Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mesue]

At least EXIF writing should be supported.

No software should be writing Exif data! Reading and extracting, yes, but not writing. Exif information is added by your camera and should not be editable. There are other types of metadata that are used for description, organization and categorization, but it is not Exif. I don't mean to sidetrack this thread, but I see this misconception about Exif data a lot in this forum. Please see this article for more information about metadata as it relates to images: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/f/metadata.htm

[JimH]

I would also like to see a quick right-click image monitor. It could be a floating pop-up window that can be zoomed with the plus and minus keys. The Action Window image display is too small and static for checking details or quickly showing images to others.

If you double click an image or hit enter it should jump to full screen.  Zoom in and out with a mouse wheel or the + and - (plus and minus) keys.  Hold your mouse down when you've zoomed in and you can drag the image around.  Page up, page down to get to next or last image.  Pause a slideshow with spacebar.

[Alex B]

No software should be writing Exif data! Reading and extracting, yes, but not writing. Exif information is added by your camera and should not be editable. There are other types of metadata that are used for description, organization and categorization, but it is not Exif. I don't mean to sidetrack this thread, but I see this misconception about Exif data a lot in this forum. Please see this article for more information about metadata as it relates to images: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/f/metadata.htm

Oops, I have always thought that EXIF is a name of a tagging standard like ID3 or APE. I suppose I need to educate myself.

So, if tags like the photographer's name, place, situation, date, key words, comment, etc are saved to the image tags then they would (should?) not go to "EXIF" tags. Correct?

Do we have a common standard that could be adopted to MC? I mean amongst software like Photoshop, ACDSee etc.

[Alex B]

If you double click an image or hit enter it should jump to full screen.  Zoom in and out with a mouse wheel or the + and - (plus and minus) keys.  Hold your mouse down when you've zoomed in and you can drag the image around.  Page up, page down to get to next or last image.  Pause a slideshow with spacebar.

That I use all the time on regular image playback. But I need a quick separate hi-res display for tagging, browsing and organizing. MC may be showing a slide show, video or visualization through the TV-out at the same time and that display may have other watchers.

[mesue]

So, if tags like the photographer's name, place, situation, date, key words, comment, etc are saved to the image tags then they would (should?) not go to "EXIF" tags. Correct?

Correct… those would not be EXIF tags. Exif tags are things like the date the photo was taken, image dimensions, resolution, whether flash was fired, shutter speed, focal length, and other camera settings. Here's the EXIF definition: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/exif.htm

Do we have a common standard that could be adopted to MC? I mean amongst software like Photoshop, ACDSee etc.

Yes, XMP, which is explained in the metadata article I referred to in the post above. 

[Alex B]

Thanks mesue,

I'll check the links. I've not read image related articles recently. I've been more interested about audio and video.

However, I am going to scan a huge archive of old photos anytime soon and the familiar MC database would help a lot in organizing them. If only the tags would be universally supported...


BTW, the Image Editor works a bit like I described. "Right-click > Image > Edit Image" opens a separate window that can be freely placed and sized. Unfortunately it freezes the main UI and naturally it does not change the displayed image when the selection is changed (nothing can be done in the main UI as long as the editor is open).

[dlone]

I think IPTC is what you're after for pictures - it's an industry standard

[mesue]

I think IPTC is what you're after for pictures - it's an industry standard

XMP is the newer standard and it includes IPTC.

[dlone]

That's the trouble wth standards - so many to choose from 

[marko]

exactly.
there are times I find exif writing useful, if not essential....
as EXIF data is the only (universal) meta data that MC will read on import, I'm extremely grateful for certain apps that allow exif editing.
These apps allow me to set the original date on old photo prints that I've scanned.

MC reads the dates on import, which is nice, and so too do most other apps that purport to be "the only image organiser I'll ever need", which is also nice.

The big miss imo, are comments, captions and descriptions. These need to be at least as universal as [artist], [album], and [name] are for audio files.
I wish that someone, somewhere, would get a move on and sort it all out!!

[Mr ChriZ]

No software should be writing Exif data! Reading and extracting, yes, but not writing. Exif information is added by your camera and should not be editable. There are other types of metadata that are used for description, organization and categorization, but it is not Exif. I don't mean to sidetrack this thread, but I see this misconception about Exif data a lot in this forum. Please see this article for more information about metadata as it relates to images: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/f/metadata.htm

I know very little about Exif,
but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXIF
would seem to contradict this....

Some people therefore use a normal receiver to track their movements, and then post-process the images by matching the timestamps in the images with the log from the receiver and can so add the missing information to images.

Descriptions and copyright information. Again this is something which is most often done when post-processing the images, as only high-end camera models let the user choose a text for these fields. (Although this feature is becoming more and more apparent even in lower end compact digital cameras).

and one of the links you posted
:http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/exif.htm

There is also specialized software specifically for extracting and editing Exif data.

So is Wiki wrong? or need updating?
Since theres no way these fields can possibly be guaranteed to be
unedited, why not make them editable (As long as it's not at odds with the image/audio file, ie changing the returned size of the image if Exif specifys it)?

Edit:
The Exif spec is here
http://www.digicamsoft.com/exif22/exif22/html/exif22_1.htm
but it's 156 pages, so it's good days read 

I've only glimpsed through it, but It does have recommendations on how applications should and should not write tags.

I guess I can see that theres no purpose to editing most of the
tags since they will be set correctly at time of the shot being taken....

[mesue]

Well the thing about Wikipedia is that anyone can write anything there and there is no way to check their credentials. The About.com articles I referred to were written by me, and I've been researching and writing about graphics software for over 7 years. (But I confess, I have not read all 156 pages of the Exif specs!)

However, I did jump the gun when I said no software should ever write Exif information… there are some legitimate reasons for editing Exif data, such as the example Alex B. gave of changing the date. Another legitimate reason for editing Exif is to completely strip out some or all of the info. Many people don't want this info included when they put images online, for example. Resolution is another Exif tag that needs to be editable.

But the main thing I wanted to clear up is that descriptions and keywords are generally NOT included in Exif tags. Most software that does embed this info uses IPTC or XMP for it.

[Mr ChriZ]

Well the thing about Wikipedia is that anyone can write anything there and there is no way to check their credentials. The About.com articles I referred to were written by me, and I've been researching and writing about graphics software for over 7 years. (But I confess, I have not read all 156 pages of the Exif specs!)

However, I did jump the gun when I said no software should ever write Exif information… there are some legitimate reasons for editing Exif data, such as the example Alex B. gave of changing the date. Another legitimate reason for editing Exif is to completely strip out some or all of the info. Many people don't want this info included when they put images online, for example. Resolution is another Exif tag that needs to be editable.

But the main thing I wanted to clear up is that descriptions and keywords are generally NOT included in Exif tags. Most software that does embed this info uses IPTC or XMP for it.

Fair play 
I live in hope that one day there will be one all out standard, which will
encompass everything from the length of toothbrushes, through to the amount of salt
in our crisps.
It will probably be called the
Standard standard Standard 2nd Edition. (SsS V2).