Problem - Can't edit metadata for multiple selected files.

Hi everyone, 
Thank you for the suggestion - this is not something we are currently working on.

This does not mean this is a bad suggestion or that it will never be adressed, but in an effort of transparency we want you to know that we are not currently allocating resources to solving this issue.

We will revisit the status of this thread if and when it changes.

The system C1 has for editing metadata on multiple files is incredibly tedious.  I'd much prefer being able to highlight all the images I want to change the description on, and then just type a new description and press enter and have it apply to them all. 

If I wanted to be careful about disk usage and edit a dozen fields on one image and then apply it to everything else I could still use the existing system by just clicking on one image, making my changes, copying that to the clipboard, selecting all the images, and applying.

But 99% of the time I just want to select them all and edit a field or two and be done.

383401430157

I happen to have a relevant sort of shoot last week so I have been processing the images and taking my normal Metadata work a stage further than I usually would to cover more of the functionality than usual, just to see it there are any obvious anomalies or even a few additional suggestions.

Having revisited the first video on your previous post I think the problem you are seeing is that the entry of text into the Headline field has not been committed to the Metadata in the file at the time you then try to copy it.  I made the same error when trying to change an entry today - it's easily done.

Copying from the edit instructions file to the Clipboard uses the data in the file not the uncommitted changed data on the screen.

Once you have entered the text in the field you need to either move the cursor to another field or use the Enter/Return key to commit the change to the data.

I've just tried clicking away and hitting enter to commit, TAB to next field also. But the CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+C combination does nothing in this case - Capture One 23 Build 16.0.1.20. Maybe your Capture One version is different and it works there?

In respect of presets and granularity...

So much depends on what the shoot is about.

Last week I took some images for some friends that were doing shakedown runs for motor sport vehicles in preparation for the 2023 season.

The location is a regular, non moveable race track. So I have a preset for the name and address details.

I was concentrating mostly on 5 drivers and 6 cars. So quite an easy day. One driver ran in 2 cars (as he was responsible for their preparation) with one of those cars being driven by his customer for the rest of the day after its initial check run.

My normal approach for metadata is to simply create and then copy all common data to all files and then sort out the individual entries as required.

So all entries get the location preset on import (if I remember to do it and it is appropriate for the day) or by using select all and apply the preset after import. Forgetting to set the preset for import is no major problem and takes seconds to correct.

Beyond that point I tend to use keywords before other metadata, partly because the images to be grouped  -by person or by vehicle (usually)  -  will benefit from keywording anyway. The desired images by either will be in small groups but scattered at different points throughout the shoot(s). Keywords for the individuals (usually only the individual are required at this stage) then allow me to create albums by person and that will constrain any additional metadata field entry choices to some extent and improve the effectiveness of adding the information by grouping like images. Mostly. There can be exceptions!

The Keywording tool has some useful features that can make this process effective for both entry effort and consistency. However in more complicated events the one to one realtionships often become one to many and many to one, though quite honestly the greater amount of work can be trying to obtain the basic information accurately before trying to add it to the images!

So, my simplistic view of shooting property is as follows.

The property will have a name/ number and address. That can be set up as a preset but unless it is a place you expect to revisit regularly a preset may not be worth creating. Simply add the required info to one image and copy to the rest (or use that entry to create the preset is you prefer to do it that way).

Most properties of a certain type will have some common features. 

Entry Hall, Living room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedrooms, etc. I'm using UK "standard" words and different words may apply in other places but the concept is the same. There may also be some special or even unique parts of the property that are not commonly encountered. 

Either way one might set up presets for Living Room, Study, Dining Room, kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom 1, Bedroom2, etc. Separate presets, not one that describes the entire property. Remember that one can Stack Presets.

So when shooting a set of images for Bedroom 1 it might be expected that, usually, most of those images are likely to be taken at the same time and so appear on the shoot timeline in a sequence making them easy to select and apply the preset "Bedroom 1".  (Obviously if the nature of the property means that the bedrooms all look the same and the shoot moved from one to the next, knowing which bedroom the image related to might be a problem. But that is like my "finding the right information" problem above rather than something related to the metadata editing process functionality.

