IPTC data Copyright and Author issue - Bridge writes metadata to xmp and not the image

[Saint.112]

Hi all

I've been using Replace Metadata in the Tools menu to fill the Copyright and Author IPTC fields with my name but then I realized that:

• the fields are empty in other applications,
• if the .xmp file is not present it's not displayed in Bridge.

Therefore what the the tool does is filling the information into the .xmp file instead of into the image metadata. What the heck is the purpose of this feature? How to fix that?

TIA

Nick

{Thread renamed by moderator}

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for reaching out to us! Could you please let us know the version of Adobe Bridge you're working with?

Also, the Metadata information is stored using the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) standard, on which Adobe Bridge, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop are built. Adjustments made to images with Photoshop Camera Raw are stored as XMP metadata. XMP is built on XML, and in most cases the metadata is stored in the file. If it isn’t possible to store the information in the file, metadata is stored in a separate file called a sidecar file. Please have a look at this article to know more about this: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/bridge/using/metadata-adobe-bridge.html

I hope this helps.
Regards,
Sahil

[Saint.112]

Hi Sahil

Thanks for your quick reply. 🙂

My version is 6.3.1.186

I am under Mac OS 10.9.5

I have been using Photoshop Elements and ACR for several years. I understand the adjustements made with ACR may be stored in the sidecar file although at the time I chose to have them stored in the file itself. Those data are proprietary and concern the image itself.

The current issue is totally different. It's about the standard public IPTC metadata that need to be stored in the file so that they can be transfered and published with the relevant information.

If I can't use the batch tool to store Copyright and Author in the file so they can be seen by everybody it's just useless to me. Do I have to edit them manually?

Nick

[Saint.112]

Hi

I just did a test: I edited manually the Author and Copyright fields in the IPTC data and as a result:

• a new .xmp file was created
• if I remove it the data disappear.

Therefore there is no way to edit the IPTC content within the file with Bridge, right? Data are stored separately in the sidecar, period.

Nick

[Lumigraphics]

What kind of files are these?

[Saint.112]

They are mostly RAW (DNG, CR2, ARW) and also JPG, TIFF, etc.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, Which version of Camera Raw are you using?

[Saint.112]

I don't use Photoshop Element anymore so I don't use ACR either.

Let's get back to the issue. Is it a hard policy with Adobe to store the IPTC data in the xmp file and not in the image file, in which case I'll have to look for another soft from a different vendor, or is there a way to do it the standard way?

Nick

[Lumigraphics]

RAW files cannot store most metadata without using a sidecar file. This is a technical limitation of RAW files, there is nothing Adobe can do about it.

[Saint.112]

So the International Press Telecommunications Council created a set of standard, plain text format metadata for all sorts of documents (images and media types) to be embedded in the file header for the user to store information about the file… and decided they would not be editable! Smart!

I had a Canon camera with a feature allowing to enter the Author field. It was very convenient.

OTOH, EXIF data are not supposed to be edited since they store information about the way the shot was taken, yet since it's just plain text some programs are able to make them editable. IMHO it doesn't make sense but it's just to show that any kind of plain text data is editable.

So if Adobe's softs don't edit the IPTC data in the file it's because they decided not to, not because it's impossible.

Too bad. Sigh!

Nick

[Lumigraphics · Accepted solution]

RAW files are proprietary and typically cannot be edited once created. This is how it works for ALL software. If you want to make metadata changes, either use a sidecar file, an application database, or save to a non-RAW format.