Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Metadata in Affinity Photo (split)


Recommended Posts

I believe I have the same problem. I'll describe it and let you judge.

Using: AP Windows 10; AP 1.8.3; JPG files only

Using Windows File Manager with "Details Pane" on, I see file data (metadata) in many family photos that I believe was added with Google Picasa years ago.

With file opened in AP none of this info is displayed in Metadata view.  If I add data to Metadata in AP and export file (JPG) and now use File Manager to view "Details" most of data is there but is sometimes in different categories, i.e., Description converts to Subject. This conversion issue is of little concern. Re-entering all data or not being able to view data while in AP is a problem.

Question#1: Is there a work-around? 

Question #2: Are there plans to have AP import data FROM JPG files?

Update (prior to posting)

It appears this is a data labeling issue; "Date Taken" is imported in EXIP as "Date Shot"; "Camera maker" as "Maker"; "Camera Model" as "Camera"

"Tags" is imported in FILE as "Keywords"; "Rating" is imported as "Rating"; "Authors" as "Author"

The important fields "Title"; "Comments" and "Subject" are ignored.

Thanks,

Bill Carey

 

Chevy 1954.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

@BillCar

I have split this post from that thread, as I do not think it is caused by the same thing. Hope that is OK. Just to make sure that we are not dealing with data stripping by the forum code, please can you zip up some of your image files and attach the zip to a new post here in this thread. Thank a lot.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, BillCar said:

Question#1: Is there a work-around? 

The metadata that I believe you're hoping can be displayed in Affinity Photo (1954 Chevolet Power Blue White top, White leather, Powerglide) is stored in the image's IPTC Caption-Abstract field. (Probably because Google/Picasa thought that would be a good place for it.)

This is referred to as "Description" by Windows Explorer (and MacOS Finder). But for whatever reason, Affinity Photo does not display this particular field, even in the IPTC section of the Metadata panel:

1763730492_Screenshot2020-04-20at20_48_18.png.bc2eeabc51174a027dc954909f97a0a3.png

 

It doesn't appear in the default "EXIF" section of the Metadata Panel along with Camera, Date Taken etc because it's not part of the image's EXIF metadata. And it has nothing to do with the fact that the original image is a .jpg.

It can be displayed and edited in other applications: for example Photoshop  (which if memory serves can display full IPTC caption information) and Photo Supreme:

819552553_Screenshot2020-04-20at20_53_43.png.0e017b480ed74080dc68b96770e7f101.png

 

Unless and until Serif add full (rather than limited) IPTC metadata display to Affinity Photo, one possible workround would be to use a dedicated metadata editor to copy the metadata from the Caption-Abstract field to one of the IPTC fields that Photo does display (possibly Scenes?)

The fastest and most powerful is the command-line metadata editor ExifTool (Windows and Mac). 

ExifTool has a very steep learning curve, but I think it would do the job. I'm going to give it a try with the image you uploaded. I may be some time...

 

 

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

@h_d Affinity Photo does support the IPTC Core fields, both in their original IIM guise and when given in the XMP IptcCore namespace. Per the standard, IIM Caption/Abstract should be turned into XMP IptcCore.Description, then can become XMP dc:description for export. (The Windows "Properties" dialog is capable of populating from the latter; it amalgamates from a few different data sources for that dialog.) XMP is used internally (mostly).

It looks like the IIM->XMP step may not be happening properly here. ExifTool also does not seem to perform this step when it emits XMP; this surprises me too.

@BillCar Thanks for your report; I'll take a look at whether we can do a bit better with the output of Picasa.

N.B. The submitted image file has no Camera maker/model metadata, nor tags or keywords. While there are some naming/terminology differences to some other software, this is somewhat unavoidable with all the variations out there in the world of metadata, and we've tried to find a balance between common sense and following the standards there. Naming differences don't by-and-large affect whether we can import/export metadata fields though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks @Tom Lachecki, that's interesting. In testing, I believe I've found that populating any of the IPTC Core fields in Affinity Photo (eg adding a Credit) has the effect of deleting pre-existing IPTC fields in the image.

For example, the OP's uploaded image has "1954 Chevolet Power Blue White top, White leather, Powerglide" in the IPTC Caption Abstract field (readable with ExifTool). If I open the image in Affinity Photo and populate the IPTC Credit field, then save and close the image, the Caption Abstract field is no longer visible when the image is run through Exiftool, or (as "Description") in the MacOS Finder information panel:
 

A few screenshots to illustrate. Before editing in Affinity Photo:

1747764048_Screenshot2020-04-20at22_27_04.png.08f0e9f75371d3529896bc3129429dcb.png

(the "Description" information is also displayed as "Caption-Abstract" in ExifTool.)

 

After populating the IPTC Credit field in Affinity Photo:

2015355298_Screenshot2020-04-20at22_28_14.png.7b8cb5dac568c18b922a40295a198eda.png

Update the Finder Info panel:

266568691_Screenshot2020-04-20at22_29_09.png.69586c937f69fd92d86fb0eccd8cadfd.png

The 'Description' metadata is now missing from "More info", and the corresponding 'Caption-Abstract' tag is also missing when the file is run through ExifTool. The crucial metadata appears to have been deleted, although my newly created IPTC Credit field is visible in ExifTool.

