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Including Metadata - Title and caption

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RonO

New Member
Premium Classic Member
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May 22, 2019
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7
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic version: 11.0.1 [ 202111111509-eae8952e ]
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
Greetings and Happy New Year. Hope I can get some help on this.

I have scanned a bunch of my wife's old family photos, imported them into LR and edited them a bit. Along the way, I inserted information in the LR Metadata Panel / Title and Caption. Example--- Title "Smith Family"; Caption " Bill, Jill, and Spike the dog"

I now want to export these images from LR, then send them to her relatives in a way the relatives can see the Title and Captions.

How do I export from LR in a way that the image file includes these elements of Metadata?

And what do her family members need to do to see the Title and Caption associated with each image?

I'm using LR Classic, folder based, it that's a consideration.

This business of digitizing old photos and capturing the information written on the back must be a well-traveled road, so I assume there's a way to get it done???

Thanks,
Ron
 
One option is to use the PRINT module and PRINT TO JPEG file. In the page section you can add metadata text to the print image. You can also change the font size. You can also add text. In the example, I added a '/' between the title and caption. See attached.

I remember a thread somewhere here that talked about how to insert line breaks. Can't remember where it is at the moment.
 

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Another approach that I was pointed to was using SLIDE SHOW to create a template to cut/paste onto a label you can put on the back of the print. I use this for my own prints now to save text on the print.
 

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If by "See the Titles and Captions", you mean In the ITPC fields and not displayed on top of the image. Lightroom (cloudy) or even better Portfolio. offers a website that can be viewed and images shared for download.
 
This is one of my major complaints re Lr and a disappointing gap in Lr functionality since the first Lr Beta… namely, fantastic tools to maintain metadata but really poor tools to use it.

3 (non elegant methods using std Lr)
A. As mentioned, the Slideshow module allows fairly powerful placement of metadata on the image or below the image. Unfortunately it is still in a slideshow, but you can create and circulate a slideshow.
B. Create a book and format the images and metadata within the book. I think you can output as pdf or collection of jpg pages from the book module, but I have not used the book module for years, but worth checking out.
C. The print module should have the Slideshow metadata formatting / placement tools, but it does not. However, I have seen a good trick recently where a photographer prints the basic metadata as a line at the base of the image to be printed. This line is then hidden behind the print mount, but the info is retained forever at the bottom of the print. (Better and more reliable than a label at the back of the print).

There are probably multiple means to integrate your images with various web services, which can include the metadata with the image. Others may wish to comment on this.

Personally, I have written scripts which allow me integrate csv files from Lr with the url of the image and the required metadata fields and use this to create
A. Individual lines in the Csv file to create individual photoshop files, with the metadata placed where required.
B. Use the same CSV and the mailmerge features of Word. Each line in the Csv file results in a page in a Word doc. The Word doc can then be edited as a document and or simply exported as a pdf for emailing to family.
C. Same as B. but use InDesign instead of Word.
D. My personal current favourite is to use the Csv file to mail merge into an Affinity document.

I use List View (plug-in) to create the Csv file of my selected images and related metadata.

There are hidden gottchas to A and B, which make these non trivial tasks. C required InDesign and InDesign skills. I am personally impressed with the mail merge features in the Affinity products and think Adobe have a lot to learn from Affinity in this regard.

I use option C when I wish to create high quality images with metadata carefully formatted and placed below the image to create fine art prints. I use option D when I wish to create a pdf book of images with Title and Caption info formatted below the image on each page. I have not used either in the last 2 years as Covid has reduced my output, so I am probably rusty myself with the use if these tools.

It is my view that Adobe should do a proper job of allowing us to format metadata with images in the print and export modules.

I intend to re familiarise myself with option D in the next few weeks. Send me a private message (via Lr Queen forum) and I will send you a worked example in due course.
 
How do I export from LR in a way that the image file includes these elements of Metadata?
That part is easy…in the Export dialog box, make sure that the Include option for Metadata is set to any of the options with a name that begins with “All”. I think those include Title and Caption.

If you want that metadata to be visible in the image area on top of or aside the photo, that’s a little more challenging.
If you want the metadata to be visible on a web page next to the photo, that gets tricky too.
More about both of those goals below.

