File naming and Extended IPTC field questions

[Denis]

I am a sports photographer and currently evaluating Photo Mechanic to improve my workflow.  I have a couple of questions right now:

1) One of my client requires that the files I deliver be named using YYMMDD_###_AthleteLastName_Copyright.  How would you recommend I do this?

2) I looked into the manual (didn't read all of it yet so I might have missed it), but I didn't see any support for the extended IPTC fields (like PersonInImage).  Did I miss it?  If not, is it coming? When?

3) Adding new fields.  I use Phil Harvey excellent ExifTool right now and it allows to create user defined tags.  I am not using this extensively right now, but I have thought about a few scenarios where that could be useful (store information about an Athlete for example).  I don't think that Photo Mechanic support the creation of user defined tag, but if there are defined in the file, will I be able to manipulate them?

Thanks.

[Kirk Baker]

Denis,

I am a sports photographer and currently evaluating Photo Mechanic to improve my workflow.  I have a couple of questions right now:

1) One of my client requires that the files I deliver be named using YYMMDD_###_AthleteLastName_Copyright.  How would you recommend I do this?

You would either rename during Ingest or by using the Rename dialog later.  Photo Mechanic has a large selection of '{variables}' that can be used to rename in a large variety of ways.  I'm not sure what '###' means in your example, but the following would evaluate to the date format you've chosen:

{year2}{month2}{day2}

I'm also not sure quite what you want for 'AthleteLastName' or 'Copyright' either.  If you put the athlete's last name in some IPTC field you could use a variable to look it up for renaming purposes.  If by 'Copyright' you mean the value of the Copyright IPTC field, you can use '{copy}' to get its value, however it is likely that it wouldn't make for a suitable portion of a filename string (the Copyright field often has punctuation in it.)

2) I looked into the manual (didn't read all of it yet so I might have missed it), but I didn't see any support for the extended IPTC fields (like PersonInImage).  Did I miss it?  If not, is it coming? When?

They do not exist yet.  They will be implemented at some point, but I don't know in what version they will be added.

3) Adding new fields.  I use Phil Harvey excellent ExifTool right now and it allows to create user defined tags.  I am not using this extensively right now, but I have thought about a few scenarios where that could be useful (store information about an Athlete for example).  I don't think that Photo Mechanic support the creation of user defined tag, but if there are defined in the file, will I be able to manipulate them?

No.  PM does not support any custom IPTC/XMP fields.

-Kirk

[Denis]

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the renaming, I should have made things a little clearer:

- I understand that I can extract the Year / Month / Day from the IPTC field and that's great.
- By XXX I meant a sequence number, which I know is definitively possible with PM.

For the AthleteLastName, here is a little more info:

I plan to use the Code Replacement feature to define players full names (first and last, maybe with their jersey numbers, I need to play with it) to help with captioning.  So somewhere I'll have defined a code like "CB23 Michael Jordan" for example.  Then I can use it to caption an image: "\CB23\ scoring another 3 pointer".

Now, I could envision using the advance code replacement by creating a "CB23 Michael Jordan <tab> Michael <tab>Jordan" and using \CB23#3\ code that would give me the last name.  But I didn't see anywhere that the codes would work for renaming files.

If code replacement does not work for renaming files, it looks like I need to find an "unused" IPTC field, stuff the last name (using code replacement) for each photo and then use that IPTC field for file renaming then.

Does it make sense?

[Kirk Baker]

Denis,

Regarding the renaming, I should have made things a little clearer:

- I understand that I can extract the Year / Month / Day from the IPTC field and that's great.
- By XXX I meant a sequence number, which I know is definitively possible with PM.

Yes, use {seqn} and use the 'Set {seqn}' button to setup your sequence number pattern (like 0001).

For the AthleteLastName, here is a little more info:

I plan to use the Code Replacement feature to define players full names (first and last, maybe with their jersey numbers, I need to play with it) to help with captioning.  So somewhere I'll have defined a code like "CB23 Michael Jordan" for example.  Then I can use it to caption an image: "\CB23\ scoring another 3 pointer".

Now, I could envision using the advance code replacement by creating a "CB23 Michael Jordan <tab> Michael <tab>Jordan" and using \CB23#3\ code that would give me the last name.  But I didn't see anywhere that the codes would work for renaming files.

If code replacement does not work for renaming files, it looks like I need to find an "unused" IPTC field, stuff the last name (using code replacement) for each photo and then use that IPTC field for file renaming then.

Does it make sense?

Code Replacement works interactively when renaming files which means that it is going to expand as you type it.  You're going to have to stash the value in some field like Edit Status.  You should then be able to make your renaming string like so:

{year2}{month0}{day0}_{seqn}_\{editstatus}#3\_{copy}

Just put CB23 into the Edit Status field and then you can use it for a variety of things like putting the full name into Keywords: \{editstatus}\

Later on you could clear out the Edit Status field by applying an IPTC Stationery Pad that sets Edit Status to an empty field.

HTH,

-Kirk