IPTC keywords for Canon RAW - Invisible to Aperture?

[gianfri]

I am still learning the ins and outs of IPTC and metadata. I used PM to assign keywords to some Canon Raw files. PM generated an XMP sidecar file for each image. When I import the images into Aperture the keywords are not visible. I know there should be a way to share keywords between the two programs, but I can't find it.

Keywords are visible from the Finder (in the information panel).

Can somebody please help me sort this out? thank you.

Gianfranco

[msbc]

Aperture does not read XMP sidecars 

[Kirk Baker]

Gianfranco,

I am still learning the ins and outs of IPTC and metadata. I used PM to assign keywords to some Canon Raw files. PM generated an XMP sidecar file for each image. When I import the images into Aperture the keywords are not visible. I know there should be a way to share keywords between the two programs, but I can't find it.

Keywords are visible from the Finder (in the information panel).

Can somebody please help me sort this out? thank you.

Try embedding IPTC.  Aperture does not read XMP, embedded or sidecar.

-Kirk

[gianfri]

How do I do that?

[Hayo Baan]

In the preferences you can specify the iptc/xmp behaviour. Set it so that it embeds iptc (and perhaps xmp, if you like).

Hope this helps,
    Hayo

[gianfri]

I had already done that but it does not work. Other MAC applications, including Finder, can see the IPTC keywords embedded in the raw files by PM, but Aperture will ignore them.

[Kirk Baker]

I had already done that but it does not work. Other MAC applications, including Finder, can see the IPTC keywords embedded in the raw files by PM, but Aperture will ignore them.

Have the photos already been imported into Aperture?  If so, look for some feature that causes Aperture to re-read metadata on changed files.  I'd expect Aperture is getting the metadata from its database exclusively since its policy is to never modify files and wouldn't expect them to change.

-Kirk

[gianfri]

No. First I used PM to assign keywords to the raw files. The I verified that files had indeed keywords embedded using the Finder. Then I imported into Aperture, where keywords became invisible.

[ramblinwreck]

If so, look for some feature that causes Aperture to re-read metadata on changed files.

I'm fairly certain this command does not exist in Aperture, but I don't think it is necessary (see below).

I can do what the OP has described for JPGs, but I've never tried this in Raw files (I choose use sidecars for my Raw files rather than embedding directly into the file).

To the O.P. - can you try the same experiment with JPGs? The result would tell us if this is issue specifically with embedded metadata Canon/Raw files, or a general Aperture issue.. (i.e. the experiment should work for embedded metadata in JPGs).

However, for handling JPGs like this, one really nice feature of Aperture that I did not count on is this:

Once I've imported (as a 'referenced' file) an image to Aperture that has been keyworded with PM, not only does Aperture "see" the keywords, but it will update *live* if I make other keyword/metadata changes to the referenced file using PM. This avoids the need to tell the application to "re-read" the file to pick up metadata changes made externally by PM. I've never seen this Aperture behavior described or documented anywhere but it makes my life easier in using Aperture at the back-end of my workflow just for cataloging, and PM/NX2 for everything else. Thought I'd share in case it's useful for any Aperture users out there. It's made Aperture + PM work together better than I had anticipated.

Chris

[gianfri]

You are correct about the dynamic update of JPG files. However, my problem is with raw files. I have hundreds of Canon raw files tagged with keywords by PM and Aperture does not see any of those keywords.

My only solution may be to export all the raw files to JPG just so that I can use the embedded metadata. I was trying to avoid that, of course.