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Search by autor name: the IPTC data "signature" is not recognized by the search tool

New Here ,
Jun 21, 2021 Jun 21, 2021

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I try to filter my huge data base by autor name. Since the field was empty, I updated the IPTC data "signature" inside PSE 2020. The right data are now stored in the files, I can see them as metadata within PSE or Windows. But they are not are recognized by the search tool.

I tried anotherway and filled the IPTC data with Windows BEFORE importing the file in PSE 2020. It works fine, the autor name is recognized by the search tool. But that works only for new files.

Is there a way to update the autor name properly AFTER importing the file in PSE 2020? Who can help me?

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Community Expert ,
Jun 21, 2021 Jun 21, 2021

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Is there a way to update the autor name properly AFTER importing the file in PSE 2020? Who can help me?


By @rened89253009

Select your thumbnails, right click and choose 'update thumbnails'. That updates the database from the files themselves. Now you can search from your catalog.

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New Here ,
Jun 21, 2021 Jun 21, 2021

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Great!!! It works perfectly. Thanks a lot for your help; it not obvious to find the right command.

I tried before the menu Ctrl+W (enreg. metadonnees/metadata in the french version) and it didn't work, no update of the database.  "Update Thumbnails" does the job.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 21, 2021 Jun 21, 2021

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Great!!! It works perfectly. Thanks a lot for your help; it not obvious to find the right command.

I tried before the menu Ctrl+W (enreg. metadonnees/metadata in the french version) and it didn't work, no update of the database.  "Update Thumbnails" does the job.


By @rened89253009

 

I think that there are two different worlds which don't meet much:

- Pro and advanced amateurs sharing their work on photo sharing sites or image banks. For them, accurate description and tagging is important, especially IPTC tagging and writing metadata to files;

- most family or scrapbooking users who find the organizer catalog is the most powerful tool for their own library: freedom of organization, very fast searches.

 

I am in the second category. As such, in 21 years of digital photography, it never occured to me to use IPTC to tag by "authors".  The need was there from the beginning, the solution as simple as creating my own custom "Auteurs" tag.

I have always 'written metadata to files' as an additional safety and a way to share with other softwares. Not only third-party ones, but other Adobe ones and older catalog versions which are not backward compatible.

 

As I see it, Adobe is not interested in providing organizing tools to PSE apart from the catalog itself. In your example, you can see that there are ways to update from and to catalog and file metadata section. They are nowhere documented in details, in particular the 'update thumbnail' feature.

- Ctrl W to write to metadata section

- Update thumbnails to update the catalog from metadata.

I would recommend to users of the first category to use Bridge. Now with PSE2021, the free  'Creative Cloud desktop' platform app is installed automatically (at least for me, others would have to install it themselves). Download the free Bridge and you have a very strong support for metadata management for free.

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Explorer ,
Sep 11, 2021 Sep 11, 2021

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A couple of questions related to this:

I have pictures in my collection that I received from other people, so I like to set the Author name in the metadata so that I know who took each of them.  But, in Elements Organizer (2021), there does not seem to be any easy way to identify photos that do not have an Author defined.  I've tried doing Find > Find by Details (Metadata) > Author.  I can find existing authors, but I've tried leaving the it blank, but it won't even execute the search that way.  I've also tried putting in " " or ' ', but that doesn't find anything.  I've looked in Bridge and can't figure out a way to do it there either.

Also, is there a way to have Organizer automatically write data to the files (like in Lightroom), or do you have to manually do a CTL+W every time?  I honestly don't see why you would ever NOT want the metadata written to the file.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 12, 2021 Sep 12, 2021

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Also, is there a way to have Organizer automatically write data to the files (like in Lightroom), or do you have to manually do a CTL+W every time?  I honestly don't see why you would ever NOT want the metadata written to the file.


By @yoodlethenoodle

 

No, and for me that would be a horrible default choice. The main idea of using a catalog is to speed up searches and grouping.

Just a situation based on your other request: Finding all items ".NOT. in [your own criteria]". When the organizer has no such function ready, it's often necessary to use a workaround and to assign a temporary keyword for the items matching the criteria. Even with a big library like mine (over 100 000 items) the organizer can perfectly assign, select and finally remove the temporary keyword in a couple of minutes. Imagine the time needed by non cataloged managing softwares to write the keyword into each file or xmp sidecar and to remove it afterward.

So, while it's sensible to write all metadata to files for other purposes: sharing with other people or adding a safety level, setting the option by default would prevent you to take advantage of the speed of the catalog, and in more situations than what you can imagine. Just write the metadata when you choose and by intelligent batches.

