Hello -
I am having issues where a client has changed style and now wants the creator/photographer field to have the byline designation to fit the CMS. For years, it's just been the photographer's name (as I think the field is intended), but the CMS and the style online and in their print layout system wants to have the paper designation in it: "Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch".
Originally, I was having issues where Photoshop was cutting everything after the comma, but realized this was a PM setting and switched to semi-colon to separate repeating fields. That problem is easily solved.
Easy enough I thought. Except what's displaying for them is: "Michael Gulledge, Special to the".
Let me start by saying that I am 99.99% sure this is not a PM problem that's breaking this flow.
My workflow:
1. Import with a template
2. Write cutlines in the import folder
3. Edit in Photoshop
4. Save into edited subfolder (via a JSX I wrote to automate it on a function key but tested and that v. saving normally is no different)
5. Send from PM via FTP no changes
When I finish editing, the creator/photographer field is not changed in PM and looks fine. I filed and they displayed incorrectly, so I started digging in.
I can see via exiftool that the CMS apparently uses the 'by-line' field in the IPTC. I've seen from past posts here that creator/photographer and by-line are somewhat renamed, but this is clearly the issue:
% exiftool -Caption-Abstract -By-line -Artist -Credit -Creator *
======== 20250531 mg 6436.JPG
Caption-Abstract : NO EDIT IN PS. ..during a Class 4 state quarterfinal game, Saturday, May 31, 2025, at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, Mo. St. Dominic defeated Lafayette, 2-0.
[b]By-line : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch
[/b]Credit : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch
Creator : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch
======== 20250531 mg 6557.jpg
Caption-Abstract : EDIT IN PS. ..during a Class 4 state quarterfinal game, Saturday, May 31, 2025, at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, Mo. St. Dominic defeated Lafayette, 2-0.
[b]By-line : Michael Gulledge, Special to the
[/b]Artist : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch
Credit : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch
Creator : Michael Gulledge, Special to the Post-Dispatch Looking into the IPTC spec
https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata#creator, it appears to be hitting the max bytes limit and hence the cut to the shorter by-line (exactly 32 bytes).
IIM Specs 2:80 By-line, max bytes for text: 32
From what I can tell, everything is fine in Photo Mechanic until it's edited and saved in Photoshop. Photoshop then must enforce the IIM spec and cut the field to length, hence what I can see in exiftool.
My questions:
1. Is there any way to see the by-line field itself in Photo Mechanic?
2. I'm assuming Photoshop is strictly enforcing the IIM spec? (It looks like in the documentation that IIM is restrictive but references Image Creator, which I'm guessing PM is using and keeping in sync. Image creator doesn't seem to have a byte restriction.)
3. Right now my workaround will be to either load the template after the edit or to reapply that field after the edit before send. This seems to work fine and reset by-line to what I'm looking for. Is there any other way that I'm maybe missing?
I'm probably way too invested in this, but I'm mostly wanting to make sure my understanding is right and I'm not missing something before I add the step to the workflow. I think the field that should probably be used by the CMS is 7.9. Credit Line instead of 7.6. Creator, but that's beyond what I can control as a stringer and not their developer.
Versions:
PM: Photo Mechanic Version 6.0, build 7212 (90865b3)
PS: Adobe Photoshop 25.12 (Macintosh)
Thanks for any insight!
