Batching Metadata
- This topic has 19 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Jul 30, 2009 at 3:39 pm by
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How can I batch a bunch of images to easily add metadata info like copyright, contact info, etc for each file.
This probably won’t help you much, but it’s easy to do in Photo Mechanic – a very good, out and out photo editing programme. I select the ones I want to add keywords to etc., and then press CTRL+I, fill out the form and click OK. All added to the files I have selected. Keywording my images takes very little time.
As far as I know, images are not degraded by adding Keywords etc. Anybody else know more ?
Today was a slow day so ive been metatagging some pictures in Lightroom (first time) and that worked fantastic. Select the pictures you want to tag, press sync metadata and fill in the textboxes.
Re finding pictures and sorting the out in youre libray is then real easy.
Not that this helps you much with your current software but maybe it’s worth to try the trail.
Olle
Yeah, Lightroom is not the cheapest alternative I am looking for ;D Think FREE… haha Seriously, some day I may upgrade, but the two programs I mentioned do everything I need right now, except for batch metadata >:( I already have things categorized on my computer, so not sure if I would like what Lightroom does in that respect, since I have heard several others say they don’t. But, I haven’t tried it yet, so I should probably do that before forming any opinions… Lightroom is cheap compared to full fledged photo shop which I probably will not see for a LONG time.
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a version of Elements but I believe the new version includes some sort of browser like Bridge in Photoshop.
I checked out the websites for Photo Mechanic and Lightroom just now. I am curious what the advantages or differences are on each and people’s likes and dislikes.
I know some people say they don’t like the way Lightroom tries to re organize their files….does it not give you control over this? Can you explain this a little more.
Lightroom seems to be pretty sweet from what I read about it. Sounds like it will do pretty much everything from import and RAW file management to photo editing like curves, batch processing recipes, batch metadata tagging, and more.
Does Photo Mechanic do the same things as Lightroom for 1/2 the price?
If I do the free trial on Lightroom, will it rename and jack my current filing system?
No it will not John. You can choose what LR will do with youre pics on import, what it does do is create a link in the LR library to the files you imported so you can find then quickly.
I always choose to relocate the files from my SD card to a directory on my harddrive but you could choose to let them stay where they are.
Photo Mechanic is purely an editing/viewing programme, and as such, it is lightening fast at doing this (it will not process RAW files) – if it helps, my current workflow in my home office is this :
1. Import RAW files into Photo Mechanic from my Compact Flash cards
2. View, edit, keyword and then rename RAW files to suit my own filing system – very easy and quick in Photo Mechanic (I do the first two steps only when I am away on a trip, using a small laptop, and then back up to portable external hard drives every night)
3. Select the exact RAW files I want to process into JPEGs in Photo Mechanic and move them to a separate folder
4. Import this separate folder into Lightroom – I have started using this over ACR now as I now see that I can simply import the file I want to, work with it, and then get rid of it in Lightroom but of course have it backed up my way on hard drives etc. (I still hate that Lightroom always wants to try and create a database for me, but I have learnt how to live with this !!)
5. Do my RAW processing in Lightroom, usually with simple presets I have created for different lighting situations etc. – the reason I do as much as I can in Photo Mechanic is because I find it much faster than Lightroom for editing work – all I want Lightroom to do is to process my RAW files as well as possible – I find it much faster to ask LR to work with the minimal number of RAW files as possible.
6. Export my RAW files out of Lightroom (into a folder I have created) as unsharpened RGB JPEGs at 100% and 300dpi
7. Run batch commands via Photoshop to presharp and sharpen the JPEGs (plus any other “stuff” to make them dance) – Photoshop is great for dustspotting etc., but I am starting to use Lightroom more for this as well
8. Run batch commands on the finished JPEGs to create small, low res sRGB JPEGs that I use for samples for clients, my website, blog etc.
9. Then save and back everything up – RAW files, JPEGs, small JPEGsOver the years it has become a way of working that is really fast and efficient for me. Hope it might be of some use…..
Thanks guys. Great explanation Henry – thanks for sharing your workflow.
Sounds like the cheapest route would be to get Photo Mechanic for $150, which would allow me to do the batch keywording, adding copyright, and meteadata info. Sounds like I could use this in conjunction with my current system of Canon DPP for my RAW processing, and then Elements for fine tuning sharpening with unsharp mask.
Sounds like Light Room would do everything I need well, and would not leave me lacking in any area.
I think it does to but i’m far from a pro 🙂
Henry i don’t want to say youre work flow is not right but aren’t you doing some things with multiple programs wich could’t be done by one? Nothing wrong offcourse with what programs one prefers but LR can import, backup, batch…… and sharpen anything anyway you want i think. For sharpening you say you export to sharpen them in PS but i thought LR usses the same rendering engine so there should be no quality difference.
And no i’m not a salesman from Adobe 🙂
Yes, point taken, but my workflow is all about trying to get images in and out as fast as possible – I know Lightroom in theory does the lot, but it does not do the lot at much speed, in fact I find it “hanging” a fair amount. Same as with ACR – I really like the RAW processing “engines” within these bits of software, but I don’t like asking these programmes to do my editing, keywording, sharpening etc. I also have various actions in Photoshop that I simply can not replicate in Lightroom. Perhaps in time this programme will evolve to be the only thing I use, but not at the moment.
Granted, Lightroom I am sure works just fine with a lower volume of photos.
Photo Mechanic works so well and fast because it is only trying to be one thing – an editing programme. Many photographers might well not need a specialist programme such as this, but I find myself dealing a lot of the time with large numbers of images/big files, and I can’t find anything more efficient than Photo Mechanic – yet………
There are a couple of things I do to make LR work faster for my workflow, which during this time of year is edit wedding shoots from around 900 images down to 200-250 followed by processing, all of which is now done in LR.
That also means you need a 64 bit xp or vista Kurt. The deleting of youre non starred images can you do this as a batch, i looked for such a function yesterday but could not find it. Deleted the images i wanted by manual selecting.
Henry are you running the 2.4 version? Some hanging problems were fixed in this as i remember from reading the changelog.
Yes, I am running LR 2.4 here – much faster than the first generation LR 1.0 that I played with when it first came out and discarded straight away because it was so slow. I got a free copy from Adobe because I was one of the people who had bought RawShooter Premium before Adobe bought it – if only all RAW processors were as fast as RSP was !!! I upgraded to LR 2.4 the other day after messing around with the 30 day trial for a bit.
Since I am running PCs here, perhaps Windows 7 in 64 bit will give LR a boost in the near future ? My wife has Vista on her laptop and I am not going near it.
I guess we all get used to a particular way of working and then tend to stick with it – but I am always looking at anything that can speed my workflow up. Always interested to hear how other people are doing it………
Olle, yeah you can only take advantage of 64 bit if you’re running the newer hardware too. As for batch deleting: once everything is rated go up to the edit menu and drop down to the select by rating and pick whatever you want from the fly out menu (one star, no star, etc), then hit delete (you’ll probably be prompted to decide if you want to delete from catalogue or the hard disk).
Ok so you do have to give them a rating. What i wanted to do was delete all unrated, flagged or collored. To bad you can’t do that. It feels natural to me you just want to rate what you like and those you dislike don’t deserve any rating and can be deleted. But that is also just my opinion.
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