Not sure if I should file a bug?

Cheers,

H

 

 

 

 


 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Note to N.B.

I may have sent earlier version of jpg file. Here is zip file where I tried different fields to see where they would be imported.

Here is correlation:

File Manager               AP Metadata

Date Taken                  EXIP>Date Shot

Tags                             FILE>Keywords

Rating                         FILE>Rating

Dimensions                 EXIP>Size

Size                             (nothing)

Title                             (nothing)

Authors                       FILE>Author

Comments                   (nothing)

Camera Maker            EXIF>Maker

Camera model             EXIF>Camera

Subject                         (nothing)

Date created                (nothing)

Date modified             (nothing)

Only two fields onder FILE tab.

 

Chevy 1954 Ver2.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, BillCar said:

I tried different fields to see where they would be imported

With that image, I can see a lot more info in Affinity Photo if I choose the File tab in the Metadata panel:

286917672_Screenshot2020-04-20at22_56_54.png.c31c679d3d1200493c7a12673f633745.png

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Tom Lachecki said:

there seems to be an issue with reading in the Caption-Abstract IIM field from the original image

My point was that populating one of the Core IPTC fields in Affinity Photo actually deletes the Caption-Abstract field when the image is saved. This is observable when viewing the image data in MacOS Finder and in ExifTool, and doesn't seem to me to be a good thing.

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

@h_d We don't delete fields when populating Core IPTC fields. At present, there is a problem reading the Caption-Abstract IIM field in the first place. It is not part of your document. That's why you don't see it when you save/export. Thanks for your report and look out for a fix in a future version!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I see @Tom Lachecki.  Affinity Photo can't read Caption-Abstract, so it doesn't write it back to the document on save. From a user perspective that's pretty much the same as deleting it - the metadata is lost.

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Tom Lachecki said:

At present, there is a problem reading the Caption-Abstract IIM field in the first place. It is not part of your document. That's why you don't see it when you save/export.

I do not know if this is in any way relevant, but I thought I would mention it in case it is:

I opened the Image018.jpg from the unzipped Chevy 1954.zip file in XnViewMP on my Mac, & used that app's "Edit IPTC/XMP..." option to display the "1954 Chevolet Power Blue White top, White leather, Powerglide" field in its Caption tab.

Without editing that text in any way, I then clicked the "Write" button. Since the text was already there & unchanged, I did not expect that to have any effect. However, when I then opened the file in AP, in the Metadata > File panel, this is what it showed:

7448342_metadataFile.jpg.0eb0fb67c6f200bf59cf4786738e0cec.jpg

So somehow, using XnViewMP as a sort of 'preprocessor' to rewrite the Caption-Abstract IIM field to the jpg enabled AP to interpret it as <dc:description field> metadata  ... or something.

Edited by R C-R
added the <dc:description> part

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would guess that XNViewMP is copying the data from the IPTC Caption-Abstract field to an equivalent XMP field, and that Affinity Photo is reading and displaying the XMP. According to the very poorly referenced Wikipedia article on IPTC/IIM:

Quote

..most image manipulation programs keep the XMP and non-XMP IPTC attributes synchronized.

It would be interesting to run your updated file through ExifTool. 

(Digging the mask btw @R C-R. I can't find one to fit my face :/.)

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, h_d said:

I would guess that XNViewMP is copying the data from the IPTC Caption-Abstract field to an equivalent XMP field, and that Affinity Photo is reading and displaying the XMP.

FWIW, in AP in the Metadata > RAW section, it is the <dc:description> field. I think the "dc" stands for Dublin Core.

5 hours ago, h_d said:

It would be interesting to run your updated file through ExifTool. 

XnViewMP can display ExifTool info. After using its Write button on the original Image018.jpg, it shows this:

2073860240_ExifToolinfo.jpg.889d937b804764196a68ad566ba6dc02.jpg

So it writes/copies the IPTC-IIM Caption-Abstract field to the XMP Description one.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW, I have doing a bit of research on existing standards for inclusion, conversion, creation, & deletion of image metadata. The closest thing I have found to a definitive source is https://web.archive.org/web/20120131102845/http://www.metadataworkinggroup.org/pdf/mwg_guidance.pdf, a Wayback Machine archive of a Metadata Working Group publication from 2010. The title is "Guidelines For Handling Image Metadata," identified as Version 2.0 from November 2010. (If there is later version, I can't find it via a web search.)

It is a formidable, 73 page highly technical article, worth reading all of it only if you are into that sort of thing, but for their relevance to this discussion the Venn diagrams on pages 21 & 22, & section 5.2 Description on page 36 are maybe worth a look. The gist of it is that description, caption, abstract, & user comment are basically the same thing but can be stored & labeled in one or more different formats.

From what I can tell (which may be wildly incorrect) AP is to the extent possible compliant with all these guidelines.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.