And what do her family members need to do to see the Title and Caption associated with each image?
If this means sending them just the photos and they can see the metadata next to the image, not as part of the image, then the viewing application that family members use must show Title and Caption by default so that you don't have to help everyone install and configure it. “Viewer” can mean a lot of things, like a photo program that comes with their computer. But it must be a program every family member has or can easily install, and can show Title and Caption right away without you having to set it up for them. Unfortunately, not many applications do that, so this is not usually a practical route.

This is where web-based options look a lot easier. If you can just point them to a web page that you have set up to show Title and Caption, then all they have to do is open a web browser to your web address and everything will be presented the way you like, no matter what device they use (e.g., computer or phone). Here are some web options:

Use the Lightroom Classic Web module. Buy some web hosting, and export directly from Lightroom Classic to your web space. The first template I looked at has Title and Caption already set up by default to be displayed next to each image. The downside is that this is a website you must maintain yourself, and the web sites exported by the Web module are not easy to integrate into one big, customizable, easily maintainable site. Frankly the Web module is a bit out of date. If this is too much work, go to the next option.

Lightroom-Classic-Web-Title-Caption.jpg


Use a website service that has a template displaying both Title and Caption. This could be a challenge. There are many photo websites out there, and almost all of them display the Caption field, but templates that also display Title can be hard to find. I use Smugmug, and some of their templates do display both Title and Caption. Some templates may not display both by default unless you go in and hack the CSS. If you go down this road with a site you’re not already paying for, first use the free trial period to figure out if it can do what you want.

If you don’t want to put the photos on the web, or you want the Title and Caption fields to be visible with the photos you send, some ideas are:
  • Use an Export module plug-in like LR/Mogrify. Its Text Annotation feature can include selected metadata as visible text on the image. I’m assuming it provides tokens for both Title and Caption metadata. but you should make sure.
  • Use the Print module like Paul_DS256 showed in an earlier reply.
  • As Gnits mentioned, use the Lightroom Classic Slideshow module, display Title and Caption, and export the slide show to PDF or video.
So what drives the choice is what kind of experience you want your viewers to have, and whether you want them to just view the photos with metadata or also be able to use the photos individually.
 
This is one of my major complaints re Lr and a disappointing gap in Lr functionality since the first Lr Beta… namely, fantastic tools to maintain metadata but really poor tools to use it.

3 (non elegant methods using std Lr)
A. As mentioned, the Slideshow module allows fairly powerful placement of metadata on the image or below the image. Unfortunately it is still in a slideshow, but you can create and circulate a slideshow.
B. Create a book and format the images and metadata within the book. I think you can output as pdf or collection of jpg pages from the book module, but I have not used the book module for years, but worth checking out.
C. The print module should have the Slideshow metadata formatting / placement tools, but it does not. However, I have seen a good trick recently where a photographer prints the basic metadata as a line at the base of the image to be printed. This line is then hidden behind the print mount, but the info is retained forever at the bottom of the print. (Better and more reliable than a label at the back of the print).

There are probably multiple means to integrate your images with various web services, which can include the metadata with the image. Others may wish to comment on this.

Personally, I have written scripts which allow me integrate csv files from Lr with the url of the image and the required metadata fields and use this to create
A. Individual lines in the Csv file to create individual photoshop files, with the metadata placed where required.
B. Use the same CSV and the mailmerge features of Word. Each line in the Csv file results in a page in a Word doc. The Word doc can then be edited as a document and or simply exported as a pdf for emailing to family.
C. Same as B. but use InDesign instead of Word.
D. My personal current favourite is to use the Csv file to mail merge into an Affinity document.

I use List View (plug-in) to create the Csv file of my selected images and related metadata.

There are hidden gottchas to A and B, which make these non trivial tasks. C required InDesign and InDesign skills. I am personally impressed with the mail merge features in the Affinity products and think Adobe have a lot to learn from Affinity in this regard.

I use option C when I wish to create high quality images with metadata carefully formatted and placed below the image to create fine art prints. I use option D when I wish to create a pdf book of images with Title and Caption info formatted below the image on each page. I have not used either in the last 2 years as Covid has reduced my output, so I am probably rusty myself with the use if these tools.

It is my view that Adobe should do a proper job of allowing us to format metadata with images in the print and export modules.

