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Including Metadata - Title and caption

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RonO

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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
 
I agree with post #24. I have already documented to Adobe, multiple times, the glaring gaps in functionality in relation to the actual usage of metadata with images and prints. Adobe have more than enough resources to design and test any extension to existing functionality and have not seen Adobe search for Lr beta testers for a long long time. Also, I would not like to interfere with the relationship which might exist between The Lightroom Queen and Adobe.

I have seen a lot of good extensions done by Adobe over the last 24 months or so, many of them hidden, but none the less useful for those that need these features (in Lr and Ps). The new selection tools are a good example of good progress that benefits both Lr and Ps. I only hope some day Adobe will put a little TLC into the area of professional grade use of metadata.

It is also possible to mail merge a Csv file with Photoshop. Julianne Kost has a tutorial. I have used this feature. There are hidden gotchas with this technique, but it works.
 
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
Paul,

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I would want to negatively affect the relationship LRQ has with Adobe. My intention was quite the opposite. To empower Victoria (and others) in that relationship.
  • ;)
  • 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.
LOL I've often heard it said that you can get a lot done if only you don't need to take the credit. To me, this project would be a group effort, and may even boost the stature of this forum with Adobe.

  • I have never perceived that Adobe really wants to listen.
That's a real shame if true.

War story time: One of my consulting clients wrote software that managed refineries, very different in subject matter from Lightroom, but here the issue is management process. This client found out from experience that the best way to sell upgrades (no subscription model then) was to attend user group meetings, solicit input and let the users vote on the issues, as opposed to letting their own subject matter experts decide on new features.

They also started to visit refineries and talk with different employees at all levels. My favorite quote was from an operator who said, "If they can't give us better management tools, at least they can give us more donuts."

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)
I hadn't envisaged doing a competitive analysis. I would rather that we focus our limited volunteer resources on formulating needs statements. It's really up to Adobe to do a competitive analysis as part of their evaluation of these requests. Doing a proper competitive analysis can be a real time sink if done properly, with people doing this work full-time at least part of their overall responsibilities. That means actually downloading competitors' products and testing them out. Website claims by themselves are almost useless.

Given that @Gnits understands the issues here far better than I do, my role here would be primarily to write up the ideas in "product management speak." I would be happy to do this, otherwise I wouldn't have done my post #23.

If there is no support for my proposal here, then I will drop the idea.
 
I have created a draft one page 'Feature Request, petitioning Adobe to add the Text Overlay functionality, currently in the Slideshow module, to the Print Module. This will substantially achieve the functionality required. My objective is to keep the request as simple but as clear as possible. If anyone has any suggestions on improvements please let me know. I am happy then to post this as a new request to the Official Adobe Lightroom Feature Request forum. Perhaps Victoria and Rikk Flohr may be prompted at that stage to add some weight to the request.
 

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I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I would want to negatively affect the relationship LRQ has with Adobe. My intention was quite the opposite. To empower Victoria (and others) in that relationship.
I tool it more of using Lightroom Queen's position to influence Adobe's new feature decision.

To be more specific, once you open up a collaborative way for people share the ideas, then Victoria and others are really obliged to report on their proposal to Adobe. That is where it gets ackward. Some people will then keep asking where the new feature is in subsequent releases even if Adobe's response is 'We will consider it'.

Personally, I think if we raises points here, some of them will reach Adobe through Lightroom Queen without us knowing it.

It the required transparency if you have a collaboration with members that I see as the issue.
 
A little late to this thread, but have you tried the Jeffrey Friedl's Morgrify plug-in? I use it all the time to add Title and other metadata with a frame to exported images.
 
I appreciate the advice several of you gave me relative to the question I posed at the beginning of this thread, and I'm I'm pleased my original question stimulated a discussion among you heavy hitters. Very informative.

I have nothing to add to the discussion where it now stands, but I do want to circle back to say that some of the early comments aimed me in a direction that led to a solution that works well for me. Recall that my objective was to find a low-tech way to send scans of old family photos to relatives, with visible title/caption to ID and annotate the image. I assumed at that time the annotation would be accomplished by sending the IPTC info in a way it would be visible to my wife's low-tech relatives.

Following leads from early comments, I ended up in the LRC Book module. By reading that section of FAQ I came to this solution: I created a Book and changed the default setting to JPEG (could have picked PDF), then populated the book using Add Blank pages (to avoid unnecessary templates). On each blank page, I inserted a single photo, which I was able to position and resize in the usual way.

The good news: Each image file appears on the Book paghe with a text box underneath the image for adding annotation on any kind, including either IPTC title or caption info (but not both). Using this expandable text box, my wife enters any comment she wishes. The text shows underneath the image rather than on in.

The resulting pages export as a folder containing the individual annotated JPEG files (as well as a blank Front cover and Back cover which, for my purpose, I deleted). The result: my wife can send a folder of annotated image files to her in a way they can easily see and store them, without need for additional IPTC-reveal or other software.

So...from this low-tech LR newbie, thanks very much for your help!
 
I noticed odd behaviour when I click on the pdf I attached to message #28. I am attaching a jpg version here, hoping this will be easier to read.

I have had no suggestions or comments on the proposed Feature Request so far. I will post this as a request on the official Adobe forum sometime over the week-end.

Regards.
 

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Each image file appears on the Book page with a text box underneath the image for adding annotation on any kind, including either IPTC title or caption info (but not both).
Might I suggest the Print Module rather than the Book Module.
The Text data that appears on a print can be compiled in the Text editor as a Preset. You can use any combination of data for the preset (eg. Filename + Title + Caption + etc.)
2022-01-23 07_34_44-Window.jpg


Then you would set {Print To:} as JPEG where you can set PPI and Dimensions to determine the pixel dimensions of the JPGs.
{Page Setup} for the printer can set 'Borderless'. Add a lower margin for the text.
I suggest two Print Templates (that you can [Save] ) one for Landscape, one for Portrait, formats.
You can select any number of photos to 'Print to JPG' files, with one click of the [Print to File] button.
2022-01-23 07_38_50-Window.jpg
 
The Text data that appears on a print can be compiled in the Text editor as a Preset.
Thanks' for this @Rob_Cullen; but just some clarification.

What you need to do is use PHOTO INFO in the PAGE panel of PRINT and select 'edit' to get into the Text Template Editor . That's what I suggested above. I don't know of any other place to get to the Text Editor in PRINT.

1642890363613.png


You can then save the results of a preset. However, that is the first place you see the reference to 'preset' and is an excellent idea for saving the text label.

1642890441618.png
 
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.
No, we'll keep feature requests on the official forum for the simple reason that the software ties into their internal feature request system, and details like the number of posts and votes get routed straight through. Keeping all that discussion in one place gives the features the best shot at being implemented, and people like Rikk and Jeff are monitoring every post in the bugs/features sections.
 
Gnits - I followed your link, but couldn't see a way to vote for the suggestion. What did I miss?

All - I would like to remind everyone that "title" and "caption" are just examples of what is needed. I would hate to see a solution that is restricted to those two entries. What we actually need is access to all metadata fields; we don't need someone at Adobe deciding for us which fields to use.
 
Hi Bruce.

Can you check if logged into the Adobe Lightroom forum. I will post a screen grab later when I get back to my desk.
 
Gnits - You were correct, of course; I wasn't logged in. Sorry about the confusion; I have now voted, for all the good that does. Thanks for helping.
 
Bruce. Fingers crossed. It is functionality which should have been there from early on. It is clear that someone knew what they were doing when they designed and implemented the Text Overlay feature in the Slide Show Module.
 
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