About metadata and ingesting XMP/IPTC fields

Metadata is what allows to search for files on your website and in your admin space. It is also very important for Search Engines to properly index your website. XMP/IPTC metadata embedded into the files is automatically ingested by default.

Image metadata also includes your own star ratings.

Title

The image title (sometimes also called “Headline”) is used in several places:

• on the image page, below the image as a “h1” page title
• in the image page browser bar title
• in the image page URL
• within the HTML code that displays the image both on the image page and on the thumbnail pages.

If your images have embedded IPTC Description fields but no Title fields, no worry: for each image that has a Description but no Title, on your website we display the Description in place of the Title - until you define the image Title.

Description

The Description allows you to provide to your visitors more information about the image. It is used only below the image (except when you have a Description but no Title: in that case, the Description replaces the Title).

Upon upload, we import the IPTC Description / Caption field as the description.

Keywords

The keywords help Search Engines know what your image is about - and it allows them to index keyword searches. There is no penalty for having many keywords, but they should be relevant. 20-25 keywords per image is a good target, answering the usual “Who, What, Where, Why, When” questions.

ALT (alternative) text

ALT text is used to describe the content of an image. It is useful for example for visually impaired visitors, for people using screen readers, and to help search engines like Google understand the image.

Location, City, State, Country, World region

These work like additional keywords, but are displayed separately for your clients’ convenience.

Author and Copyright Notice

The Author (called in some applications “Creator” or “Photographer” or “By-line author”) and Copyright Notice fields are also imported upon upload and displayed on the image page if present.

Ingesting XMP/IPTC metadata at upload

When you import new files, the following options let you determine how the embedded XMP/IPTC metadata is processed:

• Ignore, don’t ingest: The file’s XMP/IPTC metadata fields are not taken into account.
• Ingest, don’t overwrite: Each XMP/IPTC field is ingested, except when previously defined, for example when the file replaces an existing file for which that field is already defined, or when the field is defined in the same upload’s options.
• Ingest, overwrite: All metadata fields are imported, overwriting any previously defined field.
• Clear and ingest: Previously defined XMP/IPTC-related fields are emptied, and the metadata embedded in the file is ingested.

The PhotoDeck fields are mapped to XMP/IPTC fields as follows:

PhotoDeck field	Imported from embedded XMP, IPTC or EXIF metadata field (highest priority first)
Title	[XMP] Headline - [IPTC] Headline - [XMP] Title - [IPTC] ObjectName
Description	[XMP] Description - [IPTC] Caption-Abstract
Keywords	[XMP] Subject - [IPTC] Keywords
Location	[XMP] Location - [IPTC] Sub-location
City	[XMP] City - [IPTC] City
State	[XMP] State - [IPTC] Province-State
Country	[XMP] Country - [IPTC] Country-PrimaryLocationName
World region	[XMP] LocationShownWorldRegion - [XMP] LocationCreatedWorldRegion
Author	[XMP] Creator - [IPTC] By-line - [EXIF] Artist
Copyright	[XMP] Rights - [IPTC] CopyrightNotice - [EXIF] Copyright
Alternative text	[XMP] AltTextAccessibility
File rating	[XMP] Rating
Date created	[XMP] DateTimeOriginal - [XMP] DateTimeDigitized - [XMP] DateTimeCreated - [EXIF] DateTimeOriginal - [EXIF] CreateDate
Expiry	[XMP] LicenseEndDate (if account supports the file expiry feature)

Star ratings and recommendation badges

You can star-rate your own images with the file ratings:

• for editing and sorting your media library
• to indicate to your clients what are your own “selects”, via an “Artists pick” recommendation badge (star icon displayed when an image as a 5-star file rating) - useful when you upload a shoot to a private gallery for a client to proof.

File ratings are automatically imported from the image metadata upon upload, so if you’re already rating your images with Lightroom or other similar software that follows the same standard, the rating will carry over. In any case, a single click allows you to add/change/remove a rating (enable the rating display on the thumbnails via the search box options under My images & videos). You can also batch-edit ratings and search for images by rating.

You can sort your media by file rating, and similarly you can reorder images in galleries by rating, to put your best images first.

A 5-star rating automatically adds a recommendation badge on the images on your website. To remove the star recommendation badge from an image, please change your rating of that image. To remove the star recommendation badge from all files, search in your media library for 5-star files, select them all, and change their rating at once.

Your own file ratings are independent from the client ratings, if you have enabled them for a given gallery.