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EXIF/XMP and Automator

superscape

superscape

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 12, 2008
937
223
East Riding of Yorkshire, UK
Hi,

I was wondering whether you photographers use XMP/EXIF metadata much, and if so what for? Do you do much editing of metadata?

A little background: I'm a developer and I have a few Automator actions for working with XMP that I created for my own usage. I was toying with working them up into something good enough for others to use. Not sure if anyone would be interested though!

Any info, thoughts or comments would be appreciated!
 
Give the people on the other side of the pond a chance to wake up. :)

Most people use the exif data to categorize and organize their images. Mostly 'under the hood' using lightroom or similar products.
 
Really. If I post after midnight local time I don't expect a reply until after mid morning. UK is something like 8 hours ahead of me here on the west coast of the US.

In regards to EXIF data, I use it to analyze how I shot a photo. It's useful to see how everything was set if a shot turned out either very good or not so good.

Dale
 
The only things I can come up with (that I have done myself) was these two:

1. Adding GPS coordinates from an external .gpx file to a bunch of photos (I use Photolinker now, and it's quite alright, though a bit overcomplicated).

2. Adding EXIF info to scans made from film. The first roll I shot, I just wrote the shooting data into a note on my phone, and then wanted an app on my Mac to add that in manually. The only app I found that did that was ugly and buggy as hell. Photolinker allows me to see that kind of data, but not to edit it :(. If I shoot more film, I'll try using PhotoExif, an iPhone/Mac app combo that lets you record the data as you shoot and then matches the tags to scanned photos automatically.
 
When I generate the final JPEG from RAW+procession, I include all the EXIF plus my IPTC data (e.g. name, mailing address, date of production, location of production, etc). But recently, I realized that all this metadata takes a surprising amount of file size which is an issue on my website, where a lot of my photos go (as stock). Running jpegoptim with the -s (--strip-all) flag, I'll see lossless reduction in filesize by anywhere from 30 to 45 percent, and this is just stripping metadata.

But rather than exclude metadata when I do the Lightroom RAW -> post-processing -> jpeg export, I'll just use my regular flow.

Then anything that gets uploaded to my blog, I'll run jpegoptim on the server side.
 
What sorts of responses are you looking for? What do the Automator actions you have written do for you? For me, the EXIF data is just a storage file of the image data. i can see adding some specifics to it like gps or resetting date and time, but not much more.

Dale
 
Why would a photographer want to edit the XMP sidecar directly instead of doing it via Aperture, LR, or other photo editing program? What if the XMP is inside a DNG? What if the XMP is inside an Aperture database package?

If the program modifies an XMP file modification, does it prompt the user to make sure they do a Aperture Vault or LR catalog backup to make sure the edit is backed up?
 
MCAsan said:
Why would a photographer want to edit the XMP sidecar directly instead of doing it via Aperture, LR, or other photo editing program? What if the XMP is inside a DNG? What if the XMP is inside an Aperture database package?

If the program modifies an XMP file modification, does it prompt the user to make sure they do a Aperture Vault or LR catalog backup to make sure the edit is backed up?
Click to expand...

That was my thought, too. But every time I say something like "sidecar file" some geek corrects me with a techno-lashing.

Dale
 
Designer Dale said:
What sorts of responses are you looking for? What do the Automator actions you have written do for you? For me, the EXIF data is just a storage file of the image data. i can see adding some specifics to it like gps or resetting date and time, but not much more.

Dale
Click to expand...

Hi,

The Automator action I've written for me is basically a user-friendly wrapper around exiftool (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/).

I guess for photographers there may not be a huge need to read/write meta data. I suppose you wouldn't want to edit the GPS, exposure or whatever particularly often.

I work in the graphic design and printing industry and metadata (in the form of XMP) is often used to route files through workflows, log the history of the job etc.

I suppose maybe I'm asking in the wrong forum. ;-)

----------

Thanks for all for their thoughts, by the way!
 
superscape said:
Hi,

The Automator action I've written for me is basically a user-friendly wrapper around exiftool (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/).

I guess for photographers there may not be a huge need to read/write meta data. I suppose you wouldn't want to edit the GPS, exposure or whatever particularly often.

I work in the graphic design and printing industry and metadata (in the form of XMP) is often used to route files through workflows, log the history of the job etc.

I suppose maybe I'm asking in the wrong forum. ;-)

----------

Thanks for all for their thoughts, by the way!
Click to expand...

I never got into design on a professional level but I have training and now know what you're talking about. Try over in Design and Graphics they may find your stuff helpful.

Dale
 
superscape said:
Hi,

The Automator action I've written for me is basically a user-friendly wrapper around exiftool (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/).

I guess for photographers there may not be a huge need to read/write meta data. I suppose you wouldn't want to edit the GPS, exposure or whatever particularly often.

I work in the graphic design and printing industry and metadata (in the form of XMP) is often used to route files through workflows, log the history of the job etc.

I suppose maybe I'm asking in the wrong forum. ;-)

----------

Thanks for all for their thoughts, by the way!
Click to expand...

I run a Photo group and this is what I need because -- I want to prepare a slide show that includes photo details such as aperture/ shutter speed/ ISO/ focal length used in the page details to help the discussion. Getting it into the paste buffer helps a lot.

Thanks
 
superscape said:
Hi,

I was wondering whether you photographers use XMP/EXIF metadata much, and if so what for? Do you do much editing of metadata?

A little background: I'm a developer and I have a few Automator actions for working with XMP that I created for my own usage. I was toying with working them up into something good enough for others to use. Not sure if anyone would be interested though!

Any info, thoughts or comments would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

I use a script to add EXIF metadata (lens name, f no., focal length) to images that I've taken with my totally manual Samyang T/S lens. I run the script in Capture One on import to addd this data. I'm sure there is more info that could be added but I'm lazy...Essentially a wrapper around ExifTool like you describe. I'd certainly like to see a better version than mine!
 
I'm not sure if it can do much batch changing of exif, but Graphic Converter at least provides for a GUI for many exiftool operations—basically you can add or alter most anything, copy from IPTC or XMP and back, and so on.

There's a plugin for Lightroom, LensTagger, that makes adding lens info pretty easy, and you can save various lenses as templates for reuse.
 
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robgendreau said:
There's a plugin for Lightroom, LensTagger, that makes adding lens info pretty easy, and you can save various lenses as templates for reuse.
Click to expand...
I'll second this. I use it very regularly for all my manual lenses, the templates make it super easy to apply.
 
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