How to insert hierarchical subject into Lightroom images?

[stasiana]

I'd like to use exiftool to add hierarchical subjects to images so that I can script the import of images before I add them to Lightroom. I tried to do the following:

Code Select Expand

$ exiftool -XMP:HierarchicalSubject="people|Test" Test.jpg
    1 image files updated

$ exiftool -G -j -n Test.jpg | grep Test
  "SourceFile": "Test.jpg",
  "File:FileName": "Test.jpg",
  "XMP:HierarchicalSubject": "people|Test",
  "XMP:RawFileName": "Test.jpg",

It seemed to insert the proper tag into the file, but despite my telling Lightroom to re-read metadata from the file, Lightroom doesn't show the hierarchical subject. However, if I use XMP:Subject, then it shows the subject but it's not in the hierarchy I want.

Any pointers?

[Phil Harvey]

This looks correct to me, and I think this should work for LR3 (XMP-lr:HierarchicalSubject I mean).  Is this the version of LR you are using?  If not, I suggesting writing some hierarchical keywords with LR to see where they go, then use ExifTool to put them in the same spot (as per FAQ 3).  At some point I expect Adobe may update to use the XMP-mwg-kw:HierarchicalKeywords tag instead since they participated in the development of this specification.

- Phil

[stasiana]

Thanks for the feedback, Phil.

I am using Lightroom 3.4, but it doesn't work for me. I do see that for images that Lightroom tags, it does fill in the same field, which has me confused. Is it possible that something is masking Lightroom's reading of this field?

I tried it with another image with the same results, but I captured the exiftool output and diff'ed them.

This is before import into LR and after import into LR and adding a hierarchical subject:

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6,7c6,7
<   "File:FileSize": 57155,
<   "File:FileModifyDate": "2011:07:29 16:34:58-07:00",
---
>   "File:FileSize": 60207,
>   "File:FileModifyDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:02-07:00",
10a11,12
>   "File:ExifByteOrder": "MM",
>   "File:CurrentIPTCDigest": "7299823d8f21d3283b54a517a7588a70",
21a24,34
>   "EXIF:Orientation": 1,
>   "EXIF:ExifVersion": "0221",
>   "XMP:XMPToolkit": "Adobe XMP Core 5.2-c004 1.136881, 2010/06/10-18:11:35        ",
>   "XMP:MetadataDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:02-07:00",
>   "XMP:RawFileName": "q1.jpg",
>   "XMP:HierarchicalSubject": "people|AAA",
>   "XMP:Subject": ["AAA","people"],
>   "IPTC:CodedCharacterSet": "\u001B%G",
>   "IPTC:ApplicationRecordVersion": 4,
>   "IPTC:Keywords": ["AAA","people"],
>   "Photoshop:IPTCDigest": "7299823d8f21d3283b54a517a7588a70",


This is after adding the first subject and after adding a second subject:

Code Select Expand

6,7c6,7
<   "File:FileSize": 60207,
<   "File:FileModifyDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:02-07:00",
---
>   "File:FileSize": 60284,
>   "File:FileModifyDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:10-07:00",
12c12
<   "File:CurrentIPTCDigest": "7299823d8f21d3283b54a517a7588a70",
---
>   "File:CurrentIPTCDigest": "366c8ee4d52a05481d461677a04da172",
27c27
<   "XMP:MetadataDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:02-07:00",
---
>   "XMP:MetadataDate": "2011:07:29 16:36:10-07:00",
29,30c29,30
<   "XMP:HierarchicalSubject": "people|AAA",
<   "XMP:Subject": ["AAA","people"],
---
>   "XMP:HierarchicalSubject": ["people|AAA","people|BBB"],
>   "XMP:Subject": ["AAA","BBB","people"],
33,34c33,34
<   "IPTC:Keywords": ["AAA","people"],
<   "Photoshop:IPTCDigest": "7299823d8f21d3283b54a517a7588a70",
---
>   "IPTC:Keywords": ["AAA","BBB","people"],
>   "Photoshop:IPTCDigest": "366c8ee4d52a05481d461677a04da172",


If I take a clean file, add it to Lightroom, then using exiftool modify the HierarchicalSubject and MetadataDate tags, then reload the metadata into Lightroom, the subjects still don't show up. BUT,  re-reading the tags from exiftool, I find that the HierarchicalSubject tag I entered has disappeared.

It seems like Lightroom is now using the digests to verify that it added the subjects, and if it didn't, removes them??

[Phil Harvey]

It looks like LR may be ignoring the XMP in favour of the IPTC.  There are 2 things you can do:

1) delete all IPTC and use XMP only.  (easy, but not as compatible with other software)

2) use exiftool to also update the IPTC Keywords and IPTCDigest.  Use "-IPTCDigest=new" to update the Photoshop IPTCDigest whenever you change anything in the IPTC (this is mentioned in the Photoshop tag name documentation).

- Phil