Exif -User Comment

So the EXIF data that is messed up in Aperture was placed into the RAW masters on the Mac and not the PC?

Then I need to rethink.

So the only field you added data to was the User Comment field and that is the only field in the EXIF data taht is messed up?

Exiftool can be intimidating and if you get into it it can get crazy but for simple dump out of EXIF data its not to bad. Of course given this new information I'm not sure how much it will tell us.

As for your last question IPTC caption vs EXIF User Comment, I would vote for the IPTC field. The reason being EXIF data is normally used for in camera and time of creation data. If you going back to images after the fact the IPTC fields are the ones to use (imo). If your adding caption like data then it shoudl go in the caption field.

There is a site devoted to the IPTC fields, what's expected in each and how they are used in the more commercial world. I don;t have that link in front of me but if you search here (or on the web) for IPTC you should find it. If not I'll get it for you tomorrow.

regards

@Frank,

this made me doubt a little, that the op's problem has arises from the PC images:

Also, I cannot edit, delete or write into any Exif User Comment field in this program, even if I import a new picture I just took today!

@Kirby:

The current thread made me look for this one. Might that shed some light here?

That was the first thread I went looking for, but then remembered, the problem related to menu items and not EXIF tags

😕

Léonie

Ok I loaded a trail of ACDSee and edited the EXIF data on a RAW (CR2) image and imported into Aperture.

In ACDSee I added data to the 4 EXIF Artist, copyright, image description and User comment. When I imported the image into Aperture the first 3 Artist, copyright and image description were displayed and displayed properly. Interestingly the last, User comment was blank in Aperture.

Tried looking at the image in iPhoto but it appears as if the new iPhoto doesn't let you see all the EXIF data (at last I couldn;t find a way) and I don't have Exiftool on this machine to see just what is in the field. I'll be able to do that later today.

In the mean time do you have a way to post one of your files that exhibit this problem, dropbox or somethign similar? This way we could check to see what appears in Aperure and try to track down the problem.

Going back to my ealier post and the other thread you have going I do think this is the wrong place to be adding this data and that the IPTC fields would be a better choice.

regards

Frank, following your example I, too, installed ACDSee Pro Trial and imported an Raw image, set some tags; here is what I got, when I imported the CR2 to Aperture:

The "Image Description" was mapped to the Aperture-Caption field, the "User Comment" field is empty. exiftool shows this field as empty, too.

If I export this image from ACDSee as "Tiff", the results are the same, but the "User Comment" field now says "ASCII" in Aperture.

If I export as Jpeg, the "User Comment" field shows the correct entry in Aperture.

😕

Regards

Well I'm a bit confused by it at this point. Brought the RAW image over to a system with Exiftool on it, imported into Aperture and saw none of the chnage's I made. Then realized that (at least for RAW images) ACDSee created a xmp file which had the changes in it. Brought that over and I see what you report with RAW images. Didn't try it with tiff or jpg.

Looking at the image with Exiftool none of those fields are in the image ,looking at the xmp file the changes are there, even the user comment field.

One thing you wrote:

If I export this image from ACDSee as "Tiff", the results are the same, but the "User Comment" field now says "ASCII" in Aperture.

has me wondering, did you put the word ASCII in the User Comment field or did this just appear? And what did you see in Exiftool?

At this point if the OP comes back I'd like a complete description of what his process has been, file type, what commands in ACDSee he ran, etc.

regards

jpeg

tiff

No, I did not enter the text "ASCII". I inspected the CRC and the tiff also in GraphicConverter - do you have a copy? This also displays EXIF, exiftool, and the XMP sidecar data.

When I try to open the tiff in GraphicConverter, I get an interesting error message regarding the "Caption" tag:

Got sidetracked -sorry; you were asking about the exiftool output:

The "User Comment" field is empty for the exported tiff, for the jpeg it is exactly the text I entered.

And no, I did not enter the text "ASCII" into the user comment field.

Message was edited by: leonieDF, completed the answer

Then realized that (at least for RAW images) ACDSee created a xmp file which had the changes in it.

When I imported the RAW to Aperture, I imported the folder containing the raw, and this folder also contained the sidecar file, so this was tacitly imported as well. So shall we advise the OP always to include the sidecar file on import?

I repeated the export of the tiff, and now the weird "ASCII" text is gone. On second try the tags are exactly as for the jpeg.

You are right - but that has always been so in Aperture, as far as I remember. Aperture does not want us to edit EXIF - the EXIF tags seem to be considered a record of the exact conditions of the moment the picture was taken, and must not be changed, even a user comment.

Sometimes this is just too restrictive; for example, I would dearly love to edit the EXIF tags of my scans to show the camera model I used to shoot the picture, and not the model of the scanner that I used to scan the transparencies 😝

How do I get a screen shot like you did of my metadata so I can show you?

O yes, it would help to see your screen:

hold both

and

and press

=

Mac OS X captures the entire screen and saves it as a file named like “Picture 1.png” on your desktop.

For more options see: http://take-a-screenshot.org/

Sorry for the late response, we seem to be living in different time zones 🙂

Regards

Léonie