Edit Exif Data, Add Metadata, Ratings, Keywords and other iPhoto Q's.

[KettyKrueger]

Hi All,

With the release of iLife 09, it has inspired me to properly organise my photos. Not wanting to leave the tagging duties to iPhoto, is there an application or applications that I can use to edit exif data (no terminal please! (I just need to correct the date on a few scanned pictures)), add keywords and other metadata BEFORE importing into iPhoto.

I've been using Google Earth and Geotagger to handle the geo-duties and that works fine.

I know all these things can be done in iPhoto but I'm under the impression that iPhoto doesn't write the data to the file, which will be annoying in a few years time when I may move my library.

I suppose I could do all my edits in iPhoto and export? But that's not an ideal solution.

Also, if I make some edits in iPhoto (say, add more saturation, red-eye removal and a bit of touching up), then export the file, will this deteriote the quality of the picture in anyway? I'm wondering whether to trash my original files after editing, it can be a space hog to keep my originals.

Thanks in advance.

 

[chrisli75]

I'n not sure about the first question

I don't think it will "deteriote the quality" if you save it as tiff. Also iPhoto keeps your originals and Edited photos it's in Library.

 

[KettyKrueger]

I'n not sure about the first question

I don't think it will "deteriote the quality" if you save it as tiff. Also iPhoto keeps your originals and Edited photos it's in Library.

As a .tiff? So converting from jpeg to .tiff will preserve the quality? Interesting.

 

[andyloc]

Hi All,

With the release of iLife 09, it has inspired me to properly organise my photos. Not wanting to leave the tagging duties to iPhoto, is there an application or applications that I can use to edit exif data (no terminal please! (I just need to correct the date on a few scanned pictures)), add keywords and other metadata BEFORE importing into iPhoto.

I've been using Google Earth and Geotagger to handle the geo-duties and that works fine.

I know all these things can be done in iPhoto but I'm under the impression that iPhoto doesn't write the data to the file, which will be annoying in a few years time when I may move my library.

I suppose I could do all my edits in iPhoto and export? But that's not an ideal solution.

Also, if I make some edits in iPhoto (say, add more saturation, red-eye removal and a bit of touching up), then export the file, will this deteriote the quality of the picture in anyway? I'm wondering whether to trash my original files after editing, it can be a space hog to keep my originals.

Thanks in advance.

Im trying the same, I've been testing (I suggest you try and confirm too)

I dont have a Geo tagger camera, so a pic has to be manually tagged in places in iPhoto 09, once it is, you can then do a file>export and tick location and keywords, and this then writes to the Exif data.

I then opened a free exif viewer, and also tried picasa, it showed the L/L in exif viewer and keywords, in Picasa it showed the L/L

import a few pics and try it in iPhoto

 

[KettyKrueger]

Im trying the same, I've been testing (I suggest you try and confirm too)

I dont have a Geo tagger camera, so a pic has to be manually tagged in places in iPhoto 09, once it is, you can then do a file>export and tick location and keywords, and this then writes to the Exif data.

I then opened a free exif viewer, and also tried picasa, it showed the L/L in exif viewer and keywords, in Picasa it showed the L/L

import a few pics and try it in iPhoto

Not sure what L/L means. Which free exif viewer did you use? So Picasa can edit exif info?

 

[chrisli75]

Not sure what L/L means. Which free exif viewer did you use? So Picasa can edit exif info?

Yes, Tiff is lossless Compression.

(I think L/L mean longitude and latitude.)

"Preview" has a nice Exif Viewer.
Just Open the Photo and press ⌘+I and click on the icon with the speech bubble.

Edit: Tiff is not compatible with all programs and devices. D:

 

[KettyKrueger]

Im trying the same, I've been testing (I suggest you try and confirm too)

I dont have a Geo tagger camera, so a pic has to be manually tagged in places in iPhoto 09, once it is, you can then do a file>export and tick location and keywords, and this then writes to the Exif data.

I then opened a free exif viewer, and also tried picasa, it showed the L/L in exif viewer and keywords, in Picasa it showed the L/L

import a few pics and try it in iPhoto

Oh sorry, I mis-reread your thread. You make all your changes with iPhoto then export and check the metadata with Picasa. Gotcha.

I'm probably going to do this then, am I correct in thinking that if I start my iPhoto library afresh, import all my original photos (I keep them in a separate away from iPhoto), make all my edits (saturation, touch ups, keywords, ratings, geotagging, correct dates and times) then export them, I will NOT loose any quality? The 'export' tool doesn't degrade the quality in any way does it?

I guess if I do this method, my iPhoto library will be much smaller because I won't have a 'Modified' folder because all my edits will have been made already. I think I'll still keep a folder of originals.

In fact, I may import my originals, then add some metadata, export, re-import, then make my edits (such as saturation, touch ups, red-eye removal, etc).

That sounds like a plan to me. Anyone notice any flaws in my plan?


Side note; .tiff is lossless? So if I export all my pics to .tiff I should perserve the quality? Wouldn't this be like converting an .mp3 to a .wav though? Seems a bit pointless.

 

[chrisli75]

I don't really care how I export my photos but another idea is to export JPEG at maximum quality.

 

[KettyKrueger]

I don't really care how I export my photos but another idea is to export JPEG at maximum quality.

