Not Storing Name of Photographer in Metadata on Export

[gstockton]

I have a small problem.  In lightroom classic MetaData I enable the Creator field and type my name. I want any pictures I provide to my company to be tagged.  However, when I look at the metadata on the file, it says Content Creator: Created by Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.5 (Macintosh).

I don't see a Creator field when I look at file properties.  So I am not sure how I can get my name tagged on my pictures. Can anyone help me to understand how to do it properly in Lightroom Classic?

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

First, the Content Creator field in macOS Finder is not the same as the IPTC Creator field. Content Creator might be macOS only, and it definitely refers to the software application (not the person) that created the file. So it’s important not to confuse the two similarly named fields.

In Lightroom Classic, the IPTC Creator field is defintely exported, at least in my testing, but only if, in the Metadata section Include menu, you select any of the options that start with the word All.

 

If you choose Copyright or Copyright & Contact Info Only, the Creator field will not be included. Those options are designed to suppress almost all other metadata for those who want to keep that info private, only providing notice about who has the image rights and how to contact them.

So, if the macOS Finder won’t show you the Creator field, but you’re sure you exported correctly, how can you verify it? The problem with a macOS Finder window is that it only reports a small subset of the metadata fields, and Creator isn’t one of them. However, Apple Preview will show more IPTC field values such as Creator, if you choose Tools > Show Inspector and then click the More Info (i) tab as shown in the picture below.

I entered “Creator field” into the Creator field in Lightroom Classic as an obvious value that wouldn’t be confused with anything else, then exported, then viewed the export in both macOS Finder and Apple Preview. When I export using one of the “All…” metadata options, Preview displays the Creator field value, and macOS Finder does not.

I often use Adobe Bridge for inspecting and verifying metadata in images, because its Metadata panel provides full viewing and also editing of IPTC metadata fields as Lightroom Classic does, as shown in the picture below. Bridge also confirms that the Creator field was included in the export by Lightroom Classic. There are other Mac apps that also provide detailed inspection of metadata fields, such as GraphicConverter.

[gstockton]

Thank you for helping me understand how this works. I was able to follow your info and determine how to correctly populate the metadata content on my pictures. Thank you.