Lightroom keywording Peculiarities

[BobD]

I always keyword and caption in lightroom before uploading.

Can any one explain that if I keyword the tif image and export to jpeg, the keywords and caption are intact when uploaded to Alamy. Yet if I keyword and caption a jpeg image in lightroom the keywords and caption are Missing upon upload?

My last upload had a mixture of both, so it's not a batch problem.

 

[Russell]

What settings do you have in the Metadata section of the Export panel?

[Sally]

Deleted

[BobD]

9 minutes ago, Russell said:

What settings do you have in the Metadata section of the Export panel?

 

include: all metadata

remove person and location info boxes ticked

write keywords as as lightroom hierarchy box unticked.

 

But the problem is not with the export because the exported jpegs have the keywords included and stay intact when uploaded. It's only when I keyword  jpgs directly (exported without keywords in the tif image) that the keywords disappear on upload to Alamy.  

[Craig Joiner]

By default Lightroom only stores the metadata in it's database and unless you tell it to save the data to the original file, it doesn't make any changes to the image file on your hard disk. I would always advocate using the same workflow for all image types as it reduces the chance of human error and unexpected consequences such as you have found. So, I will always export from Lightroom as I know all my metadata will be correct and any image edits (no matter where made) will be in the exported images. I never use the original files on my hard drives and I never write changes to images from Lightroom either. I learned the hard way a long time ago that this introduces a small but very possible chance of image corruption.

 

That said, if you want to write your metadata to the jpeg files, right click the image in Lightroom, select 'Metadata' and then 'Save Metadata to File'. However, depending on how your have your keywords set-up in Lightroom, this may not do what you expect. For instance it will save ALL keywords, including any you have marked not to export (such as keywords you might use to identify images sent to Alamy etc.) Another reason to always export from Lightroom.

 

Craig

[NYCat]

Somewhere in the Preferences you can choose to always have the metadata saved to the file.

 

Paulette

[Craig Joiner]

56 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Somewhere in the Preferences you can choose to always have the metadata saved to the file.

 

Indeed.

Edit -> Catalog Settings

Then in the Metadata tab check ‘Automatically write changes to XMP'

Make sure you also uncheck ‘Include Develop settings in metadata inside JPEG, PNG, and PSD files’ otherwise every edit you make in the Develop module is also written to the file on the fly which can cause Lightroom to slow down, unless you want need all your edits also stored in the files.

I’d personally not recommend writing any data to images. With this setting on, Lightroom will be making lots of writes to your precious image files which increases the risk of corruption. I understand why people might prefer to do this however, but just be sure to understand the risks and adjust your backup strategy accordingly. In other words, make sure you have a backup of all your images before Lightroom touches them and keep that separate from subsequent backups of the images Lightroom has altered. Oh, and of course keep lots of backups of the Lightroom catalogue too.

I hope that makes sense.

Craig

[BobD]

Yes thank you all for your input.

I guess the best thing is not to forget to keyword the tif file before exporting.