As I wrote in my other post, I think that the whole idea of the IPTC sharing solution is not the good one for the normal family and friends sharing, neither is the highly hierachical structure of keywords. There are too many inconsistencies in the way software and camera companies manage those 'standards' as is clearly visible in this forum.

It's not only a difference in your purpose: sharing or managing personally your library, it's also a personal frame of mind for organization. Some rely on their memory, others on associations... Some are happy with a catalog, others want to see 'where' each item is cleanly 'stored'...

To be happy with the organizer and the current lack of common understanding of standards, you'll have to admit that many of your shared metadata are stored in several spaces of the IPTC, several places in the Exif etc.

The Windows Explorer is not the best tool.

The normal keywords and the captions are the most easily shared data. You won't be able to search a big library by reading it entirely for an IPTC field. On the other hand, you'll find in seconds all the files having a word or even a substring of a word included in a catalog caption. Best advice: use meaningful and rich captions as much as you can. Ideal for you, but also when sharing with other people. Captions are the items which are best recognized by most softwares.

 

 

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Explorer ,
Sep 12, 2021 Sep 12, 2021

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Thank you for the explanation, @MichelBParis, it makes sense.  I guess I was thinking that the data would still be in the database for searches and such, but would only be written out to the files when it was changed/updated.

quoteFinding all items ".NOT. in [your own criteria]". When the organizer has no such function ready, it's often necessary to use a workaround and to assign a temporary keyword for the items matching the criteria.

By @MichelBParis


Are you saying to use a temporary keyword to somehow identify photos that don't have an author?  Oh, I think I see what you're saying... give it a keyword tag (like NoAuthor), and then search for specific authors, (John Doe), and then remove the tag for all the photos where John Doe is assigned as the author and then whittle it down that way?  Am I following your logic correctly?  I think that could work for me.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 13, 2021 Sep 13, 2021

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My idea was mainly that using temporary keywords is often useful, just like using 'saved searches', which are not saved in the files metadata section.

Authors.jpg

 

As you can see in the above screenshot, here is how I can search for empty 'Auteurs = authors'.

I have a specific author hierarchy with all the people contributing to my catalog. Clicking the 'Auteurs' box selects 20 000 items from 100 000 in one minute. On the third line, the 'Option' opens a contextual menu allowing to show all 'non matching' files (= without author). The same contextual menu allows me to save the search for ulterior use. The files with 'auteur' will display and I'll only need to use the option to show 'non matches'. I could also add a (temporary) keyword to the 'non matches'.

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Explorer ,
Sep 13, 2021 Sep 13, 2021

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Ahhhh.... I see, you're doing the Authors as tags.  I was stuck on using the authors metadata field, but doing the authors as tags is probably much easier.  I will give that a shot.  Thank you so much!

 

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Explorer ,
Sep 13, 2021 Sep 13, 2021

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I tried this, but either I'm doing something wrong, or it's just not working the way I was understanding.  I created a new keyword category called "Authors" and created a keyword tag with my name name under that category.  Then, I assigned that tag to all of the photos I knew that I took (I was easily able to find those by doing a Find > Find by Details (Metadata) > Author, and then assigned the tag to those photos).  I think filtered by that tag, and it showed just those photos.  But, when I do the Options > Show results that do not match, it is still showing the pictures with my author tag, plus others.  Actually, it looks like it's now just showing ALL the files.  What am I doing wrong?

SearchByAuthor.JPG

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Community Expert ,
Sep 14, 2021 Sep 14, 2021

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Your screenshot shows what is wrong in your case: you should have ticked the 'author' checkbox, which would have also ticked the subcategories.

When dealing with categoty hierarchies like this, the upper level is not applied nor written to each file of that category.  If you do CtrlW, you'll write only the tag for the author, not the 'author' tag. That 'author' tag is recognized in the catalog internal virtual organization but the catalog when you search for it, and it will find all the appropriate authors.

You may want to also add the word 'Author' as a normal tag as well as the precise author name; then you'll get a warning letting you choose to have the same tag for a tag and a subcategory.

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Explorer ,
Sep 14, 2021 Sep 14, 2021

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Thanks again, @MichelBParis, but that still isn't working for me.  When I check the "Author", it correctly filters by just the pictures that I have tagged with me as the author.  But, when I select "Show results that don't match", it once again shows me everything, including the pictures where I'm tagged as the author.

 

I see what you mean about it only showing the author name in the file when you do a CTL+W .  That worries me now, because how will it differentiate that name from facial tags if you pull the file into another program?  I think I may just use a different program to set the author in the metadata.  I hate having to flip between multiple programs to do what I want, but it seems like my only choice.

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