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Inspiring
March 11, 2013
Open for Voting

P: Expand searchable metadata fields

  • March 11, 2013
  • 24 replies
  • 1417 views

For many photographers the IPTC Extended fields play a big role in organizing and finding images. Therefore it is crucial that this information is searchable. But neither the Text filter nor the Metadata list filter make use of this metadata. This should be implemented since not being able to use IPTC Extended metadata within Lightroom is a big disadvantage.

    24 replies

    E
    emptyBan
    Participant
    October 25, 2024

    There are too many missing items when sorting by metadata. For example, the ability to list by Exposure Bias, Brightness Value, Metering Mode, and many other metadata records is not supported. Since Lightroom Classic is the best tool for managing large volumes (tens or hundreds of thousands) of data, I believe it needs a feature that allows for very detailed categorization.

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      June 12, 2024

      [This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

       

      @Carlos TF: "not being able to search for Headline is painful"

       

      The criterion Searchable IPTC searches the Headline field:

       

       

      Carlos TF
      Carlos TF
      Participant
      June 12, 2024

      It's been 11 years now, and Lr hasn't yet provided a solution for this. I use metadata fields to set up Smart Collections, and not being able to search for Headline is painful and forces me to use Extended Description as an alternative, which is absolutely wrong. The person that designed the search on metadata didn't put much effort on this...

      F
      fnl6116609
      Participant
      May 10, 2022

      Hi,


      I understand that if you have photos that were assigned people / face tags in another application (like Picasa, gallery, etc.) that they aren't keyworded in the way Lightroom also keywords face tags. But, my issue is that Lightroom doesn't have any filter or search function for the people fields, which is a problem.


      I have a bunch of photos with the XMP "Person in Image" field filled out (as well as the face regions marked and tagged and Lightroom can read those), and I want Lightroom to be able to fully use this field and consider it a searchable text field so I can search and filter and create smart collections. Right now I have to use an outside application to read this info and filter on it and if I'm going to keep paying for Lightroom I'd like it to be able to do all of the normal things so I don't have to keep using multiple pieces of software.


      Any plans for this?

      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      May 10, 2022

      LR displays XMP:PersonInImage in the Metadata panel's IPT Extension tagset. For example, this photo's XMP:

         <Iptc4xmpExt:PersonInImage>
    <rdf:Bag>
     <rdf:li>John</rdf:li>
     <rdf:li>Jane</rdf:li>
    </rdf:Bag>

       

      gets displayed in the Metadata panel as:

       

      Unfortunately, LR doesn't allow any of the IPTC Extension fields to be searched:

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-expand-searchable-metadata-fields/idi-p/12249129

       

      As a workaround, you could use the Any Filter plugin to search Person Shown:

       

      But it's not very convenient compared to having it built-in.

       

      I
      ian480
      Participant
      February 23, 2022

      Added thought... one major way I interact with metadata is through Smart Collections. This is another huge place I want/need to see additional searchable metadata compatibilty for my workflow to work... and as I understand them – correct me if I'm wrong – the plug in workarounds don't work with Smart Collections. 

       

      Please add this functionality Lightroom!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I
      ian480
      Participant
      February 23, 2022

      Hello,

       

      I am a delighted customer/user of both Lightroom and Camera Bit's PhotoMechanic. I import photos using PhotoMechanic and apply my keywording and other metadata information there. However, I prefer using Lightroom to edit and view my photos later on. However, this system is really empaired by the inability to search for specific information in most metadata fields... right now Adobe only offers the options of searching in Filename, Title, Caption, and Keywords. Using Person's Shown is absolutely critical to my workflow, and I'd also really benfit from being able to search other metadata fields such as Event, Job Title, Headline, etc. 

       

      I know this request has shown up elsewhere in this community already – and I know there are (inelegant) work arounds provided by plug-ins, etc – but I feel this subject bears repeating. Adding this functionality would HUGELY improve the efficiency of my & other's workflow. 

       

      Cheers.

      P
      pasiv56259505
      Participant
      August 22, 2019
      Correct. I referred to Library Filters in my original request title but else was too loosely talking about search.

      I happen to have same names appearing in Source, Creator and People fields which makes it hard to filter out the right photo set with text search.
      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      August 22, 2019
      So to be explicit, you'd like to refer to individual IPTC and IPTC Extension fields in the Library Filter bar's Text search box, in the Metadata browser, and presumably in smart collections as well.  That's a little different than others, who just want to search IPTC Extension fields similar to how they search IPTC fields now, using "Searchable IPTC" in the Text search box.
      P
      pasiv56259505
      Participant
      August 21, 2019
      Yes, I know IPTC fields are searchable, but only as free text search over all IPTC fields. If you happen to have same keywords in multiple IPTC fields, it's useless.

      So my hope is to see more IPTC and IPTC extension fields in the Metadata attributes list.
      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      August 20, 2019
      Fully agreed that the IPTC Extension fields should be searchable.

      Note that Source, IPTC Subject Code, and IPTC Scene Code are not IPTC Extension fields and are searchable.

      As a somewhat inconvenient workaround to search Person Shown or other fields that LR ignores, you could use one of these plugins: Any Filter, Search Replace Transfer, Data Explorer.
      Show more replies
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