Yes, I just hope 'maximum quality' means no further compression.

I have tried this before and there was only a few bytes or kilobyes difference (negligible on a 3.3MB file). In fact, if makes perfect sense if you are removing something from a picture. So I think it does export without compression but I just wanted confirmation.

 

[KettyKrueger]

Riddle me this...

I added a rating, keywords and description to a 3.3MB photo. Exported using 'JPEG, Maximum Quality, Included Location, Title and Keywords, Full Size' and the exported file is now 5.5MB!!

Now I'm confused!

 

[bartzumbari]

I wouldn't use iPhoto for keywording...

The reason the file size grew is you saved it to a higher quality jpeg than the original. In this case "higher quality" just means the new file is doing a very good job of preserving all the artifacts in the original image and then not adding very much degradation of its own. Exporting to tiff is okay except the file size will be quite large.

That sounds like a cumbersome workflow--importing images, tagging, then exporting to another file. Which copy is your "main" copy? The original in your iPhoto database or the new copy that has keywords embedded in it? What if you need to add some more metadata in 6 months? You need a workflow where you can add tags/titles/captions at any time without having to go through some periodic export process.

I think iPhoto is only good for creating specific projects--slideshows, photobooks, etc.. It's not very good for organizing simply because it doesn't embed the metadata into the original image file. Too bad, because that'd make the face recognition feature much more useful if it did.

Picasa does put the keywords into the IPTC metadata of the file itself, so I think that's a better choice for organizing if you want something free. The keywords entered in Picasa will show up in iPhoto if you do import the images to iPhoto.

Bart

 

[KettyKrueger]

Cheers for that.

Picasa seems like the obvious choice, shame I just spent £70 for iPhoto '09! (well, I wanted iMovie '09 too). Will Picasa create a new copy of the photo if I'm simply adding ratings, keywords, etc?

Why is photo management so complicated?!

Put simply, all I want to do is:

1 - Import my pics from my camera (using Image Capture)
2 - Add keywords, locations (don't mind using Geotagger for this), ratings, etc. into the file iteself (take note iPhoto!)
3 - Import into iPhoto for touch-ups, saturatisation and viewing.

Seems simple, but stage 2 is giving me a headache. I read that Photo Mechanic can do stage 2 but it's $135 (which is about £110 these days) and seems major overkill to just tag my pictures with no quality loss. There's a got to be a free or cheaper alternative.

Help!

Thanks for the comments so far.

 

[bartzumbari]

Cheers for that.

Picasa seems like the obvious choice, shame I just spent £70 for iPhoto '09! (well, I wanted iMovie '09 too). Will Picasa create a new copy of the photo if I'm simply adding ratings, keywords, etc?

Why is photo management so complicated?!

Put simply, all I want to do is:

1 - Import my pics from my camera (using Image Capture)
2 - Add keywords, locations (don't mind using Geotagger for this), ratings, etc. into the file iteself (take note iPhoto!)
3 - Import into iPhoto for touch-ups, saturatisation and viewing.

Seems simple, but stage 2 is giving me a headache. I read that Photo Mechanic can do stage 2 but it's $135 (which is about £110 these days) and seems major overkill to just tag my pictures with no quality loss. There's a got to be a free or cheaper alternative.

Help!

Thanks for the comments so far.

Actually, Picasa can handle that entire workflow--importing from camera, keywords and other metadata, and touch-ups. And because it's using standard IPTC metadata in the photo, Spotlight can search the data as well. It'll also handle videos right along side photos.

Personally, I will eventually get iLife 09 because I want the updated slideshow and GPS mapping features. I currently do organizing, tagging, and editing completely outside of iPhoto, then I export images to iPhoto to create slideshows. I use Adobe Bridge/Photoshop for this, but Picasa is what I recommend to people who don't want to spring for Adobe tools.

It's a dang shame iPhoto doesn't tag the images directly. Given that we already have Spotlight for instantaneous database driven organization, I don't see the benefit of iPhoto also keeping a database of keywords.

Bart

 

[andyloc]

It's a dang shame iPhoto doesn't tag the images directly. Given that we already have Spotlight for instantaneous database driven organization, I don't see the benefit of iPhoto also keeping a database of keywords.
Bart

What do you mean not directly? I thought it did as I put some keywords in a pic, exported it then checked in picassa and exit viewer and preview and the keywords were there?

Can you explain/confirm what you mean please.

Cheers

 

[KettyKrueger]

What do you mean not directly? I thought it did as I put some keywords in a pic, exported it then checked in picassa and exit viewer and preview and the keywords were there?

Can you explain/confirm what you mean please.

Cheers

I think you need to export first though for the data to be embedded.

 

[PixelRebel]

iPhoto '09 strips exif tags?

I'm getting this response my my site's users. Can anyone confirm this is happening? This was a bug in the early versions of iPhoto '08 and was recently fixed. I can't yet confirm, but they may have broken it again!

 

[NicoArgMad]

and what about captions?

I have thousands of photos beautifully tagged in picassa with geo tag and captions. It took like forever to do it to my photo collection.

The thing is that when I import to iPhoto, it doesn't get it!
iPhoto 08 imported the caption but into the description field.
iPhoto 09 doesn't import it at all.

Does anyone knows how to get it right? Maybe a script?

Thanks!