Adding captions to photos in Aperture 3

Question

Hi All,
I would like yo know if anyone out there has figured out a way to add captions to photos. I am a photographer using Aperture 3, and must be able to send photos to the newspaper with a caption along the bottom left of the photo. I would greatly appreciate the help.
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

Ernie:
While it's possible to open an image directly from Aperture 3, or which was exported from Aperture 3, what you see will vary depending on what happens in between the time you export from Aperture 3 and open with the other application. For instance. If you opened directly into Photoshop CS4, then
There is a link about 1/2 down the Aperture 3 Metadata Issues page *(http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/aperture3.html)* that is labeled, "Aperture 3 Exported Fields" which will take you to a spreadsheet showing you just all of the options I could find.
For instance, if you were to have opened the file directly from Aperture 3 (using the +*"open in external editor"*+ option), and then saved the file as a TIFF or PSD file, you would certainly see the caption field. However, if you save the file as a TIFF you will find that information in the following fields is not preserved: *ISO Country Code, Intellectual genre, Location, Rights Usage Terms, IPTC Subject Code*. If the image had GPS info, then that will not be preserved either, but that is a problem with Adobe Photoshop and the TIFF file format (a known issue that should be corrected in CS5).
If you opened in an external editor and saved as a PSD file, then the result is even worse. In addition to the five fields above, you also lose all of the *IPTC Core Creator Contact Info(CCI)fields (CCI: City, CCI:Country, CCI: Address, CCI: Postal Code,CCI: State/Province, CCI: Emails, CCI: Phones, CCI: WebURLs) as well as the IPTC Scene* field. That GPS information is retained is but small compensation.
If you export files from Aperture 3 as a JPEG or TIFF file, then th caption field will still visible, but a number of the same fields mentioned above will not be preserved.
If it were at least consistent across file format, regardless of method used to get the files out, that would be one thing, but the results are so varied it would push me to the edge of madness trying to compensate and correct after the fact. If you export, and then modify some of the metadata in Bridge, it's possible to retain more of the metadata, but this is a kludge that you have to remember to do each time after you export.
And this is even before mentioning the lack of support for things like star ratings!
If you dig a little deeper, you'll see there are problems. Granted if you are not a professional, don't use many of the fields mentioned, and don't share your images with others this may not matter much to you. However, for anyone wishing to use Aperture professionally these are very important issues that can not be disregarded.
David
http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/