verify that the File Format Handling settings are set embed XMP in DNG and to automatically open JPEG and TIFF with ACR. ACR creates XMP sidecar files for RAW photos.
  

Common questions

How long does it take to edit?

Once you upload a project for editing, your photos are edited on our servers. Imagen's editing speed is fast, averaging around 0.33 seconds per photo. For example, a project of 1000 photos will typically take around 5 minutes to complete. The turnaround time may be slightly longer if you use AI tools, like Subject Mask, Straighten, and Crop.

What kind of files can I upload?

Imagen supports editing original files from your camera in JPEG, TIFF, and RAW formats. If your photos are in one of these formats and you can’t upload them, see Upload troubleshooting.