Extra embedded IPTC info

[danielmiller]

I'm using Photo Mechanic to edit and embed IPTC information into photos that will then be put into a Portfolio database. Portfolio automatically scrubs each file for all the metadata it can find and for some reason the information from the Caption field is always listed twice.

At first I thought the problem was with Portfolio but after examining a hex dump of one of the offending files, the caption info is indeed encoded into the file in two different places.

I tried turning off the "Add IPTC-NAA Resource when embedding IPTC" and choosing to only "add embedded IPTC" but it made no difference.

Why is PM embedding that info twice and is there a way to stop it?

-Dan

Photo Mechanic 4.5.3.1
Apple Mac Pro
OS X 10.5.2

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

I'm using Photo Mechanic to edit and embed IPTC information into photos that will then be put into a Portfolio database. Portfolio automatically scrubs each file for all the metadata it can find and for some reason the information from the Caption field is always listed twice.

At first I thought the problem was with Portfolio but after examining a hex dump of one of the offending files, the caption info is indeed encoded into the file in two different places.

I tried turning off the "Add IPTC-NAA Resource when embedding IPTC" and choosing to only "add embedded IPTC" but it made no difference.

Why is PM embedding that info twice and is there a way to stop it?

It sounds like you're embedding both IPTC and IPTC4XMP.  Normally it is a good thing to embed both, but in this case it is causing you problems.  So change the IPTC/XMP preferences to embed one or the other, but not both.  IPTC is the original standard, IPTC4XMP is the new standard that is far more flexible than IPTC but isn't universally supported yet.

HTH,

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

Thanks for the reply, Kirk.

That was my first thought but I actually tried selecting "add embedded IPTC" instead of embedding both IPTC and IPTC4XMP and it's still embedded twice.

-Dan

[danielmiller]

Do you have any other suggestions?

-Dan

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

Do you have any other suggestions?

Try it with new files that have not been captioned yet.  Files that have both types of data in them will continue to be updated regardless of the setting, otherwise the data would get out of sync which would be another issue you wouldn't want.

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

Dan,

Do you have any other suggestions?

Try it with new files that have not been captioned yet.  Files that have both types of data in them will continue to be updated regardless of the setting, otherwise the data would get out of sync which would be another issue you wouldn't want.

-Kirk

I actually tried it with a scan that was saved as a jpeg so there was as little metadata as possible. No luck.

I even changed the preference in PM, quit and restarted it to be sure the change had taken effect. There were still 2 instances embedded.

Any more ideas?

-Dan

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

Do you have any other suggestions?

Try it with new files that have not been captioned yet.  Files that have both types of data in them will continue to be updated regardless of the setting, otherwise the data would get out of sync which would be another issue you wouldn't want.

I actually tried it with a scan that was saved as a jpeg so there was as little metadata as possible. No luck.

I even changed the preference in PM, quit and restarted it to be sure the change had taken effect. There were still 2 instances embedded.

Any more ideas?

You could send me a file and I'll take a look at it.  But I have other questions...

Is it only the Caption field that this is happening?
Are any other apps like Photoshop being used on the images?

The reason I ask is that Photoshop likes to put the Caption/Description in the EXIF Description tag and Portfolio may be picking up on that.

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

Dan,

Do you have any other suggestions?

Try it with new files that have not been captioned yet.  Files that have both types of data in them will continue to be updated regardless of the setting, otherwise the data would get out of sync which would be another issue you wouldn't want.

I actually tried it with a scan that was saved as a jpeg so there was as little metadata as possible. No luck.

I even changed the preference in PM, quit and restarted it to be sure the change had taken effect. There were still 2 instances embedded.

Any more ideas?

You could send me a file and I'll take a look at it.  But I have other questions...

Is it only the Caption field that this is happening?
Are any other apps like Photoshop being used on the images?

The reason I ask is that Photoshop likes to put the Caption/Description in the EXIF Description tag and Portfolio may be picking up on that.

-Kirk

No, it is occurring in other fields also.
Photoshop was only used to perform the original scan. No manual captioning is being done in Photoshop. No other application is being used on the files aside from BBedit to perform the hex dump.

After closer inspection, the second occurrences are enclosed in tags like <rdf:li> and <photoshop:State> that are apparently being applied by Photo Mechanic.

Please let me know if you'd like me to send some files.

-Dan

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

Do you have any other suggestions?

Try it with new files that have not been captioned yet.  Files that have both types of data in them will continue to be updated regardless of the setting, otherwise the data would get out of sync which would be another issue you wouldn't want.

I actually tried it with a scan that was saved as a jpeg so there was as little metadata as possible. No luck.

I even changed the preference in PM, quit and restarted it to be sure the change had taken effect. There were still 2 instances embedded.

Any more ideas?

You could send me a file and I'll take a look at it.  But I have other questions...

Is it only the Caption field that this is happening?
Are any other apps like Photoshop being used on the images?

The reason I ask is that Photoshop likes to put the Caption/Description in the EXIF Description tag and Portfolio may be picking up on that.

No, it is occurring in other fields also.
Photoshop was only used to perform the original scan. No manual captioning is being done in Photoshop. No other application is being used on the files aside from BBedit to perform the hex dump.

After closer inspection, the second occurrences are enclosed in tags like <rdf:li> and <photoshop:State> that are apparently being applied by Photo Mechanic.

Please let me know if you'd like me to send some files.

Those are XMP fields.  Please post a screenshot of your IPTC/XMP tab of the Photo Mechanic Preferences dialog.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

I really hope I haven't overlooked something obvious.

-Dan

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

I really hope I haven't overlooked something obvious.

What file types are you working with and which types exhibit this problem?

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

Dan,

I really hope I haven't overlooked something obvious.

What file types are you working with and which types exhibit this problem?

-Kirk

Both tiff and jpeg files show this problem on my system.

-Dan

[Kirk Baker]

Dan,

I really hope I haven't overlooked something obvious.

What file types are you working with and which types exhibit this problem?

Both tiff and jpeg files show this problem on my system.

I would try unchecking the "Add IPTC-NAA Resource when embedding IPTC" to start.  I'll have to test on images straight from the camera with your settings to make sure XMP data isn't also being added.  If it is then that is a bug and we'll fix it.

-Kirk

[danielmiller]

Dan,

I really hope I haven't overlooked something obvious.

What file types are you working with and which types exhibit this problem?

Both tiff and jpeg files show this problem on my system.

I would try unchecking the "Add IPTC-NAA Resource when embedding IPTC" to start.  I'll have to test on images straight from the camera with your settings to make sure XMP data isn't also being added.  If it is then that is a bug and we'll fix it.

-Kirk

I've tried that before and again just now on a tiff and there's no difference.

-Dan