I intend to re familiarise myself with option D in the next few weeks. Send me a private message (via Lr Queen forum) and I will send you a worked example in due course.
Part of my overall complaint that Adobe has really neglected LIBRARY in recent years. I wish I had some decent InDesign skills, but I don't. (And all I have is an old version of InDesign.)
 
As above, there are many ways to do this.

However, I'd suggest Print - but not Print to JPEG. Instead, create a layout with the title and description, then choose a Printer for output and select PDF in the Print dialog. This will export the photos as a PDF including the description and title on the page. They just need to be able to view PDFs.

Another alternative is to put the photos in a collection and sync it. You can then share the collection's URL with them. In this case they need a web browser, the caption is below the image, and they can see more detail by pressing I in a PC/Mac browser, or in any mobile device. This is probably the simplest way to share the pictures with a range of people.

So no need for InDesign, setting up your own web site or subscribing to a third party service.
 
Another alternative is to put the photos in a collection and sync it. You can then share the collection's URL with them. In this case they need a web browser, the caption is below the image, and they can see more detail by pressing I in a PC/Mac browser, or in any mobile device. This is probably the simplest way to share the pictures with a range of people.
Fully agree....I've been doing that for years.
 
create a layout with the title and description,
@johnbeardy that's something I'd love to do but haven't seen how to included text in a Custom layout. As a matter of fact, the PHOTO INFO option seems to disappear when you are creating a custom print layout . What am I missing?
 
Ah, I didn't use the word "custom" though. I'd just use the Single Sheet / Contact Sheet option from Layout Style.
 
To build on previous comments, I agree that publishing your photos to a photo-sharing web service and sharing the links is the simplest way to share the photos with an audience that may not be very tech savvy. Over the years, I've shared annotated scans with extended family and other groups of non-techy people who do want to review the annotations carefully and provide feedback. The services I've tried:

LR Cloud (lightroom.adobe.com): It's simple, but changes to keywords don't sync between LR Classic and LR Cloud, and keywords don't appear in the Info panel (so viewers have to click another button to see them). The senior product managers for LR Cloud don't believe in keywords.

Flickr: Originally met all my needs, but as they thrashed around trying to respond to the newer generation of mobile photo sharing, they removed the features I relied on. They're mostly back, but to see metadata fields for a photo and viewers' comments, viewers must scroll each photo page, which quickly gets tedious. Flickr costs $50/year for more than 1000 photos.

Zenfolio: This is the service I currently use. It's intended for professional photographers selling photos, but it provides the best feature set I've found. The default photo view shows the metadata and user comments without forcing the user to click or scroll (what a concept). It's expensive (I currently pay $67/year), and it is often sluggish.

The mobile social-media services are for a post-literate audience that doesn't care about text metadata (the little text there is will be overlaid on the photos by the content creators).
 
Ah, I didn't use the word "custom" though. I'd just use the Single Sheet / Contact Sheet option from Layout Style.
@johnbeardy no, you didn't say 'custom' but you did say 'create a layout with the title and description'. How do you add 'title and description' to the layout without using PRINT INFO as per my example?
 
I don't think you can, which is a shame.
I wish there was some way that this group can push urge Adobe to consider such enhancements to LIBRARY per the first sentence in @Gnits message #6. For a supposedly mature product for which we are paying annual subcription fees, this is a very bad "look" for Adobe.

Phil
 
This is a subject close to my heart.

I will gladly donate time (ie consulting or testing) to Adobe (or anyone) who can progress this missing functionality in Lightroom.

In the meantime I am going to re-visit the functionality within the Affinity Suite.

Here is an example of one of my scripts to integrate metadata from Lr to InDesign (and later Photoshop). My script does a lot more than just place the text. It also positions the image in the frame and leaves sufficient space for the Titles at the bottom. I am not expecting such refinement from Adobe, but do expect I can place my metadata in a formatted manner, similar to what is possible within the Slideshow module, as an example.

1642681512973.png


Metadata elements used...
1. Title
2. Copyright
3. Date & Time of Capture
4. Location

It is interesting that I was testing my script in 2009 and sad to think there has been no progress since.
This is what I regard as 'Professional Grade' use of Lightroom to place metadata with it's related image for print or export of images from Lightroom.
 