In the case of properties with individual or unique features - 73 bedrooms or a Nuclear Shelter perhaps - the preset option would not really apply even as individual per room or feature definitions, so just add the abnormal additional entries as and when required and then copy to whichever images will be sent to the client.

The "Drag and drop" method ...

As I mentioned I mostly use keywords and I find the D+D  approach works well for keywords and hierarchical KWs in the majority of cases  - especially if one uses a floating tool for the KW (or Metadata) option to may the "drag" as short os possible and permit as much tool display area as needed to work comfortably. 

Multiple selection of images helps - as does any basic pre-selection encoding that assists with image grouping. This is especially useful when dealing with several thousand images taken over a weekend at an extended event.

Note that I also use sessions not a catalog usually, but even using a catalog my initial process would be into a standalone catalog and not some giant master catalog where the system would be carrying the additional burden of thousands of images (and their metadata clutter) that are not significant to the work at hand.

One session per event. In the case of property shoots, probably one session per property but if shooting multiple properties for the same client and hundreds rather than thousands of images, I might put all of the properties in a single session.

Returning to the Copy and Paste functionality, the metadata tool is a rather broad brush in terms of the fields it covers. However, it's relatively quick to use to select the required fields or clear the ticked pre-populated selection and then select only the fields one requires to be copied.

 

However, generic presets could be quite readily deployed, in my opinion.

I'm not disregarding the usage of Keywords, and I do use them extensively. However, to my knowledge, keywords is not something you can export with file, where use of metadata allows 3rd party software (either delivery system or classification system) to use that metadata. I agree with everything you said, but the way of presets is an extra step and the amount of presets that would need let's say for wedding shoot, real estate shoot, some other shoots - is enormous. And why we can't just go ahead and do this the easiest way possible :)

I recently learned that people pay for a copy of PhotoMechanic software, just to avoid hitting unnecessary complications like this. Ridiculous thing...

dVs,

I happen to have a relevant sort of shoot last week so I have been processing the images and taking my normal Metadata work a stage further than I usually would to cover more of the functionality than usual, just to see it there are any obvious anomalies or even a few additional suggestions.

Having revisited the first video on your previous post I think the problem you are seeing is that the entry of text into the Headline field has not been committed to the Metadata in the file at the time you then try to copy it.  I made the same error when trying to change an entry today - it's easily done.

Copying from the edit instructions file to the Clipboard uses the data in the file not the uncommitted changed data on the screen.

Once you have entered the text in the field you need to either move the cursor to another field or use the Enter/Return key to commit the change to the data.

In respect of presets and granularity...

So much depends on what the shoot is about.

Last week I took some images for some friends that were doing shakedown runs for motor sport vehicles in preparation for the 2023 season.

The location is a regular, non moveable race track. So I have a preset for the name and address details.

I was concentrating mostly on 5 drivers and 6 cars. So quite an easy day. One driver ran in 2 cars (as he was responsible for their preparation) with one of those cars being driven by his customer for the rest of the day after its initial check run.

My normal approach for metadata is to simply create and then copy all common data to all files and then sort out the individual entries as required.

So all entries get the location preset on import (if I remember to do it and it is appropriate for the day) or by using select all and apply the preset after import. Forgetting to set the preset for import is no major problem and takes seconds to correct.

Beyond that point I tend to use keywords before other metadata, partly because the images to be grouped  -by person or by vehicle (usually)  -  will benefit from keywording anyway. The desired images by either will be in small groups but scattered at different points throughout the shoot(s). Keywords for the individuals (usually only the individual are required at this stage) then allow me to create albums by person and that will constrain any additional metadata field entry choices to some extent and improve the effectiveness of adding the information by grouping like images. Mostly. There can be exceptions!

The Keywording tool has some useful features that can make this process effective for both entry effort and consistency. However in more complicated events the one to one realtionships often become one to many and many to one, though quite honestly the greater amount of work can be trying to obtain the basic information accurately before trying to add it to the images!

So, my simplistic view of shooting property is as follows.

The property will have a name/ number and address. That can be set up as a preset but unless it is a place you expect to revisit regularly a preset may not be worth creating. Simply add the required info to one image and copy to the rest (or use that entry to create the preset is you prefer to do it that way).

Most properties of a certain type will have some common features. 

Entry Hall, Living room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedrooms, etc. I'm using UK "standard" words and different words may apply in other places but the concept is the same. There may also be some special or even unique parts of the property that are not commonly encountered. 

