Batch changing/appending metadata

[mickfly]

Does anyone know if it's possible to append metadata text in multiple files?

 

I want to remove the 'live news' text element from my image caption/title fields but leave the rest.

[CHP]

Although I have never done it, I have read in the forum about other contributors making changes like this via spreadsheet.  Member services sends a spreadsheet with your metadata, you make the changes using the tools available in the spreadsheet software, then send it back to Alamy for the changes to be applied.

 

I suggest contacting Member Services for details.

[mickfly]

Thanks CHP, I know that MS can do that but wanted to do it locally. 

I need to export a CSV, append it and then re-apply it somehow.

[CHP]

There is another way if you use Adobe Lightroom and the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin:

https://www.lightroom-plugins.com/AlamyIndex.php

- "Fetch Alamy data" for the photos for which you want the change so that Lightroom contains the same data as Alamy.

 

- Use the "Search Replace Transfer" plugin by John Beardsworth to make the changes you want to the caption (eg. Search for: "Credit: Mick Flynn/Alamy Live News" and replace with: "")

https://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/jbeardsworth/findreplace/

 

- Then "Set Alamy Fields" with only "Upload IPTC Fields" checked using the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin.

 

This should be workable, but its a lot easier if you already use Lightroom and the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin and just need to add the Search Replace Transfer plugin.  Otherwise, its probably too complicated to get all the pieces working just to make bulk changes to captions.

 

In any event, if you (or anyone else reading this) decides to try this, its worth working the kinks out on the workflow and plugin settings on just two images (which can be corrected manually in case you run into problems) before applying to a bunch of images. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Clarence
 

 

[mickfly]

Excellent Clarence, I've been googling but didn't even see that plugin.

I do use LR bridge and have synced all my metadata between Alamy and my local files and the search and replace plugin looks like it will be just the ticket, thanks.
I'll try the trial on a small number of files first, then report back.

[Sally]

16 hours ago, CHP said:

There is another way if you use Adobe Lightroom and the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin:

https://www.lightroom-plugins.com/AlamyIndex.php

- "Fetch Alamy data" for the photos for which you want the change so that Lightroom contains the same data as Alamy.

 

- Use the "Search Replace Transfer" plugin by John Beardsworth to make the changes you want to the caption (eg. Search for: "Credit: Mick Flynn/Alamy Live News" and replace with: "")

https://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/jbeardsworth/findreplace/

 

- Then "Set Alamy Fields" with only "Upload IPTC Fields" checked using the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin.

 

This should be workable, but its a lot easier if you already use Lightroom and the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin and just need to add the Search Replace Transfer plugin.  Otherwise, its probably too complicated to get all the pieces working just to make bulk changes to captions.

 

In any event, if you (or anyone else reading this) decides to try this, its worth working the kinks out on the workflow and plugin settings on just two images (which can be corrected manually in case you run into problems) before applying to a bunch of images. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Clarence
 

 

That’s a helpful tool to know about, thanks.

[mickfly]

I bought the plugin and it works a treat.

 

I just need to find a way to copy 'super tags' and 'tags fields' in LR Bridge over to the normal ITPC keywords field now.

 

[CHP]

Glad it worked for you!  On the subject of tags/super tags, are you hoping to download the Alamy tags and have them end up in your LR keywords?  If so, I think it can be done (been a while since I tried), but the keywords come in all on the same level (meaning they won't be in the LR hierarchy).  Since I have a hierarchical keyword structure in LR, I decided not to try to pull any keywords back from Alamy.  Note: I typically do my first pass of keywording in LR (I use a controlled vocabulary that I have added to over time) and send those to Alamy, but then end up adding more keywords, as appropriate, in AIM.

 

Anyway, maybe you'll have better success than I did.

 

Clarence

[Sally]

9 hours ago, CHP said:

Glad it worked for you!  On the subject of tags/super tags, are you hoping to download the Alamy tags and have them end up in your LR keywords?  If so, I think it can be done (been a while since I tried), but the keywords come in all on the same level (meaning they won't be in the LR hierarchy).  Since I have a hierarchical keyword structure in LR, I decided not to try to pull any keywords back from Alamy.  Note: I typically do my first pass of keywording in LR (I use a controlled vocabulary that I have added to over time) and send those to Alamy, but then end up adding more keywords, as appropriate, in AIM.

 

Anyway, maybe you'll have better success than I did.

 

Clarence

After a lot of trial and error I finally worked out how to do this without messing up my keyword hierarchy. As long as you have all of the higher level words - and capitalised or not exactly as they are in LR - as well as any synonyms as tags or supertags, then the keywords in the hierarchy stay the same when you fetch data from Alamy using Alamy Lightroom Bridge. You therefore have to be careful how you construct your hierarchy. If you keyword in LR, upload, then take out any higher level words, things won’t match.

If you add words in AIM, then you just have to make sure you add any higher level words too. I decided it’s best to do all keywording in LR for this reason.

[CHP]

2 hours ago, Sally said:

After a lot of trial and error I finally worked out how to do this without messing up my keyword hierarchy. As long as you have all of the higher level words - and capitalised or not exactly as they are in LR - as well as any synonyms as tags or supertags, then the keywords in the hierarchy stay the same when you fetch data from Alamy using Alamy Lightroom Bridge. You therefore have to be careful how you construct your hierarchy. If you keyword in LR, upload, then take out any higher level words, things won’t match.

If you add words in AIM, then you just have to make sure you add any higher level words too. I decided it’s best to do all keywording in LR for this reason.

 

Thanks for this input.  My keywording strategy has evolved to:

 

1.  I do as much keywording as possible in LR that would be common to other sites I upload to (other agencies, my own website, etc.), so I only have to do it once.  Early on, I wanted to start with a ready-made LR keyword database, so I purchased a controlled vocabulary add-on for LR (http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/products/lightroom.html)  This controlled vocabulary has many (many) keywords that I will never use, but I liked the structure and organization it provided.  I have since modified it somewhat and added my own oft-used keywords (scientific classifications, finer subdivision of geographical keywords, landmarks & organizations specific to places I visit, etc.)

 

2.  Since Alamy has some unique differences from other sites (no stemming, use of phrases, tags/supertags, need to be cognizant of CTR, etc.), I add/edit/subtract in AIM to tailor the keywords to Alamy.  I've decided that I don't want to merge the Alamy specific tags back into my LR hierarchy which I use for all sites.

 

3.  I capture the Alamy specific metadata in the fields provided by the Alamy-Lightroom Bridge plugin.

 

The above strategy allows me to store all the effort put into keywording locally.  This is/will be beneficial if agencies suddenly cease operation (lots of examples of this), the important metadata is still stored, backed up, and available for use elsewhere.

 

Clarence