Library module file name, copy name, title, caption, label

[robert blu]

Lightroom Version Number

Classic 10.4

Operating System

1. macOS 11 Big Sur

I'm sometimes confused (it's me, not LR!) how to best use (library module) the fields title, copy name, caption, label.

Of course file name is fixed (I know I can rename) and caption should be a description of the photo I think. What the use for copy name and label confuses me.

Any suggestions or example would be good. Thanks in advance.
Sorry if the question is too naive
PS: I use the italian version I hope the translation of the fields are correct.

 

[clee01l]

Copy Name is unique to Lightroom the Other fields are a part of the EXIF standard.

What is not apparent is that Lightroom provides the opportunity for multiple develop path copies of the same image file. The Copy name value in the Master Copy is and the field appears empty. Create a virtual copy and Lightroom defaults a copy name in that field as “COPY1”. This makes the particular virtual copy unique from the Master Copy and any other Virtual copies. You can assign any value you wish in the copy name field. You can even assign a value other than to the Master copy.

In Lightroom, it is possible to promote a virtual Copy to be the new Master copy. In doing so, the Copy Name field remains unaltered.


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[Califdan]

Copy name is sort of a nick name for an image - sometimes use like an an alternate file name. As Clee pointed out, when you have more than one LR image based on the same physical image - VC or Virtual Copy in LrC lingo - the Copy Name field is normally used to differentiate the various VC's. But you can use it any way you like. I tend to use it to keep track of the Geneology of an image. For example, you start with a RAW image, then make a VC to take it down a B&W path while keeping the Color one as well that goes down another editing path. Then on the B&W you send it out to Silver Efex and it comes bacm as a new image file, which you then split into a full crop and a tight crop. Etc. Many times it's hard to reconstruct which image descended from which other image. So, I keep version numbers in the "Copy" field. Different folks do this differently, but each time I create a new version (either VC or physical image) I assign the next version number in the Copy field but also indicate where it came from . For example: "V7=V4+B&W in Efx". This means that it is the 7th permuation descnding from the original master image which is V1) and this 7th version was created from V4 when I sent it to Silver Efx and it came back as a new image. (BTW, I'd also have "V7" instead of "Edit"at the end of the file name). So, the version numbers can be used to recall the order I created the various derivitive images and the text tells me which one was the immediat parent and why i created a new derivative.

Title is of course the title of the image. For example Ansel Adam's "Moon Over Hernandez".

Caption is the description. Think of your image hanging in a museum with that little card next to it on the wall. The title is one line of bold text. the Caption is the paragraph under the title on the card.

Label - a "label" is not an industry standard thing. it is just a short text field. By default LrC uses this field to store color names if you assing a color for the rectangle in the grid that the image preview sits in. For example if you make that background red, the "Label" will have the word "Red" in it which is how LrC know to color that box red. But, you can type whatever text you want in the label field. For example you could type "Needs Keywords", or "Great Image" or anything else you like. Most folks just leave it alone for LrC to use to manage the background color of those boxes.

 

[clee01l]

Label - a "label" is not an industry standard thing. it is just a short text field. By default LrC uses this field to store color names if you assing a color for the rectangle in the grid that the image preview sits in. For example if you make that background red, the "Label" will have the word "Red" in it which is how LrC know to color that box red. But, you can type whatever text you want in the label field. For example you could type "Needs Keywords", or "Great Image" or anything else you like. Most folks just leave it alone for LrC to use to manage the background color of those boxes.

I think "Label" is in the EXIF standard. Lightroom allows you to assign Color Label Sets There are only 5 colors but you can have many Color Label Sets. The Lightroom Default Color Label Set assigns the label "Red" when you assign a red color to your image. The Lightroom Default Color Label Set assigns color names to correspond to the colors. Lightroom Classic also provides a Bridge Default Color Label Set. For instance the it is chosen as the current color label set "Select" is assigned to the label field when you choose the red color from the tool bar. You can filter on colors in the Filter bar and there are 7 choices depending on the active Color Label Set. In addition to the 5 standard colors there is White and Gray. If the label field value is anything other than one of the values assigned by the current Color Label Set, White is the filter option for Other values in the Label field. Gray is the last Choice for any images that have no value (null) in the label field

Personally I think the Lightroom Default Color Label Set is particularly un informative. The Bridge Default Color Label Set is a little more informative in that at a glance, the thumbnail color can tell you the process workflow state. If you mouse over a color in the toolbar the tooltip will express the label for that color in the current Color Label set. I have my own Color Label Set that assigns "To Be Worked" to the Purple Color and my import preset assigns that phrase to the label field on import. (Purple being the only color that cannot be assigned with a hot key.). Colors and Color Labels are an integral part of my workflow so that at a glance I can see the status of every image in my inventory. I have workflow Smart Collections that will filter out all but the images in a Published collection, Needs Review, or are a Work in Progress.

 

[Califdan]

Oops, forgot about other color label sets.

What I meant is that use and meaning of the content of the label field is quite variable between applications.

 

[Paul_DS256]

I'm sometimes confused (it's me, not LR!) how to best use (library module) the fields title, copy name, caption, label.

Robert, it's just not you. Photo metadata can be confusing because there are multiple definitions (schemas) with overlaps and duplicates. It can also vary by file type. Then you get into which metadata other tools use to display information. I'm still trying to figure out the mappings Windows uses to display photo metadata.

Here's some links that may help:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/metadata-basics-actions.html
• The Lightroom Queen 'Quick Start Guide' has a chapter with suggestions on 'Adding Metadata'

Since LrC provides several views of metadata, one way to understand what is happening is to export an image then view the metadata using a free tool like Online exif data viewer. Best to populate all fields in LrC first even with dummy data. Make sure to export with ALL Metadata.

 

[robert blu]

Thanks you all for your answers and suggestions which confirm what I was thinking: I can have a "master" photo and make different postprocess for the virtual copies, for istance if desiring to print on a special paper I'll postprocess in a special way and write this name in its "copy name" like special print 1 and if I process for a very different paper (or mood) I'll give a second "copy name" to this virtual copy. Both (or more) copies will keep their original Master name.

This can solve my problem with multiple copies developed for different reasons in different ways when after sometimes I do not remeber which is which and what was developed for!

Always something to learn and practice! Thanks again everybody.
PS: english is not my mother language, please excuse me for not precise writing!

 

[clee01l]

.
PS: english is not my mother language, please excuse me for not precise writing!

For some of us it is our mother language and were are often plagued by impreciseness and the dreaded “auto correct”


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[PhilBurton]

Since LrC provides several views of metadata, one way to understand what is happening is to export an image then view the metadata using a free tool like Online exif data viewer. Best to populate all fields in LrC first even with dummy data. Make sure to export with ALL Metadata.

I use EXIFToolGUI, which runs on Windows. It works fine on the latest update to Windows 10. ExifToolGUI - The Portable Freeware Collection

You can view the EXIF for all the files in a folder. It also allows date/time corrections. Since the documentation is a bit spare, I suggest that you work on a copy of your files until you are comfortable with the interface.

 

[Paul_DS256]

I use EXIFToolGUI

I use EXIFToolGUI as well as EXIFTOOL but was suggesting a simpler approach to exploring what metadata looks like outside of LrC.