Writing IPTC Metadata to Masters

I know some of this has been discussed, but I've got a few more questions on the topic. To ensure my captions, keywords, and location information is always available no matter what cataloging software I use, I wish to write my IPTC metadata to the master images. Here are my concerns:
1) I have altered the Creator, Headline, Source, Caption, Keywords, Location, City, State/Province, and Country fields - I assume all of these will be written to the masters since they're IPTC standard? Are there length limits for these fields (that is, is there a risk that some will be truncated)? Are there any drawbacks to writing these tags to the masters? (I know many people here don't want their originals touched, but as long as it doesn't affect the quality of my jpegs, I'm fine with it.) Most of my recent photos have GPS metadata - I have not altered these, nor have I added location data to photos that didn't originally have them, so I'm assuming those fields wouldn't be affected?
2) Is there no IPTC-standard field for people shown in a photo? (I know Aperture/iPhoto's Faces is proprietary, and I'm guessing so is Adobe's People field in their XML metadata.) Should I then just assign people's names as keywords, or is there a better way? (This wouldn't be a problem, as relatively few of my photos have human subjects.)
3) I have a library of about 45,000 pictures, all of which (except for about 1400 movies) have had some piece of metadata altered. I've noticed Aperture starts to get slow after I've been working in it for a while - so, should I write the tags in stages, or should I just highlight all of them at one time and let it work? About how long should it take?
4) Finally, I've tested writing the tags to the masters on a few of them, and I've noticed the "date created" shown in the Finder gets changed to the current date and time - Does this mean the entire file was re-created? Would Time Machine have to then re-copy all of them? (My masters total 153 GB, so that might take a while to back up.)
I know this is a lot at once, but it was a fair amount of work to migrate from iPhoto to Aperture (even with Aperture's convenient import feature) since iPhoto's cataloging tools are different from the IPTC standard. I'm contemplating another migration, and I don't want to have to go through all that again.
Thanks in advance.

Thanks all... as I've been digging into this digital asset management concept for a few years now, and there's more to it than I could have imagined!
viskwal: That's about what I figured. Actually, tagging Faces as keywords will be easy for me since I already have a smart album for each person in Faces. (They're in folders by context - that is, classmate, coworker, family member, etc. - just in case, years down the road, I see a name and don't remember how I know that person.)
As for locations, I could go back and locate all my photos from before I had the GPS-equipped camera, but I haven't bothered, so I don't know how you'd save that data. I've also been shooting exclusively jpeg since it's got built-in metadata (and I don't do any post-processing), so I have no experience with RAW.
Michael Hobi: Thanks for the link - I think I'm ok as far as those lengths are concerned. (I have a few long names in the Location field, but that wasn't mentioned there.) As for the write time, that's actually about what I figured - it won't be instantaneous, but at least I'm reasonably sure it won't go on for days. (My original import from iPhoto took 17 hours!)

Similar Messages

Writing GPS Metadata to Masters

There is already an archived discussion that contains an aswer on this subject
Writing IPTC Metadata to Masters and an the answer is given in that thread is to use a plug-in called Maperture Pro.
Unfortunately this plug-in is no longer available. It can still be downloaded (from a number of places) and installed but you cannot get past the registration process as it has been shut down. Therefore I would like to ask the question.
Does anybody know how can I write GPS data (from places) back into my (referenced) masters without exporting them or duplicating the functionality with tools like, the otherwise excellent, exiftool outside of Aperture.
This is really upsetting my workflow.
Thanks, Ian

No, never got an answer to this so I use Houdahgeo for putting in GPS coordinates before import when posible, anoying but workeable.

Work around for writing out metadata to masters?