Gnits,
Could you please make your script available? I am currently doing something similar in InDesign, but I do it manually. Would love more automation. Thanks!
 
Bruce,
Sadly, I stopped using my script some time ago when my copy of Creative Suite (and InDesign) became obsolete with the arrival of Creative Cloud. This coincided with a decline in the volume of my fine art printing. I am keen to start to print more, hopefully as Covid restrictions fade. Right now I would have to dig it up from my archives and retest it, which I cannot do currently. Also, I expected Adobe to provide an interface to InDesign in due course, should they decide not to improve the handling of metadata on images. As things stand I have no incentive to purchase InDesign or upgrade to the full set of Creative Cloud modules.

I will keep you posted if I bring this script back to life.

There is an unsatisfied need to provide a more elegant solution to include formatted metadata on images and prints.
 
I now want to export these images from LR, then send them to her relatives in a way the relatives can see the Title and Captions.
I forgot that I'd purchased EXIF wMAKER last year in order to add title and caption to photos I needed to add to a photo essay. Works well.

wMAKER is a batch processor which I used on a specific sub-directory of exports from Lrc. Lot's of options.

From their web site "Exif wMarker can be used free of charge. However by registering your own copy you will receive a license key that will remove all reminder messages"

1642691773992.jpeg
 
Thanks Gnits. I don't blame you for not wanting to dig into the internals of InDesign. I once understood it well enough to set-up the required protocols; now, I'm reduced to following my written script. And then, Adobe doesn't help by changing the user interface. Do let us know if you take up the challenge again. And, if I can help in any way, just ask.
 
This is a subject close to my heart.

I will gladly donate time (ie consulting or testing) to Adobe (or anyone) who can progress this missing functionality in Lightroom.

[stuff deleted]

This is what I regard as 'Professional Grade' use of Lightroom to place metadata with it's related image for print or export of images from Lightroom.
@Gnits (and everyone else)

While I don't have anywhere near Gnits' skill with managing the text that goes into a book or print frame, I am also interested in this topic because I anticipate that I will need these skills/capabilities in the near future. I too am willing to be a beta tester for Adobe.

As an off-the-wall idea, what if @Victoria Bampton created a separate forum for this to work out these ideas, and maybe work with @RikkFlohr on an effective way to get a hearing and a response from Adobe. I have the professional experience of writing user requirements and running software beta tests. I'm sure that a bunch of other members have similar experience.
 
As an off-the-wall idea, what if @Victoria Bampton created a separate forum for this to work out these ideas, and maybe work with @RikkFlohr on an effective way to get a hearing and a response from Adobe.
FWIW, I would not like to see this organization and forum try to circumvent Adobe's up take process for new features. For a couple of reasons:
  • It would affect the relation Lightroom Queen has with Adobe which I presume they want to keep cordial and mutually beneficial. There is likely a lot that goes on in the background that would be juicy if we could be a fly on the wall we don't hear about ;-)
  • This is one of many features I've seen discussed here. If your proposal was adopted for this feature, someone else would be promoting their own idea.
  • I have never perceived that Adobe really wants to listen.
So, so as not to lose momentum, maybe you and Gnits could write a new feature proposal with references to competitors who already doing this.

My 2 cents (Canadian)
 
Thanks Gnits. I don't blame you for not wanting to dig into the internals of InDesign. I once understood it well enough to set-up the required protocols; now, I'm reduced to following my written script. And then, Adobe doesn't help by changing the user interface. Do let us know if you take up the challenge again. And, if I can help in any way, just ask.
Don't give Up yet. I have mothballed an old workstation, which may have a working version of InDesign and with luck, some version of my various InDesign scripts. I will try and reboot this antique and see if I can find anything useful. I put a fair amount of effort into my original script, not sure if I have the stamina to try and rebuild it from scratch. But, if I can get a version of the script working with a version of InDesign then I will share it.

NB. Warning. Scripts by nature are high maintenance and usually only work for a narrow list (and usually undocumented) set of conditions.

My instinct is I would be better off testing the mail merge features of the relevant Affinity product. The way to do this is export a Csv from Lr with the required metadata fields (say using ListView) and include a field containing the url of the image of interest. Then mail merge this file with a template layout in the Affinity app.
 
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