IPTC data from Fotostation and other programs

[Oceanwatcher]

I have tried to find an overview of different programs and the IPTC fields they use. But could not find any good ones. If you know one, let me know.

In the meantime, I took one of my pics and added all fields with the name of the fields. So if you open this pic in another program, you will know the corresponding field in the other program. Would be nice to have this from other program too.

Just open your program, go to the place where you enter IPTC data and type the name of the field in the corresponding field. It is also nice if you enter the name of the program. So if the field is called caption, I entered "Fotostation - Caption" in that field.

Fotostation has 20 custom fields in addition to the standard ones, but I guess they will not show up in other programs. Probably black metadata.

The datefields are not easy to enter any text in. So the oldest date is the picture date and the latest date is the release date.

Maybe it would be possible to make an Excel file that show the corresponding fields between programs. Including EE.

[jgrove]

I am no IPTC expert, but i dropped using Fotostation as it never seemed to record IPTC data properly.

I use Photo Mechanic (camerbits.com)
and
Extensis Portfolio 7

PM captions to the correct standards and Portfolio will read and write the same data as well. I have never used any custom fields outside of portfolio becuase of compatibiltiy problems.

[Oceanwatcher]

I am no IPTC expert, but i dropped using Fotostation as it never seemed to record IPTC data properly.

I use Photo Mechanic (camerbits.com)
and
Extensis Portfolio 7

PM captions to the correct standards and Portfolio will read and write the same data as well. I have never used any custom fields outside of portfolio becuase of compatibiltiy problems.

I have never had any problems with IPTC data. Actually, it would surprise me if there are any since a lot of major newspapers use it.

I never use the custom fields, but have added info in them just for this exercise.

Try saving the pic I attached and open it in your apps. Then see what you can read of the data I put in.

[jgrove]

I have never had any problems with IPTC data. Actually, it would surprise me if there are any since a lot of major newspapers use it.

I never use the custom fields, but have added info in them just for this exercise.

Try saving the pic I attached and open it in your apps. Then see what you can read of the data I put in.

I can read all the IPTC data fine in Photo Mechanic.

[Oceanwatcher]

I can read all the IPTC data fine in Photo Mechanic.

Do the fields have the same names?

[LesE]

I have recently submitted some photos to a stock agency and have found that their use of IPTC fields doesn't correspond to Photoshop CS so I had to do some research to make sure I was putting information into the correct fields for the agency to read.

I downloaded your picture and tested it in the programs I have that can read IPTC and found the following (Fotostation headers first):

PHOTOSHOP CS

Object Name --> Document Title
Byline --> Author
Caption --> Description
Caption Writer --> Description Writer
Keywords --> Keywords
Copyright String --> Copyright Notice
Supplemental Category --> Supplemental Categories

Byline Title doesn't show anywhere

Everything under Origin maps to same fields

BREEZE BROWSER

Everything is the same

IMATCH

Everything is the same

PIXVUE

Object Name --> Title
Byline --> Author
Byline Title --> Author's Position
Caption --> Description
Caption Writer --> Description Writer
Keywords --> Keywords
Copyright String --> Copyright Notice
Supplemental Category --> Supplemental Categories

Everything under Origin maps to same fields

From what I can gather from www.iptc.org (although I haven't looked into it in depth) is that Adobe came up with a new specification for IPTC display in 2001 which is used in Photoshop 7 and CS and is the current implementation. It looks, therefore, as if Photoshop CS and Pixvue are using the latest version of IPTC whilst Fotostation, Breeze Browser, IMatch and Photoshop pre-version 7 are using the original (and now outdated) specification.

[Oceanwatcher]

Very interesting!

Thank you very much. It is a lot easier to do this when poeple work together :-)

The big question now is what fields do EE use where?

[LesE]

Gets a bit complicated but the fields EE uses are in the INPUT folder in file PHOTODATA_iptc.php (use a text editor to check) where the original IPTC fields are assigned to variables. These seem to then be interpreted (or re-assigned) in the file PHOTODATA_datahandler.php. Where they go from there I haven't yet discovered!

The good news from your point of view is that EE seems to use the same headings as Fotostation.

[Oceanwatcher]

I will try to investigate a little here.

Would be nice if we had a setting where we could choose the mapping of fields in EE.

Maybe Pekka can tell us more what will happen here in EE?

[ArtM]

Irfan Viewer - Identical
Note Urgency says 5
& Jpeg Comment says exactly
File written by Adobe Photoshop¨ 4.0

Photothumb - Same, except
Urgency is translated from '5' to 'normal'
Keywords & Supplementary Category translates each
WORD as a SEPERATE ITEM, e.g.
'Fotostation'
'-'
'Keywords'

and

'Fotostation'
'-'
'Supplemental'
'Category'

The JPEG comment shows exactly as
'File written by Adobe Photoshop¨ 4.0

I previously determined that EE translates
IPTC Object Name -> EE Photo Title/Header at top of pic
IPTC Caption -> EE Text Caption under pic
IPTC Categories -> EE Categories

As I've mentioned before, I would like to see EE provide a user 'mapping' technique for each IPTC & Jpeg Comment into EE fields, on a Gallery by Gallery basis. This is because sometimes the IPTC fields get misused on setup by the user in any one stream/gallery of pics.

- Art

[wibbly]

This may help you

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/iptc_core_mapped.pdf

Note the new IPTC 'Core' spec. You can get custom panels for CS, but no other software seems to support the new extra fields yet. These would be useful - especially contact details and location. Now why on earth wasn't location in there before? Oh well.

John

[ArtM]

This may help you

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/iptc_core_mapped.pdf

Note the new IPTC 'Core' spec. You can get custom panels for CS, but no other software seems to support the new extra fields yet. These would be useful - especially contact details and location. Now why on earth wasn't location in there before? Oh well.

John


And the CATEGORY & SUPPLEMENTAL CATEGORIES are 'deprecated' - slated for obsolescence !!!

EE is currently using those fields!!

I guess this means that if one is encoding photos now, only use the KEYWORDS fields.

Does the site mentioned above reflect the views of the decision makers on the IPTC encoding structure?


- Art

[wibbly]

So the request becomes for EE to support any XMP field that's found, I guess...

John