IPTC data fields

[audreypo]

I am new to Photo Mechanic.  I shoot my daughter's team's sporting events (track), and am wondering how best to use the fields in IPTC Stationery Pad to include the name of the event (e.g., State Championship); the name of the specific race  (e.g., the mile, the 4x800m, the 400m, etc.); and also the name/s of any teammates who are in the photo.  Any suggestions?  Would I use the caption for any of this, or just the "Database" section? 

The manual and online help really don't go into details on using the IPTC Stationery Pad.  I don't know what half of the fields are for...for example, "Category", Keywords, Edit Status, the "+" and box after the word "Caption" on uper right, Headline, Special INstructions, Transmission Reference...

I'd appreciate any guidance you can give!
Thanks,
Audrey

[FVlcek]

Hello Audrey, on using the IPTC fields, these are industry standard in newspapers and agencies, not something Photomechanic invented You can look them up elsewhere, I suggest you read this website, it has some pretty good tips on how to caption your images. Probably your needs differ from e.g. newspaper/agency photographers, but that site should give you some understanding of it anyway:

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/iptc_naa.html

Frantisek

[Kevin M. Cox]

Good link Frantisek. Additionally here are the descriptions used by the Associated Press: http://www.ap.org/apserver/userguide/codes.htm

[vAfotoriporter]

This AP code sheet is great, but not all the news agencies use the same standard as AP. Does anyone know similar code sheets of different organisations?