Deleting Keywords

[BogdanH]

Hi,

Till now, I didn't know something like AFCP even exist.. so I needed to look here first:
http://www.exiftool.org/TagNames/AFCP.html

Basic idea behind GUI is, to show all data that Exiftool recognizes. So user get some overview in metadata jungle, there are four section buttons: EXIF, IPTC, XMP and Maker(notes) -I believe these sections are of most interest.
And as you can see, in IPTC view, there are IPTC, IPTC2 and IPTC3 shown (you must enable "List metadata by IFD" in Options menu, to see this) -which is displaying AFCP presence (as far I understood this).

Me personally, I would stay away from this "multiple" IPTC stuff... very confusing.

Bogdan

[JL]

I don't have a choice to 'stay away' because multiple versions are already in my photos. I thought IPTC was a standard. It's quite surprising to me to find out there are different versions of it.

Since Phil plans to add the ability to write AFCP into Exiftool, my question is Do you plan to also add that to ExiftoolGUI or does that happen automatically?

[BogdanH]

I don't have a choice to 'stay away' because multiple versions are already in my photos. I thought IPTC was a standard. It's quite surprising to me to find out there are different versions of it.

I understand your situation as it is now. With "stay away", I was thinking about slowly transferring metadata from AFCP to some more widely known standard. I'm very sure this could be (by using Exiftool) done in batch. Might be some work, but once it's done, you at least know where you are. As it seems, world goes XMP way right now..

Since Phil plans to add the ability to write AFCP into Exiftool, my question is Do you plan to also add that to ExiftoolGUI or does that happen automatically?

Sorry not being clear about this. Yes, this happens automatically: GUI doesn't manipulate metadata -Exiftool is called to do the job. But.. To edit AFCP metadata inside GUI, all you have is, "Exiftool direct" option -which means, you should be familiar with Exiftool usage to some degree. That is, I don't plan to make some dedicated form to edit AFCP data the "user friendly" way (like this is the case with Exif, IPTC and XMP right now).

Bogdan

[Phil Harvey]

Actually, the AFCP IPTC will be kept synchronized when you write/delete any IPTC to the file normally.

- Phil

[JL]

BogdanH,

I've already written the IPTC data the way I want it to be using Photo Mechanic and I guess that's what Phil calls "standard". I don't need to transfer the AFCP version; I just need it deleted.

[BogdanH]

Hi,
Great news -as it seems, your "problem" isn't really a problem

To Phil:
About sinchronizing you're planning: does that mean, if I change, i.e.: -iptc:city=Paris -changes will be done in all IPTC (sub) sections containing this tag? For above sample, this only happens in IPTC and IPTC3 right now (IPTC2:City doesn't change).

Bogdan

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Bogdan,

Yes.  That is what will happen.

- Phil

[JL]

Excellent work, Phil! I downloaded the latest version of the ExifTool and ExifToolGUI and I'm able to use the GUI to delete the AFCP keywords. That's as far as I've gotten, testing this on one folder. Some of the copyrights need to be changed too.

Is there a way to delete the entire Application Record Version? For my purposes it doesn't matter, as long as I can get some of the metadata out of there so it stops showing up in Windows Search. Just curious.

I guess another fix would be for Windows to stop reading it. 

[JL]

And now ensues the next batch of questions: 

Sometimes the keywords will not delete - about 4% of the time so far. I put up a couple of samples:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/574752/watts-hosp4.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/574752/0000-unkwnbaker-0003.tif

Sometimes when trying to delete CopyrightNotice under IPTC, I get the error message:

'Unrecognized data in IPTC trailer'

[Phil Harvey]

Code Select Expand

> exiftool -a -keywords= tmp
Warning: [minor] Unrecognized data in IPTC trailer - tmp/0000-unkwnbaker-0003.tif
Warning: [minor] Unrecognized data in IPTC trailer - tmp/0000-unkwnbaker-0003.tif
Error: Not a valid JPEG (looks more like a TIFF) - tmp/watts-hosp4.jpg
    1 directories scanned
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged
    1 files weren't updated due to errors

> mv tmp/watts-hosp4.jpg tmp/watts-hosp4.tif

> exiftool -a -keywords= tmp/watts-hosp4.tif
    1 image files updated

> exiftool -a -keywords= -m tmp/0000-unkwnbaker-0003.tif
    1 image files updated


ExifTool is always cautious when it sees a problem in an image.  The .jpg file fails because it has the wrong extension.  The second file fails because the IPTC data is not written properly.  Here a warning about the IPTC trailer is issued and the IPTC isn't updated.  If you ignore this warning (with the -m option), then the IPTC will be updated.

Currently there is no way to selectively delete the AFCP_IPTC without rebuilding all of the IPTC with a command like exiftool -iptc:all= -tagsfromfile @ -iptc:all FILE.

- Phil

[JL]

Over many hours I was able to delete all the AFCP-IPTC keywords and copyright notices using the editing options in ExifToolGUI. Thanks for your help with that.

Now, with recently discovered devastation caused by Window Live Photo Gallery to the EXIF and file compression, I'm having to retrieve backup discs from around the continent and start over again. Now that the keyword editing options have been removed from ExifToolGUI I'm no longer able to do this or, at least, I don't know how with ExifTool. This is affecting almost 9,000 photos.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[BogdanH]

Hi,

..Now that the keyword editing options have been removed from ExifToolGUI I'm no longer able to do this..

Keywording has been moved to main GUI screen and can be done at any time in Quick view -please, see manual for details (near the bottom of the page). At least from my experience, as it is now, keywording can be done much easier and faster than before. Try it and let me know.

Bogdan

[JL]

Sorry. The manual is at the bottom of what page?

[Phil Harvey]

You can find the ExifTool GUI manual here.

- Phil

[JL]

Bogdan, the keyword thing really isn't working anymore. We had a lengthy conversation about AFCP-IPTC after which you and Phil did something to the keyword options in ExifToolGUI to make it possible for me to delete it. Now I can't.

Your new arrangement is taking out some of the keywords, the XMP I think, but it's not touching the AFCP. I really need to be able to do this.