Either way one might set up presets for Living Room, Study, Dining Room, kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom 1, Bedroom2, etc. Separate presets, not one that describes the entire property. Remember that one can Stack Presets.

So when shooting a set of images for Bedroom 1 it might be expected that, usually, most of those images are likely to be taken at the same time and so appear on the shoot timeline in a sequence making them easy to select and apply the preset "Bedroom 1".  (Obviously if the nature of the property means that the bedrooms all look the same and the shoot moved from one to the next, knowing which bedroom the image related to might be a problem. But that is like my "finding the right information" problem above rather than something related to the metadata editing process functionality.

In the case of properties with individual or unique features - 73 bedrooms or a Nuclear Shelter perhaps - the preset option would not really apply even as individual per room or feature definitions, so just add the abnormal additional entries as and when required and then copy to whichever images will be sent to the client.

The "Drag and drop" method ...

As I mentioned I mostly use keywords and I find the D+D  approach works well for keywords and hierarchical KWs in the majority of cases  - especially if one uses a floating tool for the KW (or Metadata) option to may the "drag" as short os possible and permit as much tool display area as needed to work comfortably. 

Multiple selection of images helps - as does any basic pre-selection encoding that assists with image grouping. This is especially useful when dealing with several thousand images taken over a weekend at an extended event.

Note that I also use sessions not a catalog usually, but even using a catalog my initial process would be into a standalone catalog and not some giant master catalog where the system would be carrying the additional burden of thousands of images (and their metadata clutter) that are not significant to the work at hand.

One session per event. In the case of property shoots, probably one session per property but if shooting multiple properties for the same client and hundreds rather than thousands of images, I might put all of the properties in a single session.

Returning to the Copy and Paste functionality, the metadata tool is a rather broad brush in terms of the fields it covers. However, it's relatively quick to use to select the required fields or clear the ticked pre-populated selection and then select only the fields one requires to be copied.

However, generic presets could be quite readily deployed, in my opinion.

383401430157 - I appreciate your input, thank you for providing vital information.

I tried proposed methods, one of them worked, but proved to be cumbersome. Please see my notes and recorded demos below.

• Proposed Method #1

Using the Metadata Tool;

Select the images (with edit all images selected), enter the text in one of them. Then immediately use the Keyboard shortcut  "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C" to apply that entry to all of the other selected images.

You can also make the entry for one image and then select it and any other images that require the same entry for the same field before apply the text to multiple images.

I've added the key stroke display in blue to see that the shortcut is entered.

This unfortunately didn't work, but if it worked - it would copy Everything, unless I would take extra steps to remove things that I don't need to copy. This is exactly your point below about unticking.

More likely on many occasions, you would need to consider the contents of the Clipboard (all the data fields in the Metadata tool) and untick those that you did not wish to update..  In that case, click the arrow icon in the tool's toolbar and the Clipboard tool should pop up. You can leave that displayed as a floating tool to make managing the clipboard contents a little simpler during extended update activity.

• Proposed Method #2

Another approach is to use the Filter tool making sure that the EXIF fields you commonly use are set up do be displayed as filters.

As one adds text to the EXIF fields the contents of the field will be added to the filters display. One can then simply "drag" an image or a selection of images over the relevant filter text of the field in order to populate other images.

This approach with filters is better then "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C" in a way that allows you to implement granularity. However, one would have to fill metadata for individual files on the "Metadata Tab", then go back to Library, and keep dragging and dropping files until finished. This increases the steps needed to complete this simple tasks, and increases the possibility of mistake (i.e. dropping on a wrong filter), since there is no active visual feedback on what filter you are dropping the files.
Another thing I noticed while recording the demo - there is no way of remembering what filter should be used, in my demo I showed it by hesitating between bedroom #1 and bedroom #2. Not sure how this could be solved, and even if it should when there could be much faster and simpler workflow - similar to LR.
Allow me to demonstrate.

For entries common to all (or most ) images, like creator name and copyright information, I typically use the import process to add the required information most often via a preset or style. 

Same here :)

Mostly I shoot events - typically sporting events. So the order of shooting and the way the images naturally batch together (when they do batch together) can be a little random.

