Customising the IPTC Template

[Rob Hedge]

Hi,

I'm customising my IPTC template via Preferences > Accessibility > Customise Metadata (IPTC) Template. I often use analogue cameras (four ranging from 35mm to 8x10) and film. I used the unused Group Label 12 to create a Group Label for "Camera & Film" information (see the screen captures). However, I can't figure out how to create a field (preferably more than one) and field rows for the Camera & Film Group. Because I use four different analogue cameras, it would also be helpful if the field(s) had a drop-down menu like most of the other IPTC fields. How do I do this? I realise that I can re-purpose/re-name existing fields that I'm not using, but I'd prefer to avoid doing that.

If PM users can't employ the unused Groups, of which there are several, as a matter of curiosity what's their purpose?

I may install Phil Harvey's ExifTool to see whether I can accomplish the same thing with EXIF fields, but my preference is to do this in the IPTC fields.

Thanks






 

[ahoward]

You cannot create fields that don't already exist. The blue groups are simply text labels that you can use to organize your fields in a way that is more useful to you. You can put things into a "group" by dragging and dropping the field between two group in the Customization window.

Please note that editing the field labels in the Customization window only changes how the field name is displayed on your computer, it doesn't change what data is written to your files.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Note that most of the fields themselves come from the IPTC standard. 

I use ExifTool to write the camera/lens model and film ASA information into my own film scans coming from film cameras. They simply go into the existing EXIF/IPTC fields, so no new fields are needed for those.  (I've made macOS Automator apps for pre-written ExifTool commands and can apply them right from Photo Mechanic after placing them in the "Droplets" folder in the Launching preferences area) The three "Supplemental Category" fields that exist in Photo Mechanic were deprecated by the IPTC and thus make ideal candidates for repurposing as, say, "film brand" or "scanner model" fields. Then, as you've seen, you can rearrange and group them in the IPTC Info and Template dialogs however you like.    There is also a Digital Source Type field for marking images as "scanned from negatives" etc. that you may want to make use of

Here are descriptions of most of the IPTC fields if you want to check them out.  Notice that "Category" is also a deprecated field that could also be repurposed)   

https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001174616-metadata-iptc-template-map

Hope this helps

-Mick

[Rob Hedge]

Thanks very much @ahoward, that information is helpful.

I've now managed to create Camera and Film fields by repurposing existing fields. While doing this, I discovered that the existing fields don't all work the same. One accepted more than one value from the .TXT file that I created for its drop-down menu; the other didn't, simply replacing a value that I selected from the drop-down menu with the second value that I selected. Good to be aware of this.

I'm finding that I prefer taking the time to write metadata .TXT files in TextEdit, and import them, to writing data values in the Photo Mechanic window. I feel that it helps me better understand how metadata input works.

[Rob Hedge]

Note that most of the fields themselves come from the IPTC standard. 

I use ExifTool to write the camera/lens model and film ASA information into my own film scans coming from film cameras. They simply go into the existing EXIF/IPTC fields, so no new fields are needed for those.  (I've made macOS Automator apps for pre-written ExifTool commands and can apply them right from Photo Mechanic after placing them in the "Droplets" folder in the Launching preferences area) The three "Supplemental Category" fields that exist in Photo Mechanic were deprecated by the IPTC and thus make ideal candidates for repurposing as, say, "film brand" or "scanner model" fields. Then, as you've seen, you can rearrange and group them in the IPTC Info and Template dialogs however you like.    There is also a Digital Source Type field for marking images as "scanned from negatives" etc. that you may want to make use of

Here are descriptions of most of the IPTC fields if you want to check them out.  Notice that "Category" is also a deprecated field that could also be repurposed)   

https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48001174616-metadata-iptc-template-map

Hope this helps

-Mick

Thanks a bunch, very helpful. I'll download ExifTool and see if I can figure it out this weekend. I'm comfortable with using the Mac Terminal, so that's not going to be an issue.

[Rob Hedge]

I'll download ExifTool and see if I can figure it out this weekend.

I installed the full version of ExifTool on my Mac a couple of hours ago. The installation is straightforward and takes no more than a couple of seconds*. I tried out a few commands and quickly realised that ExifTool is likely to be very useful.

* The developer, Phil Harvey, provides the Terminal commands for installation. His commands assume that you've moved the ExifTool file from your Downloads folder to your Desktop. If your Mac changes the file name from Image-ExifTool-12.43.tar.gz to Image-ExifTool-12.43.tar without the ".gz", as mine did, it means that the file has been uncompressed (.gz stands for gzip). Just delete ".gz" from the file name in Harvey's commands. If someone reads this down the road, 12.43 is just the current version number and will be different in the future.