Searching by keywords in PM 6

[shop@therothschilds.com]

Hi,

I am a long time customer of PM, I just bought PM6 but I am still using PM5 because I really need to be able to search using the metadata that I have in my photos.

I have a very large archive with hundreds of thousands of images, in a large number of folders.  There is extensive metadata in both the keywords and caption fields.  I need to be able to pull up photos the way that I have always done it in PM5 - that is, by just using the search window and putting the results in a new contact sheet.

I understand that this function was removed in PM6.  I was told that there was a workaround that I could use with a BrowseWithPMService.service plugin.  I followed the instructions given to install the plugin, but I still don't understand how this recreates the old PM5 functionality.  I was also told to try the beta of PM plus, but I don't see how that lets me search by metadata terms either.

I suppose that I could continue to use PM5, but (1) it's kind of slow, and (2) I'm worried that at some point it will stop working with an OS upgrade (currently on OSX Mojave), and this type of search is absolutely crucial for this massive image archiving project.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

I am a long time customer of PM, I just bought PM6 but I am still using PM5 because I really need to be able to search using the metadata that I have in my photos.

I have a very large archive with hundreds of thousands of images, in a large number of folders.  There is extensive metadata in both the keywords and caption fields.  I need to be able to pull up photos the way that I have always done it in PM5 - that is, by just using the search window and putting the results in a new contact sheet.

I understand that this function was removed in PM6.  I was told that there was a workaround that I could use with a BrowseWithPMService.service plugin.

Where did you hear that workaround?

I followed the instructions given to install the plugin, but I still don't understand how this recreates the old PM5 functionality.

I expect that you'd do a Spotlight search from the desktop and then right-click on the folder containing the result(s) and choose Browse with Photo Mechanic from the contextual menu.  But that would be rather painful.

I was also told to try the beta of PM plus, but I don't see how that lets me search by metadata terms either.

Did you read the readme and the information at the bottom of it that tells you how to get started?

-Kirk

[shop@therothschilds.com]

Thanks for the reply!

The workaround was emailed to me from the support@camerabits.com account.

I wasn't sure how I would do a spotlight search the way that I had done it in PM5.  For example, I use the caption field for a description of the contents of the photo.  So if I wanted to find all of the photos that I had of my friends Steve and Bill together, I would select from the dropdown menus: Caption, Contains, All, and then put "Steve, Bill" in the search window.

Very simple, quick, powerful, and useful.  I could narrow down results by appending other search criteria.

Maybe I'm not using spotlight correctly, but I don't see how to search the captions with that.  If I put "Steve, Bill" into a spotlight search, it will look for those search terms in entire documents, and "captions" isn't an option in the additional search criteria.

I actually looked at the support forum for PM plus, and it seems like there are a lot of beta version issues.  I would rather not start working with this until it is a finished product.

I guess I can just continue to use PM5, but it's a shame that the main reason why I continue to purchase this fairly expensive piece of software has been eliminated.

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi,
Have you tried using Command+F in PM6?
Regards,
- Luiz Muzzi

[shop@therothschilds.com]

Command+F is the find command, I believe that it just lets you search within a single open contact sheet.

I have several hundred thousand images with captions and keywords, stored in several hundred folders.  I want to be able to pull up images from that entire archive that match specific search criteria, as was possible in PM5 using the search feature.

[shop@therothschilds.com]

So is the consensus that in order to search my photo archives using metadata embedded in the images, I need to stick with PM5?

[Odd Skjaeveland]

So is the consensus that in order to search my photo archives using metadata embedded in the images, I need to stick with PM5?

I'm curious about what makes your embedded metadata escape PM6's attention. A short quote from section IPTC/XMP in the PM6 ReadMe.pdf:

"Reading of IPTC vs. XMP metadata is now handled automatically. XMP is preferred
over IPTC, but any IPTC fields missing in XMP are now included. For RAW files with
both embedded XMP and an XMP sidecar file, the most recently modified XMP will be
loaded. This is consistent with Adobe’s handling of conflicting IPTC/XMP metadata."

If you have conflicting metadata, there may possibly be ways to resolve the conflicts and make the "correct" values available to PM?

[Hayo Baan]

Odd, he was referring to the fact PM6 no longer has the (Mac only) Spotlight search capability.

[Odd Skjaeveland]

Odd, he was referring to the fact PM6 no longer has the (Mac only) Spotlight search capability.

Ah. Thanks Hayo, I was thinking PM Plus into the future and if all existing metadata will eventually be available for search or if the Adobe order of evaluation means loss of information if I don't consolidate my metadata.

[Hayo Baan]

Odd, he was referring to the fact PM6 no longer has the (Mac only) Spotlight search capability.

Ah. Thanks Hayo, I was thinking PM Plus into the future and if all existing metadata will eventually be available for search or if the Adobe order of evaluation means loss of information if I don't consolidate my metadata.

Hi Odd, ah, right. In that case, you may have a problem if (in PM5) you had set your preferences so that IPTC was dominant and your XMP has different values for some fields. With PM6, the values from XMP are now dominant so this would change the outcome. However, first of all, I think chances of this are extremely slim since PM5 would have kept the XMP in sync with the IPTC anyway. Only if some other software only updated the IPTC and not the XMP would you (perhaps) have a problem. But this would have gotten you into trouble with most recent software anyway since the preference is now for XMP (for many reasons).

[Odd Skjaeveland]

...But this would have gotten you into trouble with most recent software anyway since the preference is now for XMP (for many reasons).

"A very large archive with hundreds of thousands of images" may indicate age. Chances are that some images are quite old and that various applications have been involved on the metadata side of things. My own archive is not that huge, but it spans from the early digital age to now. I can already sense scripting required if it turns out that existing metadata will be disregarded by PM Plus searches. I am not sure how to best go about this,... probably locate images having conflicting information in overlapping metadata fields, then invent a fix if necessary.

[Hayo Baan]

...But this would have gotten you into trouble with most recent software anyway since the preference is now for XMP (for many reasons).

"A very large archive with hundreds of thousands of images" may indicate age. Chances are that some images are quite old and that various applications have been involved on the metadata side of things. My own archive is not that huge, but it spans from the early digital age to now. I can already sense scripting required if it turns out that existing metadata will be disregarded by PM Plus searches. I am not sure how to best go about this,... probably locate images having conflicting information in overlapping metadata fields, then invent a fix if necessary.

Sure, I have quite “old” images too. BUT if you've used PM all these years, then PM will have taken care of synchronising the IPTC with the XMP so there should really be no issue whatsoever. Even if you didn't have PM write XMP, there won't be a problem; then the IPTC will be used instead. The only thing that has changed is that XMP now always takes precedence in case both exist. This should really have been your setting already (for years now to be honest), but even if you didn't I doubt you'll find problems given the reasons I started with

IF you do find you have issues, then they should be solvable by either applying a simple metadata stationary (one that basically leaves all metadata intact, but still updates something) – in PM5 – to force rewriting the IPTC and synchronise it with the XMP. Another, more complex, would be to use exiftool to merge the IPTC and XMP tags. But I think the first solution is more than adequate (if even necessary).

Cheers,
Hayo