# Seeking photo captioning overlay software



## Cuzzinbrucie (Jul 9, 2017)

The LR Print function has a rudimentary method of placing metadata field content on the border of a photo. I need something more robust. I am looking for recommendations for software that will allow me to overlay a translucent background/bubble on the photo and then overlay the background with the caption itself.

1) Caption content can be derived from one or more populated metadata fields or entered from scratch.
2) Ability to vary caption size, font, and color.
3) Ability to vary caption background location, shape, color, and transparency.

Thank you.


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Jul 10, 2017)

You have the CC subscription, so I presume you have Photoshop.
You can do magic overlays with Photoshop, so you have all the software you need!

1. From Lightroom- Select your 'Background' photo and the "Bubble" image, then "Edit in Photoshop as Layers"
2. In Photoshop-Resize & locate the 'Bubble" to suit with {Free Transform   CTRL+T}
3. In Photoshop- {Menu > File Info}  Select (highlight) the Metadata you want and CTRL+C to copy it to the clip-board
4. Open the 'Text' tool 'T', drag a text box, CTRL+V to paste the metadata info into the box.

My Image is four parts- 
a) Horse is the Photo, 
b) Film is the 'Bubble' image (PNG with transparency), 
c) Free-hand 'Text' layer within the 'bubble' - type anything, apply Blending options for effects 'fx'
d) 'Text' Layer containing Keywords, copied from the File Info. (Use fx again if wanted)


----------



## Cuzzinbrucie (Jul 14, 2017)

I-See-Light: I haven't tried your suggestion yet as it didn't appear to match what I had in mind. I realize my specs were rather vague. Attached is an example of what I'm looking for. Notice the translucent oval background behind the caption itself. The image is a photograph of a frame from a Google Picasa slideshow.


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Jul 15, 2017)

The layers in Photoshop are incredibly adaptable to whatever you want.
The 'oval translucent background' can simply be a layer with a paint filled marquee selection, or a brush stroke, etc, etc, and set to low opacity.
You can have any number of text layers with all font and style options.
One of those text layers can contain the Photo Info (Filename, Keywords, date etc, etc) simply copied and pasted.

So your method steps would be-
1. From Lightroom open the photo in Photoshop {"Edit In" from Lightroom}  [ Ctrl+e ]
2. Press [Shift+Ctrl+N]  for a new translucent layer- name it "Text Frame"
3. Draw the text background frame with any tools available, a Brush, or a marquee selection and Bucket fill. Shape Tool is great for this. Lower the Opacity of this layer.
4. Select- Menu > File > File Info.  or [Alt+Shift+Ctrl+i ]  Select and copy [Ctrl+c] the metadata you want on the photo- 
5. Press [ t ] for the text tool and paste [ Ctrl+v ] the file info,  set font, size, position, etc
6. 'Save' the layered file. (You may have to Synchronize the folder in Lr to see the new image beside the original)


----------



## Jim Wilde (Jul 15, 2017)

The LR/Mogrify2 plug-in allows something similar to be applied during export, and allows some of the metadata tokens to be used as a text overlay (or type your own). The only thing it can't do is the bubble effect, as in reality it adds a border (internal or external) which has an opacity slider, which means it's the full width (or height) of the image:


----------



## Cuzzinbrucie (Jul 15, 2017)

I-See-Light said:


> The layers in Photoshop are incredibly adaptable to whatever you want.
> The 'oval translucent background' can simply be a layer with a paint filled marquee selection, or a brush stroke, etc, etc, and set to low opacity.
> You can have any number of text layers with all font and style options.
> One of those text layers can contain the Photo Info (Filename, Keywords, date etc, etc) simply copied and pasted.
> ...



Please forgive my stubborn resistance to learning PS. Having retired from 35 years as a software programmer/analyst I no longer have an interest in learning new software if I can find a turnkey method of accomplishing something. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to give me a step by step approach. By way of thanking you I will follow your steps just to see how it works.


----------



## Cuzzinbrucie (Jul 15, 2017)

Jim Wilde said:


> The LR/Mogrify2 plug-in allows something similar to be applied during export, and allows some of the metadata tokens to be used as a text overlay (or type your own). The only thing it can't do is the bubble effect, as in reality it adds a border (internal or external) which has an opacity slider, which means it's the full width (or height) of the image:
> 
> View attachment 9592


Gonna add this plugin right away and try it. I only mentioned wanting bubble effect is because the example I had used it. The opacity slider will certainly suffice for my needs. Thanks.


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Jul 16, 2017)

Yeah Brucie- Photoshop is a monster! lots to learn, and I read many Lr users like Mogrify.
So I hope you can get the design you would like from whatever you use.
I have used Ps for many years but still only know 5%, but 'Old Dogs' (like me) can still learn a few tricks.


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Aug 13, 2017)

The weirdest thing! I received an email from Lightroom Forums with a link to a post by Cuzzinbrucie, but the post (12/8/2017) does not appear in the forum that I can find anywhere whatsoever ?????
Here is the text copied-

_Just finished installing plugin LR/Mogrify 2. I think I understand that this plugin works in conjunction with Export. I went to module Web and clicked Export. I don't see where Mogrify comes into play. Is there help somewhere explaining how to use Mogrify from within LR?
_
TTBOMK - Mogrify is a "file export' plug-in,  not used with Web page creation.
It is added to the last panel of the Export dialog in the Post-Processing section.
See the help for Mogrify at:
LR/Mogrify 2 - Add Watermarks, Border and Text Annotions to Images Exported by Adobe Lightroom 2


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Aug 13, 2017)

The message was deleted by Cuzzanbrucie a couple of minutes after posting.


----------