I am sure that the aperture community has dealt with this before.
Prior to purchasing aperture, I made sure that metadata like captions keywords, etc. could be written back out to the master file. This would allow one to not be held hostage to aperture. With various updates this ability has gone away. The statement from Apple less than a year ago, seems to indicate that aperture will not write metadata back out to the Masters.
Quote: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23784?viewlocale=en_US
By Design: Aperture won't export metadata with RAW masters
Unlike applications such as Photo Mechanic, Aperture does not write IPTC and keywords to the original RAW file. Instead, Aperture stores this information in its library and attaches it when exporting versions in JPEG, TIFF, PSD, or PNG format. If you export the RAW masters, none of your metadata changes will come along with them. Unlike the issues listed above, this feature is by design.
If your goal is to archive RAW files outside of Aperture with metadata attached, you'll need a workaround to this aspect of Aperture's metadata handling. Because Aperture is designed to read added metadata at time of import (despite the current issue described above), the best long term solution (after issues are resolved) will be to add your metadata in Photo Mechanic (or similar) prior to importing them to Aperture and then refrain for the most part from using Aperture's metadata tools. If you don't like that workaround, a secondary workaround is to export JPEG versions to be kept alongside the RAW masters. To save disk space, the JPEG copies could be a minimal size."
I am sure that many community members have encountered this problem. Specifically, I have many slides to scan, so the raw input file is a tiff. Aperture does not support writing metadata to tiffs. And to depend on aperture to write out metadata to any master file is probably setting yourself up for disappointment.
Can the community recommend a way around this?
Thanks

You are referring to a very old document about Aperture 1, clearly marked as 'no longer updated'. Aperture 3 can export IPTC metadata with RAW files. You have the choice of embedding them into the RAW file, or write them in a separate xmp sidecar file. Just choose 'Export Master'. Aperture can also write back metadata into a RAW file without exporting them. Choose 'Metatadata - Write IPTC metadata to original'.

Does "Write IPTC metadata to masters" really modify raw files?

And if it does, how is the integrity of the raw file ensured? Does Aperture use codecs from the camera makers?
Is there a way to force it to use sidecar (.xmp) files? I'm not sure that I want to make that big a break with my existing workflow and the semantics of a raw file (e.g. that raw files are read only).

I'm having the exact same issue. I purchased Aperture recently just so I could edit the metadata on lots of old jpg pictures and scans. Until I upgraded to Lion, it was working well. Now with Lion, I can still edit the metadata, but I cannot write the metadata back to the master. I just spent the last two days filling out the metadata info (primarily Title and Caption), figuring to save to master once I got done with the batch of photos I'm currently working on. I don't want to lose my work.
I'm wondering if I can accomplish the same thing by exporting my updated metadata versions and reimporting them. Might that work? Will I lose/gain anything in the process?

Question Regarding IPTC Metadata

I've migrated my iPhoto library into Aperture for the expanded geotagging and metadata support, and it was exhausting. (I had Keyword Manager for iPhoto, and Aperture didn't preserve my hierarchy of keywords, though it imported everything else beautifully.) Anyway, I'd like to leave myself open to the possibility of switching to a different program if necessary, so I'm wondering what information would carry over. My questions are as follows:
1) In the "Write IPTC Metadata to Masters" option, what exactly gets written - I assume everything under the IPTC core, right? (In particular, I've modified the Country/State/City/Location fields, keywords, comments, creator, and source, and it would be a pain to redo all these for 45,000 pictures.)
2) I presume the aforementioned option only alters the metadata and preserves the original image intact; is this correct? Would there be any repercussions to writing these changes to the masters instead of just keeping them within Aperture's database? It seems a lot of users here insist their originals remain completely untouched.
3) Is there an IPTC standard for hierarchal keywords, or will I have to recreate the keyword structure in any photo management software I use? (I've experimented with a trial version of Lightroom 3, and I don't even see a way to manage keywords in it...)
4) Can face tags be written to the metadata? I assume Aperture has its own proprietary format for tagging faces on the photo, but would there at least be an IPTC standard field in which you could list the people tagged in the photo?
In short, I switched to Aperture because iPhoto's tagging options were inadequate for properly organizing my 45,000 photo library. As I did some research on how to effectively make the transition, I found there was a lot more to this "digital asset management" concept that I realized, and so I'm hoping to get some input from some more experienced users. I'm a real stickler for precision and logic in my organization, and it looks like the IPTC core standard has all the fields I need. Thanks in advance!

