Problem: Metadata entered on Mac not shown on Windows

[benem]

Hello,

I have encountered a problem with the metadata i entered and i'm now trying to figure out what goes wrong, maybe someone can help me.
I'm using the latest version of PM (4.6.5) and using Mac OS X Leopard on my intel iMac, Snow Leopard on my Intel Macbook Pro.

Now to explain, here is my workflow:
- Ingest the (JPG) photos using PM, then select the best
- Entering metadata for the choosen photos
- Save photos in a new folder
- Importing the Photos to Lightroom 3. In LR, the entered Metadata is shown correctly in the right fields.
- Image processing and exporting using Lightroom.

After that, when i verify the final JPGs in the Finder using Cmd + I, the infos i entered are shown correctly.

I then send the photos using Apple Mail to the agency, who tells me that they can't see the metadata. When i was there he showed me that on Windows XP with Right Click on the image > Properties, there were no annotations (except the exif info like aperture, …). he even checked the images using a tool called Exifer and there weren't any metadata either.

Now i'm trying to figure out where the problem might come from:

- Photo Mechanic
- Lightroom
- Apple Mail
- Windows?
- Maybe an IPTC/XMP related incompatibility?

Does anyone also did encounter this problem, or has an idea what goes wrong?

Thanks in advance, i hope my english is comprehensive

[Kirk Baker]

Hello,

I have encountered a problem with the metadata i entered and i'm now trying to figure out what goes wrong, maybe someone can help me.
I'm using the latest version of PM (4.6.5) and using Mac OS X Leopard on my intel iMac, Snow Leopard on my Intel Macbook Pro.

Now to explain, here is my workflow:
- Ingest the (JPG) photos using PM, then select the best
- Entering metadata for the choosen photos
- Save photos in a new folder
- Importing the Photos to Lightroom 3. In LR, the entered Metadata is shown correctly in the right fields.
- Image processing and exporting using Lightroom.

After that, when i verify the final JPGs in the Finder using Cmd + I, the infos i entered are shown correctly.

I then send the photos using Apple Mail to the agency, who tells me that they can't see the metadata. When i was there he showed me that on Windows XP with Right Click on the image > Properties, there were no annotations (except the exif info like aperture, …). he even checked the images using a tool called Exifer and there weren't any metadata either.

Now i'm trying to figure out where the problem might come from:

- Photo Mechanic
- Lightroom
- Apple Mail
- Windows?
- Maybe an IPTC/XMP related incompatibility?

Does anyone also did encounter this problem, or has an idea what goes wrong?

Thanks in advance, i hope my english is comprehensive

If you'll upload a sample JPEG file (use the Additional Options... link when you're composing your reply) then I'll look into the file and see what metadata it really contains.

-Kirk

[benem]

OK, here is a sample photo where the problem should consist according to the agency.
(Attaching to this post didn't work, so i uploaded them to my FTP)

http://benem.lu/tmp/IMG_3000.jpg
http://benem.lu/tmp/IMG_3298.jpg

[Kirk Baker]

OK, here is a sample photo where the problem should consist according to the agency.
(Attaching to this post didn't work, so i uploaded them to my FTP)

http://benem.lu/tmp/IMG_3000.jpg
http://benem.lu/tmp/IMG_3298.jpg

I only looked at IMG_3000.jpg but I can tell you for certain that the file contains IPTC, XMP, and EXIF data.  I see your captions with both Photo Mechanic and ExifTool just fine.

Are these the actual files that made it to their server/service or are they your local files?

-Kirk

[benem]

These are the files from the Sent Items of my Gmail account, as they were sent.
I asked them to resend me the images as they arrived at their mailbox, but didn't receive them yet.
Is there any known problem of metadata disappearing or not shown under Windows? Maybe due to a special character or something like that?

[Kirk Baker]

These are the files from the Sent Items of my Gmail account, as they were sent.
I asked them to resend me the images as they arrived at their mailbox, but didn't receive them yet.
Is there any known problem of metadata disappearing or not shown under Windows? Maybe due to a special character or something like that?

Not that I know of.  Even if the character encoding were wrong, some data would have to show up.  Or are they saying that data shows up but is garbled?

-Kirk

[benem]

No, there is no data at all. It's strange...

[Kirk Baker]

No, there is no data at all. It's strange...

It is likely that something is stripping out or masking the data.  However, having the files they received would end any speculation on my part.

-Kirk

[benem]

Yes, probably it's Apple Mail or their Email server. I will post the files as soon as i got them.

[benem]

I did some tests now. When i was at the agency, i observed that the guy who received the photos, opened them with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (the default), and then clicked on "Save File as" there to save it to another location.
Now i reproduced this at home and compared the files before and after saving, and…tada, Windows Preview strips all IPTC data!
I will explain the whole thing to the man at the agency…

Thanks for your help and your fast replies!

[Kirk Baker]

I did some tests now. When i was at the agency, i observed that the guy who received the photos, opened them with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (the default), and then clicked on "Save File as" there to save it to another location.
Now i reproduced this at home and compared the files before and after saving, and…tada, Windows Preview strips all IPTC data!
I will explain the whole thing to the man at the agency…

Thanks for your help and your fast replies!

You're welcome.  He was also probably causing the image to get re-compressed, thus losing image quality.  A simple drag and drop copy is all that should be necessary.

-Kirk