# Metadata Fields Explained



## dmschmidt (Oct 11, 2012)

Hello everyone

There is a lot of information out there as to what metadata is, and also lots of info and tutorials about creatuing metadata presets.  One of the most common is copyright info in a preset- obviously as it is perhaps the most important.

Some of the fields are very simple and pretty much self explanatory, while others might be a little ambiguous- especially if they cahnge the viewable information of a photo once it is published- ie; the label or caption fields??

My question is this:  is there somewhere- either on this forum or on the web somewhere, that gives a field by field explanation of each V4.2 metadata preset field-

~ what it means in simple terms
~ when you would use it, in what instance
~ how it will make the image appear on the web (Facebook, FLICKR, other websites

I am trying to develop procedures for our staff as far as entering metadata for images, and I would like to keep a balance between it being comprehensive enough, but also be as simple as possible.

If there is anyone that has come up with a field for field tutorial, I would greatlyu appreciate a link.

Thanks in advance

Michael


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## Mark Sirota (Oct 11, 2012)

Most of the metadata fields are defined in standards -- mostly Exif, IPTC, and XMP.  Those standards are well documented, though the documents can make for somewhat dense reading if you're not used to reading things like that.  Here are some of the official sources:

Exif 2.3
DCF 2.0 (2010)
IPTC-IIM 4.1
IPTC Core 1.0
IPTC Core 1.1 & IPTC Extension 1.1
XMP

And for very helpful information about cases where these standards overlap, see the Guidelines for Handling Image Metadata from the Metadata Working Group.


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## dmschmidt (Oct 11, 2012)

Thank you for the very detailed info Mark.  In all honesty, after looking through about half of the links, my head's starting to hurt.  It really is so very much more technical than what I was hoping for.

Is there any info source out there anywhere that would list the field's in Lightroom's metadata presents, field by field, with instructions on what the field is used for and an example of what to type into those fields?

I am able to find a lot of it in various places, including very informative Youtube videos, but some of it is essentially skipped over as "not necessary" to the person creatuing the video.

Maybe it would be important to me in my daily practise??

Something a lot more clear and straightforward would be much appreciated if anyone can suggest it.

thanks again.

Michael


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## Mark Sirota (Oct 11, 2012)

I don't know of such a thing, but that sounds worthy of a blog post. I suppose I could write one up if someone, perhaps Victoria, would host it...?


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 12, 2012)

Hi Michael, 

The metadata landscape is certainly confusing with multiple competing standards with similar and duplicate information. There are two groups working to standardize the field usage specifically for photography. Adobe is actively supporting these efforts and much of this is reflected in how Lightroom now handles the metadata fields. 

Two sources you my find useful are below.

IPTC Photo Metadata is a subcommittee of the IPTC that is writing standards for photo metadata

The Metadata Working Group is a industry group including Adobe that is working on implementing standards across all platforms.

The bigger problem is that even with this effort many handlers of digital photos still do not even come close to following any standards. This is particularly bad with many of the popular photo sharing services. Facebook still strips off all of your metadata for example. Zenfolio strips all metadata except basic copyright. Flickr does a pretty good job maintaining your metadata but collapses the usage of "Title" and "Headline" and so on. 

I have found that the only way to know for sure what a site does is publish a image with all the fields you think are important and then down load the result from the website and and use a metadata viewer see what happened. The easiest viewer to use to just look the imbedded metadata I have found is Bridge. 

-louie


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 12, 2012)

Mark Sirota said:


> I suppose I could write one up if someone, perhaps Victoria, would host it...?



I'd be really pleased to Mark!  You are the expert when it comes to Metadata!


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## dmschmidt (Oct 13, 2012)

Hi guys

Thank you for the information and suggestions.

Louie:  you said :  Zenfolio strips all metadata except basic copyright.

I would very much appreciate having a more detailed conversation with you specifically about this topic. Maybe we could do it off list via email? Or at least via private message – unless others on the forum would find it interesting as well.

My new employers have decided to host their images specifically on Zenfolio; So your comments are alluding to something that may be a problem for me down the road.  

Please feel free to send me a private message, and we can continue that way, or just let me know and I will send you my email address if you would prefer that.

In regards to the metadata help, I appreciate the suggestions of everyone.

There are 50 different resources out there, including YouTube videos, that are very effective in helping you understand how to fill out 15 fields. Over the last couple of days I've Kind of muddled my way through it after going to site after site. 

I'm still not sure if I really have completely understood a lot of the fields, but I get the gist that some of them are duplicate fields, and some of them are really very press related more so then for a non-press commercial photographer.

I think it would be helpful if there was one tutorial somewhere that would go through lightroom's metadata preset line by line explaining what each field was, and how it would show up if filled in on something like Flickr, Zenfolio, or whatever. So, If someone is willing to do that, I think it would be fantastic.

Thanks again guys, and have a great weekend.

Michael


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 13, 2012)

I'd be interested...


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 13, 2012)

Hi Michael,

Regarding Zenfolio I dug into it about a year ago so my information may be out of date but at the time the stripped most of the metadata out. I have attached a screenshot of the IPTC section of an image I downloaded from my site to see what was being kept in January. 

I know that all my catalog images have more IPTC contact information and IPTC location that was removed when this image was uploaded. One good thing is that they do keep the keywords at least. 

If you do use Zenfolio for selling prints this is not really such a problem. However, if you want to sell digital downloads I think it is problematic. I would want all my IPTC information not just the limited set to be included with any digital products. For that other services are much better. I particularly like PhotoDeck which was created by a photographer for photographers.

-louie


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## dmschmidt (Oct 14, 2012)

Hi Louie

Thanks for the screenshot.  I believe my employers are only using Zenfolio as an image hosting site, so the selling of prints- digital or physical- will never be an issue.

I know with the copyright data, I saw the same thing as your screenshot- that the vast majority of it was stripped away.

As I am still a bit of a novice when it comes to Zenfolio, do you know what else it strips away as far as metadata?  I know that it can't record star ratings.

Is there a better option for image hosting out there?  Is Zenfolio the best if we will never be selling images, but just using it as a database that will most likely only ever be for internal use, and not for public viewing?

Thanks

Michael


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## Mark Sirota (Oct 14, 2012)

dmschmidt said:


> I think it would be helpful if there was one tutorial somewhere that would go through lightroom's metadata preset line by line explaining what each field was, and how it would show up if filled in on something like Flickr, Zenfolio, or whatever. So, If someone is willing to do that, I think it would be fantastic.



I'm working on it.  I'll probably only cover the Basic Info, Camera Info, and standard IPTC sections for the first version -- that's about 35-40 fields, so it'll take me a little while.  Seems to me that those videos that cover "15 fields" are a little short.  IPTC Extension and Video (another 50 or so fields) will have to wait.

I also probably won't cover how those fields are handled by popular photo hosting sites.  If I get into that, it'll take forever.


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## johnbeardy (Oct 14, 2012)

For preservation of metadata on hosting sites, see http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/socialmedia/index.html . This site also contains plenty of other information on metadata.


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## johnbeardy (Oct 14, 2012)

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tceeIYNw8ZDC0N52UgRcgnA&single=true&gid=0&output=html is where the main info is laid out.


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 14, 2012)

Hi John,

Thanks for the information from David Reicks's ControlledVocabulary site. I have not been over there in a while and this is yet another example of his tireless efforts in support of full adoption of photo metadata standards. It is, however, somewhat disappointing to still see how spotty the support is for metadata.

I am traveling right now but I plan use the test image at both Zenfolio and PhotoDeck when I get back home and add that to the results table. 

-louie


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