Just another update ... I did some experimenting and found that the "Write IPTC Metadata to Masters" command does at least write the fields I mentioned in the original post. (Those were the only ones I changed on the test photo.)
Does anyone know offhand if a manually changed date will get written to the master, or will the file still have its original date? (I could test this too, but if someone knows, then I don't have to.)
Also, most importantly, does the option actually resave the entire master with the updated info, or does it somehow just write the metadata? I ask this because I've read that jpegs lose some data to compression every time they're saved, and I'm wondering if writing those tags will cost the photo some quality.

IPTC metadata behavior with faces

With Aperture 3.5.1, a new behavior has been introduced -- writing the name assigned with Faces into the Keywords.
This is problematic because:
1. It changes the keyword nomenclature and taxonomy
2. It is not implemented correctly.
1. I have already established a keyword taxonomy loosely copying the principal of the BDB keyword:value approach. For example, I have established these keywords:
event
location
family
relative
trip
I then assign keyword to the photo such as:
event:birthday
location:home
family: Mom, family: Dad, family: Bill
Separately of course I can geo-locate the photo, and of course include a caption. In the case of scanned images, the date may also be modified.
In the past, I have used the 'Write IPTC metadata to original; feature to record this data structure within the IPTC structure. Then I can search, sort, and organize the photos, within Aperture or in a third party tool. Some search engines (swish-e for example) can examine IPTC metadata to allow one to automate the searching. [In fact I wrote a filter to do this for swish-e http://search.cpan.org/dist/SWISH-Filter/lib/SWISH/Filters/IPTC2html.pm#AUTHOR].
With its new behavior, Write IPTC Metadata to Original, now modifies the photo to include additional keywords, not in the keyword HUD or taxonomy, and also adds these new keywords to the Keyword HUD list.
This is problematic because it removes control of the keywords from the archivist and it may expose sensitive information, such as the REAL NAME of an individual identified using Faces.
2. The names added by this function to the keyword list are incorrect! In aperture, keywords are separated by commas (',') and then sorted alphabetically (likelyalphanumerically). However names may contain commas. For example, I am a "Junior" and I can write my name as 'Bill, Jr' to distinguish myself from my father. So after writing the IPTC metadata for images that have names assigned, the keyword list is now modified to include 'Bill' and 'Jr.' as new keywords.
Now I understand that IPTC does not include a way of identifying individuals by (x,y) location within the image. Nevertheless there are conventional ways to write captions (left to right, front to back) to identify all individuals. There is no need for Aperture to invent a new convention.
Also, this new feature/bug introduces confusion, as searches for my father must now be structured as 'Bill NOT Jr.' And it add no value to the search process.
Is there a swtich available in aperture to restore the original behavior, that is, write the keywords that have been assigned and DO NOT make up new keywords?

With its new behavior, Write IPTC Metadata to Original, now modifies the photo to include additional keywords, not in the keyword HUD or taxonomy, and also adds these new keywords to the Keyword HUD list.
Not only with "Write IPTC Metadata to Original", also when exporting a version.
Is there a swtich available in aperture to restore the original behavior, that is, write the keywords that have been assigned and DO NOT make up new keywords?
My experiments have shown (for Faces) that this is toggled by the Aperture Preference "Export > Include Face Information into the exported photos". Try, if disabling this preference will stop this for your library. I have not yet tested the similar option for "Places".
2. The names added by this function to the keyword list are incorrect! In aperture, keywords are separated by commas (',') and then sorted alphabetically (likelyalphanumerically).
This is clearly a bug. Submit a bug-report, if you have a Developer account, or use the feedback form:
Apple - Aperture - Feedback