I feel you, this gets hectic, especially with different cameras and different time set on them.

However, if regularly shooting houses, as per your example, I could foresee opportunities for presets to be used. 

House type for example.

Then there are room descriptions that might be used for almost every shoot. Presets could work well there.

I mentioned that preset would be hard to implement here, since for example if you shot 3 different properties / events / objects etc, one preset won't fit all. Even within one house, there might be a number of different rooms, and you won't be able to quickly select a preset from your library to apply individually to each room.

dVs,

There are a couple of things you might like to check to see whether they help your workflow.

Note that the EXIF data fields that are capable of handling very large amounts of text seem to follow a policy of "Create one entry for one image and then copy to other selected images." (Hopefully once the text, no matter how much there is, has been checked for spelling errors, etc. I hate trying to fix stuff afterwards...)

I assume this approach was selected to try to prevent heavy and unwanted processing load if several thousand images have been selected.

Firstly, looking at the LR process, it is very similar.

Using the Metadata Tool;

Select the images (with edit all images selected), enter the text in one of them. Then immediately use the Keyboard shortcut  "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C" to apply that entry to all of the other selected images.

You can also make the entry for one image and then select it and any other images that require the same entry for the same field before apply the text to multiple images.

More likely on many occasions, you would need to consider the contents of the Clipboard (all the data fields in the Metadata tool) and untick those that you did not wish to update..  In that case, click the arrow icon in the tool's toolbar and the Clipboard tool should pop up. You can leave that displayed as a floating tool to make managing the clipboard contents a little simpler during extended update activity.

Another approach is to use the Filter tool making sure that the EXIF fields you commonly use are set up do be displayed as filters.

As one adds text to the EXIF fields the contents of the field will be added to the filters display. One can then simply "drag" an image or a selection of images over the relevant filter text of the field in order to populate other images.

For entries common to all (or most ) images, like creator name and copyright information, I typically use the import process to add the required information most often via a preset or style. 

Mostly I shoot events - typically sporting events. So the order of shooting and the way the images naturally batch together (when they do batch together) can be a little random.

However, if regularly shooting houses, as per your example, I could foresee opportunities for presets to be used. 

House type for example.

Then there are room descriptions that might be used for almost every shoot. Presets could work well there.

I support your approach to naming but I tend not to use the EXIF tokens simply because I frequently need multiple outputs from the same images that would require different EXIF/IPTC field contents to achive the result. It simply becomes easier to settle on Keywords together with Smart Albums for filtering and then use the Export naming options rather than tokens for the output batches,

I would prefer to use tokens, but not if it means more work!

Thanks for updating the post dVs! :)

Got it fixed now, for some reason didn't work from mobile phone.

Interested in hearing 383401430157 or 368752449678 about the topic :)

Strange, I see you have an avatar now but still I see the generic name.

369260519517 I do enjoy the keyword workflow as you mentioned too. And thank you for pointing out to the FirstName LastName in my profile. Fixed :)

366733739077 - Done. I don't think that rules and guidelines are annoying, however, following them doesn't always brings you close to the result. Like that timestamp edit that was so impossible for a number of years and then it happened :)

btw, you explicitely mentioned other forum members, which is not possible with your very generic firstname lastname, maybe you find a way to change your name?

I like how C1 has implemented the keyword tool behavior for multiple selected images. Although I like that the keyword tool also indicates which keywords are not in common (with a minus sign), and shows all different keyword strings a rather simple approach as you showed with LR would be a big benefit for C1 too. The current possibilities via the adjustments clipboard or shift-click etc. is nice but alwas an extra-step.

+1 from me.

Thanks for the hint Thomas,

I just realized that this might be viewed as a very narrow and specific use case. However, the workflow recorded is just the most obvious and explanatory example I was able to come up with.

Please share your use cases for editing multiple files metadata. This is something previous posts missed too.

Perhaps I should mention participants from previous posts so they could vote on this too and contribute ideas.

368074128197, 374152085498, 368363389018, 368752449678 383401430157, 370130551277, 377813879717, 368092392997, 373800021098, 372149537898, 370116695498, 374108379757, 378059820618,375258577258

Editing of metadata for all selected files (with out the extra steps) would be very useful and would save a lot of time.

(By the way – remember to vote for your own suggestions.)