HowTo? Identify and filter "Manual Focus" with Adobe Bridge? Maybe with ExifTool

[l_d_allan]

I'd like to be able to use Adobe Bridge to filter which captures were made with Manual Focus.

When I use RawDigger, there is an EXIF entry for "Focus Mode" in the Canon and Sony MakerNotes section that can be variants of "Manual" or variants of AF such as AF-S.

Is there a way to Filter on this EXIF value?

Perhaps using a Smart Collection?

Is there a way for ExifTool to "help with hints" so that Adobe Bridge could accomplish the Filter?

I've been able to Filter for "Flash" because there is a "Criteria" that is part of "Smart Collections" which has the option of "Flash". However, I don't see a counter-part for identifying if the capture was in Manual Mode.

Maybe I could "cheat" by using the odd Criteria for Altitude, and put a value like Manual in it?

[Stephen Marsh]

Select such a file in Bridge and use File>File Info and then search in the Raw Data tab to see if you can find the manual focus entry listed. If you can, then you could use a File>Find with an "All Metadata" text entry matching the text shown on the Raw Data tab (don't include any xml <> characters). That is all that I can think of with Bridge, unless you use ExifTool to populate another metadata field that is visible to Bridge (such as your cheat example, however I would just write to the subject/keyword tag).

To list the maker note tag in ExifTool:

exiftool -Canon:FocusMode -r DIR

Where DIR is the path to your Canon test image folder, this should list the maker note entry for the focus mode for all readable file types (add -ext .cr2 or similar to filter by extension).

To copy to the keyword tag in your XMP sidecars (presuming that you are not using the Camera Raw database in Bridge):

exiftool -r '-subject+<${Canon:FocusMode}' 'DIR' -ext .xmp

[l_d_allan]

Select such a file in Bridge and use File>File Info and then search in the Raw Data tab to see if you can find the manual focus entry listed. If you can, then you could use a File>Find with an "All Metadata" text entry matching the text shown on the Raw Data tab (don't include any xml <> characters). That is all that I can think of with Bridge, unless you use ExifTool to populate another metadata field that is visible to Bridge (such as your cheat example, however I would just write to the subject/keyword tag).

Thanks for the reply. I looked thru the "Raw Data" tab, and didn't find any reference to "Focus Mode". Drat.

To list the maker note tag in ExifTool:

exiftool -Canon:FocusMode -r DIR

Where DIR is the path to your Canon test image folder, this should list the maker note entry for the focus mode for all readable file types (add -ext .cr2 or similar to filter by extension).

To copy to the keyword tag in your XMP sidecars (presuming that you are not using the Camera Raw database in Bridge):

exiftool -r '-subject+<${Canon:FocusMode}' 'DIR' -ext .xmp

I can "dump" the EXIF entry for "FocusMode" to a file, and do some "trial and error" to see what I can work out.

I don't use XMP sidecars. My impression is that the EXIF is embedded in the .dng files.

I'm probably overdue to read the ExifTool manual.

[l_d_allan]

The following seems to work, although this semi-newbie speculates there are better ways to accomplish the objective:
exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -Label=ManualFocus DIR

* Sort of works, but seems less than preferred to change the focal length
rem exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -focallength+=0.1 DIR

* Sort of works, but also seems less than preferred to change the ISO
rem exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -ISO+=1 DIR

* Changes in the EXIF, but Bridge unable to access
rem exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -Artist=lda DIR

* Nothing seemed to happen ... Operator error? ... I was hoping this would work
exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -keywords-=ManFoc   -keywords+=ManFoc DIR

"Altitude" seems specific to Nikon?

[Hayo Baan]

Your last command should work just fine.

I don't think Altitude is Nikon specific, it's probably more GPS specific; it's not present in any of my own Nikon files!

[l_d_allan]

Your last command should work just fine.

Are you referring to the following command:
* Nothing seemed to happen ... Operator error? ... I was hoping this would work
exiftool -if "$Sony:FocusMode eq 'Manual'" -overwrite_original -keywords-=ManFoc   -keywords+=ManFoc DIR

After running that command, the keyword "ManFoc" doesn't show up in Bridge. It seemed like nothing happened.

[Stephen Marsh]

Could be a Bridge cache issue.

Verify with ExifToool or other software (Bridge File/File Info) that the metadata is in the file.

You can purge the Bridge cache for the current selected image or folder, or quit and restart Bridge and this should force the update.