Aperture Special Report: IPTC/ metadata issues

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 8:40 a.m. PT

2 min read

Aperture may exhibit problems importing previously stored metadata for photos into the application, which uses its own IPTC fields that are easily modifiable from within Aperture, but can cause problems when accepting data created elsewhere.

Aperture also uses an odd navigation mechanism where adding IPTC data to an image will move that photo to the end of the library and automatically scroll back to the beginning of the library, making data entry for multiple images somewhat tedious.

Apple has posted a Knowledge base article (#302943) addressing these limitations and issues. Salient points include:

EXIF missing when exporting versions as TIFF, PNG, PSD If you export a version as TIFF, PNG, or PSD, you may see that most of the EXIF data is missing. However, it's present when exporting to JPEG. Keywords and IPTC data should export as expected.

Metadata added prior to Aperture import is missing If you use a third-party application such as Photo Mechanic to apply metadata to RAW images prior to Aperture import, the metadata is not currently recognized in the Aperture metadata inspector. However, it remains part of the file and is present if you export the master.

Aperture won't import certain files with added metadata Under certain circumstances with certain cameras, Aperture may not be able to import files which have had metadata added by Photo Mechanic or similar applications. Sometimes the file may import but then result in an "unsupported format" message.

Index: