Picture metadata
I noticed in the comments to my post about tagging files in Windows XP that some people are trying to tag digital pictures, with varying degrees of success. I would highly recommend against tagging images using Windows XP’s file properties. There are free tools that will let you manage and tag your photos much more reliably than any XP hack.
I wrote about photo organizing in linux earlier, and while I haven’t done much experimenting with Windows apps, I know that Picasa2 allows you to save keywords for images. I think these are saved as IPTC for XMP data (please test before you tag all your files!). I wish, though, that google would allow for a simpler interface for tagging (adding keywords) to photos. The Picasa2 UI really favors labelling photos in broad terms, such as “R & A’s wedding,” but if you want to tag a photo with “R A wedding cake funny,” you’ll have to work a little harder.
XnView is another free image organizer, available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It also allows for somewhat clunky tagging of images.
So, if you’re running Windows, I’d recommend one of these apps for tagging photos. The disadvantage is that you’ll have to search for photos within the app itself, I believe. It would be really useful if, say Beagle or google desktop search indexed EXIF tags and XMP metadata.
September 6th, 2006 - 8:44 am
Hey,
Saw this post on Technorati; I’m the developer of Beagle and I’m glad to say we do index both EXIF tags and XMP metadata. The XMP data has to be stored in the file, however, and not in a sidecar file.
September 14th, 2006 - 5:49 am
I’m starting to look for free photo management software with tagging function. I’ve been using Picasa for a while. Unfortunately, Picasa doesn’t have any metadata handling ability.
Please take a look at this page:
http://www.johnmunsch.com/2006/06/i_love_picasa_when_its_not_dri.html
Since jBrout is also available for Windows, maybe I’ll try it, as long as the program itself isn’t too bulky.
September 19th, 2006 - 9:42 pm
Check out PixVue for Windows. All though I am not certain that it is perfect (not open source(, it has some of the capabilities you are looking for.
December 4th, 2006 - 12:58 pm
The script runs fine in directories on partitions on my hda, but will not run on my external USB sda partitions… The mv command in isolation works from the command line but the script give the following:
darkly@xxxx-laptop:/mnt/mphotos/Photos/My Photos/Sofitel$ renamer.sh -d -n sofitel
mv: target `Photos/Sofitel/sofitel-001.jpg’ is not a directory
mv: target `Photos/Sofitel/sofitel-002.jpg’ is not a directory
darkly@xxxx-laptop:/mnt/mphotos/Photos/My Photos/Sofitel$
I havce checked the permissions of the folder and files - I am owner and have read/write access.
Any ideas where the problem is?
December 5th, 2006 - 4:10 pm
Problem solved - The folders were from my old Windows system; plenty of file paths with spaces in. Just needed to double-quote the $image and $inputDirectory to allow mv to see the full path.
Script is running great. You have inspired me to modify the script to rename based on the folder names…
Cheers.
January 25th, 2007 - 12:49 pm
For the most comprehensive tagging/labeling take a look at either Exifer (no longer being developed) and IDimager. Both have pluses and minues (IDimager is insanely slow but makes up for it in terms of XMP support and features). Both of these are windoze progs though (another dis).
Cheers
-Gaiko
January 26th, 2008 - 1:00 am
Hi,
I would recommend Adobe Lightroom as this software allows easy editing of EXIF metadata. I am a professional photographer but would recommend this program to anyone.
Joseph
July 24th, 2008 - 9:56 pm
What script is Daniel talking about?
I want a script that adds tags based on file name!