IPTC Metadata Editor with Spellcheck and more

Bridge and Lightroom could benefit from a robust metadata editor. Quality IPTC data is almost as important as the images themselves. Afterall that's how we and our clients will find our valuable images.
Desired Features:
Spellcheck of at least Description and Keyword fields
Thesaurus would be great for creating Keyword sets
More flexible keyword sets to allow more nesting and organizing of similar keywords
Autofill searching of previously used keywords
Desired Functionality:
Must be fast and dependable. Currently Bridge is pretty slow, writing one keyword at a time. This seems to cause Bridge to hang up on itself and spit out corrupt files or not apply metadata to random files among a large selection.
Perhaps it would be better to have the enter all metadata additions and changes at once to all selected files and hit update, append or replace. FotoStation has had a useful interface in which the user can opt to replace and/or append and/or leave alone various metadata fields all at once.
Currently it is difficult to resolve a large selection of files that all should have the same keyword(s) but some already have it. We are forced to first remove the keywords(s) by pressing the minus sign, wait for that to happen and then reenter the keyword(s). This can be painfully slow for a large batch of files. I've often resorted to manually writing a metadata template in Wordpad an appending the template. It needs to be easier than that.

The IPTC metadata needs a large amount of work across all the Adobe product line.
Desired Functions:
(1)The identical fields/names and consistent characteristics across all products that generate end-user files; for example, Audition (audio), Acrobat (PDF), Photoshop (image), video products and so on. Audition 1.5 still carries the RIFF metadata but no IPTC format data. Acrobat 7.0.7 Pro does have some IPTC like data fields but has a major data integrity problem with the Description field data. In Photoshop CS2, I can utilize CR/LF via "Enter" to make the presentation more readable as separate paragraphs or new line items. In the Acrobat "Description" field I can follow the same procedure and all looks good upon entry. I do a Save and then bring up the IPTC Description data (same file) and all the data after the first CR (Enter) is lost! Never received any error or warning message.
(2) I think this pertains mostly to generation of PDF files. Currently, when I generate a PDF document having the same location/file-name that I designate for the "new" file, I appropriately get the warning about the "same name". In addition, give me the option to have the metadata in the "old" file copied to the "new" file.
(3) Publish (at least in the Help function) all the idiosyncracies for each field (e.g., can I not do CR/LF functions?) and the maximum number of characters possible in each field. Please don't reference me to some standard for the information....tell me what the product line supports! In addition, generate warning messages if I do something outside the field support at the time I am entering data in the field. When possible include such information alongside the field window. One example of this is the note below the keyword window about the comma seperator. The problem with this particular comment is that is states "the comma MAY be used as a separator". Don't tell me what MAY be used...tell me what CAN be used (e.g., spaces, semi-colon, etc.).
(4) Major update required in the Help function for metadata. Right now it is very poor and not of much use.

Sort by IPTC Metadata

Many of my photos were digitized with a slide scanner and I have manually assigned them an IPTC Metadata "date created". In Photoshop Express and Bridge, I can sort by this date, which puts all of my photos automatically in chronological order.
It seems that Aperature is too antiquated and will only sort by the Exif "image date", which is the date I scanned the slides, and within this date by file name (random). Am I missing something, or is there no way to sort by the "date created?".
Sad and disappointing if Apple really missed this.

You seem to be leading with your chin a lot in these posts - luckily for you I've used up my quota of jokes and ripostes for today...
If you are using referenced mode for your photos, they're right where you left them in the hard disk and you can open them with whatever you like. If they've been actually imported into Aperture's library (ie managed mode) it's possible but not desirable nor recommended.
If your aperture is suffering from general out of order randomness it sounds like you haven't spent much time setting up the structure to work like you think:
1. What is your general structure for projects?
2. Do you use blue folders to group projects (by location, year, client or whatever)
3. What is your taxonomy for keywording?
Why would you want to want to try to get to the images directly? Aperture is supposed to hide the anarchy of the way you've stored the photos on the disk and allow you to slice and dice to your heart's content. In starting to use Aperture I changed the project and folder structure in it three times in two months, without ever changing the physical location of the files on the disk. To borrow a phrase from lolcat... "ur doign it wrong"
Regards,
Calx

