XMP fields not showing when added along with IPTC fields (I think)

[markgowdy]

Hello, I just started using Exiftool, and I think it is amazing... However,

I am experiencing weirdness with 2 images, while trying to embed some IPTC and XMP fields, then viewing the result in Photoshop CS4.
(there are all nicely reproducable, which is handy)

I am using version 7.89 on my local machine, but have tried it on 8.22 also.

The two images in question are:
http://pub.aetopia.com/img/1.jpg
http://pub.aetopia.com/img/2.jpg

The example uses the Copyright Status field "XMP-xmpRights:Marked" (neither of the 2 original images above have this value set)

exiftool -iptc:all -XMP-xmpRights:Marked=True -ex -o op1_a.jpg 1.jpg
Open 'op1_a.jpg' in Photoshop and you will see that the copyright status is correctly set to "Copyrighted"

By simply adding '-IPTC:Caption-Abstract=Hello', problems occur:
exiftool -iptc:all -IPTC:Caption-Abstract=Hello -XMP-xmpRights:Marked=True -ex -o op1_b.jpg 1.jpg
Open 'op1_b.jpg' and the copyright status field does not appear to be set (caption is 'Hello' as exected)

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?


If you run the same two commands on '2.jpg':
exiftool -iptc:all -XMP-xmpRights:Marked=True -ex -o op2_a.jpg 2.jpg
exiftool -iptc:all -IPTC:Caption-Abstract=Hello -XMP-xmpRights:Marked=True -ex -o op2_b.jpg 2.jpg
then the copyright status is correctly set to "Copyrighted" on both!

(although the IPTC data seems to disappear in photoshop (but not in Preview.app), although I don't care too much about that at the minute.)

Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[Phil Harvey]

It looks to me like you are falling victim to an IPTC/XMP synchronization problem.  Your best bet is to keep these synchronized by using the MWG Tags instead of XMP or IPTC individually when the tags are common to both groups.

I tried to reproduce your problem but somehow got different results here with my version of CS4, but try this instead to see how it works for you:

exiftool -mwg:description=Hello -XMP-xmpRights:Marked=True -ex -o op1_b.jpg 1.jpg

This will keep the XMP and IPTC synchronized and also update the IPTCDigest if required.  (This is assuming they were properly synchronized to begin with.)  See the MWG specification if you are into punishment and want to learn more about this.  However, I am not sure that PS CS4 obeys the MWG recommendations, so be careful not to make false assumptions.

- Phil

[markgowdy]

Phil,

Thank you so much, that appears to have fixed the problem.

These MWG tags are incredibly useful, they take a lot of the guess work out of embedding meta-data.
You should maybe think of giving them more prominence on your main site (as a 'Recommeded Approach', especially for beginners).

Regards,

Mark

[Phil Harvey]

I'm glad this solved the problem.  You're right that I should make the MWG feature more prominent in the documentation.

- Phil

[toko]

Hello,

as I think, we just have a similar problem over here.
Unfortunately, we don't find any fitting mwg Tag for the corresponding xmp/iptc tag "Headline".

Now here is what we do:
Step0:

• Create a new jpeg file with Photoshop as Test_Step0.jpg

Step1:

• exiftool -overwrite_original -Title=0815 Test.jpg
• cp Test.jpg Test_Step1.jpg

Step2:

• exiftool -overwrite_original -XMP:Headline=myHeadlineXMP Test.jpg
• cp Test.jpg Test_Step2.jpg

Step3:

• exiftool -overwrite_original -IPTC:Headline=myHeadlineIPTC Test.jpg
• cp Test.jpg Test_Step3.jpg

Step4:

• Save Test_Step1.jpg in Photoshop as Test_Step4.jpg

Step5:

• Do Step2 and Step3 again and saved it as Test_Step5.jpg

After this steps we don't see the Headline Information in Photoshop any more, but it seems to be correctly in the metadata.

The exiftool Version we use is 8.97
The Photoshop-Version in which we try to find the metadata is CS5.5 and CS6
I've zipped all the files and attached the archive to this post.

Can you help us solve this issue or give us further informations?

Thanks in advance,
Tobias

[Phil Harvey]

I believe Photoshop will ignore XMP if the IPTCDigest is wrong (as it is in your step5 file):

Code Select Expand

exiftool ~/Desktop/Exiftool_problem -iptcdigest -currentiptcdigest
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step0.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : 00000000000000000000000000000000
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step1.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : 00000000000000000000000000000000
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step2.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : 00000000000000000000000000000000
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step3.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : 00000000000000000000000000000000
Current IPTC Digest             : c3799f7e000b871d6adadfb51eafdef0
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step4.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : ef772e11e41803e1e74acb7e1b1634dd
Current IPTC Digest             : ef772e11e41803e1e74acb7e1b1634dd
======== /Users/phil/Desktop/Exiftool_problem/Test_Step5.jpg
IPTC Digest                     : ef772e11e41803e1e74acb7e1b1634dd
Current IPTC Digest             : 6d0ce8cffc1d11ebb89898dd8a8b5cc3

Try doing this after step 5:

exiftool -overwrite_original -iptcdigest=new Test.jpg
cp Test.jpg Test_Step6.jpg

Or equivalently, adding -iptcdigest=new to the command whenever you write an IPTC tag.

- Phil

[toko]

At first:

Thanks a lot Phil for your quick response; adding -iptcdigest=new solved our problem. Great!

I've got one more question:
Currently we are setting mixed XMP and IPTC tags. Which means, that sometimes we just set an IPTC tag, and sometimes only a XMP tag. In further cases we add both (e.g. XMP/IPTC "Headline"). In the future we will also use MWG tags, wherever possible.
So: Is it ok to add -iptcdigest=new simply in every case (thus also when only XMP or MWG tags are getting set) or can we expect other problems when doing so?
We would prefer to add the command every time, so that we can exclude the problem explained in my first post in the future and in all cases.

Kind regards
Tobias

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Tobias,

With the IPTC digest set properly, I expect that Photoshop may ignore the IPTC in favour of the XMP.  So you may have problems if some metadata exists only in IPTC.

- Phil

[toko]

Hi Phil,

we now have a properly working solution for our case.

Thanks a lot for your support and help!


Tobias