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General discussion

batch metadata creation for digital photos

Mar 11, 2011 1:17AM PST

Hi all,

I'm new to this site, but I was wondering if anyone has any leads for what I'm looking for--I'm trying to find software that will allow me to create/edit metadata for a batch of digital photos. For example, I want to select x number of photos and be able to edit the properties to show the same photographer, date, location, etc., for all of them at once. I'm primarily on a PC, but I have access to a Mac as well. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Discussion is locked

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This is a job for . . . EXIFTOOL!
Mar 11, 2011 2:16PM PST

A guy by the name of Phil Harvey has created a program that runs on Windows, Mac and Unix machines called ExifTool. It's a command-line utility that can be called out of batch files with its own batch programming language. It can extract - and can edit the metadata in a large number of types of files, with a heavy emphasis on digital photography files including RAW files. It can do conditional-testing before editing, and make backups of the original unedited versions for safety.

There's also a GUI front-end available to make it easier to work with in interactive mode.

All this stuff is free. Go to:

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

to get the lowdown - and the downloads!

I use it to batch edit the distance information in pics taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi (called the EOS 400D in Europe) - that model swaps the upper and lower focus distances recorded in the Exif.

With some help from Phil Harvey himself, I made a simple batch file to run through all the pix in a photo shoot and swap those distance values back so that they become intelligible to Adobe's programs (Canon's own programs refuse to see the distance data from this camera either way).

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Another option could be
Mar 11, 2011 7:31PM PST

MS Pro Photo Tools; I have not used it for batch editing metadata, but it is probably capable of it. You will need to check.

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Thanks!
Mar 13, 2011 11:48PM PDT

@PROlenick and richteral--thanks, these seem like good possibilities!

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Batch metadata
Oct 19, 2011 10:23AM PDT

You can use LightRoom 3 by Adobe.
I use it all the time after every photoshoot.
Just download all the photos, and then make the changes to to metadata and save (or export) to a new location.

Steve Shams
LA Fashion Photographer

Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator signature link removed as it is prohibited in these forums on 10/24/2011 at 9:29 AM PT