Some missing and corrupt IPTC metadata on export

As a Lightroom user I'm trying Aperture 3, I may be missing something or failing somewhere...
I've imported some RAW files which already have IPTC metadata, captions, copyright, keywords etc. On export the copyright field has corrupted, the symbol © becomes ¬© and a few fields are missing. I don't have a date, rights usage and the image is marked as unknown copyright status.
All of that data (except copyright status) appears in Aperture so I'd expect to see it in an exported JPEG. Everything appears as I expect when making a JPEG from Lightroom.
Thanks for any comments or advice.
DG

Novak Yo wrote:
As a matter of fact, it doesn't export costum filds at all.
By definition, custom fields are non-standard, and therefore aren't included in the exported file as they won't mean anything to other software. This has been the case since Aperture 1.0 and has absolutely nothing to do with other metadata problems.
Your website will likely be reading IPTC tags so if you want the information to be readable you'll have to find some appropriate IPTC tags to store the information in.
Ian

Import images WITHOUT any IPTC metadata

I've been racking by brain trying to work out how to do this, but cannot find a way, I'm sure it's something simple.
When I import my files the keywords are always imported and put into the top of the keyword directory instead of nested in folders I have organised in the keyword HUD. To solve this I have to remove all the new keywords, then import my IPTC metadata using iView Media Pro and the excellent Annoture.
Is there a way to import images without any IPTC data coming with them? I have tried 'Add Metadata From: All IPTC' and had it set to replace and left the fields blank, but this did not work.
Any ideas?

Ok, half way there. I downloaded an app called Pref Setter to edit the preferences by deleting the array strings that I no longer needed.
Also you can adjust the hierarchy of the auto completion data. I found that helpful with the copyright field since they all start off the same.
Need to still find a way to have the data automatically entered from a default setting, with out having to start typing.

Category and Supplemental Category are missing from Photoshop CC 2014 File Info IPTC metadata

Photoshop CC 2014.0.0 is missing the File Info IPTC metadata fields Category and Supplemental Category. Is there a way to restore them? The new interface to all the IPTC fields is much less flexible—they cannot be rearranged or hidden as in Photoshop CC 14.x

Removed from XMP

"Writing XMP Metadata Did Not Complete Successfully" Issue

Hi all,
I've been using Lightroom for a bit now. I'm on V2.5 now. I just did a new system build and so reinstalled Win Vista 32. My photos and XMP files are on a seperate external drive and I saved my catalog file (plus did a backup). When I reinstall Lightroom and did the updates I then copied the old catalog 2 file to the right location. All my pics were there with edits no problem. I've done this several times now when I have had to reinstall the OS for various reasons. Never had an isuse
This time I went back to change some status data on a photo that I took before the reinstall. When I went to update the metadata I get a message that says "Writing XMP Metadata Did Not Complete Successfully". I looked in Bridge and the data did not update. This happens for all my RAW photos that were taken before the reinstall. I can make changes fine but cannot get the XMP to write.
Bridge will not make changes either. I tried changing the star rating and color label and it does nothing.
For files that I have imported after the reinstall it all works fine.
It is like the old XMPs are locked or the programs can't find them. I can see them in the file manager so they are all there.
Any ideas on the problem and how to fix it?

I don't think they are locked. I think Vista is just blocking Lightroom. I went back this morning and deleted a few of the xmp's as you suggested and Lightroom worked fine and wrote the files. Then I thought about the potential lock issue and tried opening Lightroom "As an administrator". When I did that everything worked fine. For some reason Vista won't let lightroom open the older files unless it sees it as the admin. All works fine now. Thanks!!
Glenn

Regarding IPTC Metadata

On Sunday evening I returned from a music festival and want to add IPTC metadata to the 2591 photos I took. I'm adding the data in batches (one batch per band) as not all the information is the same (different bands, different stages etc). In some batches all the data I've typed in is fine... it shows up on every single photo. In other batches only the first or last photo in the batch show the data. On all the other photos the fields are blank. I spent several hours last night adding all this data and watching the "time bar" slowly move across the screen, only to find out that at least 80% of my photos don't have all the information I typed in. I even tried doing the batches again (less the photos that already had the info displaying OK) but nothing! Am I going to have to type in the info individually on some 2300 photos???? What's happening? What am I doing wrong? (Not that I think I'm doing anything wrong as my methodology is the same for each batch of photos, so it should either work on all of them or not work on all of them)

Just looked and "Primary Only" is unchecked. Even if it was checked, how would you explain one batch of 30 odd photos all having the IPTC data I typed in, and the next batch of 50 or so only one?

Error writing XMP metadata

I'm running version 1.4.1 under Vista Home Premium. I have imported several hundred jpegs from my HDD and some of these have a downward arrow at the top right of the thumbnail in Library view. On clicking this, a dialog tells me the metadata has changed in Lightroom and I need to save the changes to disk. On clicking "save"I get an error dialog stating "'Writing XMP metadata' did not complete successfully". I've also tried selecting a whole folder of jpegs, or a batch selected by Keyword, and updating them all at once using the "Metadata - Save metadata to files" menu option, but more often than not there are some photos in the batch that will not write the metadata successfully. I have been unable to detect any pattern to the images "chosen" for rejection. I think they are all pictures that were originally scanned from prints, but so were many others that update successfully. The metadata I am trying to update on them consists of Keywords and Capture dates.
Can anyone suggest how I might get these files to update?

I posted a similar query a little while ago, and judging from the response this was not widespread so I reasoned it was something peculiar to my catalogue.
After extensive testing of my set-up I could find nothing - indeed the XMP data APPEARED to be written fine to the XMP segment of the jpegs, etc. and to the XMP sidecar files for the RAW images - just Lightroom was sure it wasn't OK.
To cut a long story short, I found that I had a spurious and invisible control character in one of my metadata fields. I guess I inserted this character when I was fumbling round the keyboard trying to find the correct key combination for the '©' (copyright) character. Unfortunately I did this when setting my standard metadata template I use on all imports!
When Lightroom writes the XMP data it doesn't write this control character, however the character exists (invisibly to the Lightroom user) in the catalogue database. As a result the file-based and database versions will never match - with manual or automatic syncing - so you (nearly) always get the 'File Metadata needs updating' arrow icon.
To check this out you need to choose an image and remove metadata one field at a time - trying the save between each change. When it saves OK then you have found your culprit and can sort out the rest of the images.
Strictly speaking this is a bug. The interface should show all characters in the database and shouldn't store in the database anything that is invisible in the GUI...

Scripting IPTC metadata in PS CS3

Has anyone else noticed the following problems when using scripts to manipulate IPTC metadata in Photoshop CS3? Found a way around them?
--There appears to be no way to access the following fields in a script:
IPTC Contact: E-Mail(s)
IPTC Contact: Website(s)
IPTC Image, Origin: Date Created (N.B. This does not correspond to DocumentInfo.creationDate, for some reason.)
IPTC Image: Location
IPTC Status: Rights Usage Terms
--Whenever I use a script to manipulate the metadata of ANY field (e.g. title, headline, keywords, etc.), any content in the fields listed above is deleted.
Anyone working on a solution? (That means you, Adobe.)
Thanks,
Andrew Slayman

Paul R.,
Many thanks for the suggestion. Never used BridgeTalk, so that will take some figuring out.
But the situation turns out to be more complicated than I thought. Basically, whenever I run a Photoshop action on a batch of PSD images selected in Bridge, it blitzes the five fields listed above. The action needn't have anything to do with metadata, and as far as I can tell the problem affects only PSDs. (DNGs and TIFFs are certainly okay.) So even if I can figure out how to use BridgeTalk, there may be no data for BridgeTalk to retrieve.
Any idea how one files a bug report around here?
Andrew

Writing IPTC Metadata to Masters

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