What's New on the Controlled Vocabulary Website? [and in the world of image metadata]

Metadata Working Group releases Guidelines for Interoperability and Preservation of Metadata
A group going by the name of the Metadata Working Group released their "Guidelines for Handling Metadata" document at Photokina on September 24 to help developers with best practices on how to create, read and modify a set of core metadata values within digital images that use Exif, IPTC-IIM and XMP. The groups involved in this initiative include a number of long-standing digital imaging and metadata advocates such as Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corp.; as well as a few you might not expect: Canon Inc., Nokia Corp. and Sony Corp.

The primary thrust of the Metadata Working group is to reveal issues regarding how metadata is exchanged and preserved as it moves between applications and processes (devices, platforms and services), file formats and metadata standards. The ultimate goal is to provide best practices specifically for these nine critical data fields (Keywords, Description, Date/Time, Orientation, Rating, Copyright, Creator, Location [created], and Location [shown]), with the intent of solving interoperability issues for consumers.

Wide scale adoption of these best practices should solve many current problems that plague the photo community. While this initial effort targets consumer still-imaging metadata, rather than those of the professional; they do plan to expand their efforts. In fact, Josh Weisberg, chairman and founder of the Metadata Working Group and director of Microsoft's Rich Media Group said that, "We've chosen to address the most common issues photographers face as we feel this will make the biggest impact for the average photographer," noting that "Down the road, we will expand our work to include other metadata issues relevant to photographers."

Revised IPTC Core & Extensions released
The IPTC has approved a new specification of their Photo Metadata Standard. This includes the the slightly updated IPTC Core 1.1 Schema, and the the brand new IPTC Extension 1.0 Schema which complements as well as extends the set of IPTC Core metadata properties. Download the new IPTC specification to see the new options available, including a number of PLUS fields that are shared with the IPTC. The IPTC photo metadata working group will be working over the summer to develop an updated version of the User's Guide. After reviewing the specifications you are welcome to send comments and views to the IPTC Photo Metadata Yahoo group.

David Riecks invited to speak at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit
David Riecks was invited to share findings from a "MetaSurvey" on behalf of the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) regarding the use of metadata by the major stock distributors at Microsofts third annual Pro Photo Summit in Redmond, Washington, July 9-10,2008. Riecks will also speak about the SAA's Library of Congress funded project to teach and encourage photographers to use embedded metadata. Details about the summit are available on the Microsoft website.

David Riecks invited to Speak at the Second International Photo Metadata Conference
David Riecks was invited back to speak at this conference devoted exclusively to Photo metadata. This years conference is being held on June 5, 2008 in Malta, and the title is "Metadata for Better Business." The conference is jointly sponsored by IPTC, IFRA, and CEPIC. Riecks will be presentating on behalf of the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) regarding the use of metadata by the major stock distributors, and of their Library of Congress funded project to teach about and encourage photographers to use embedded metadata. Details are available at the PHMDC conference website.

PHP scripts to preserve metadata when resizing images with GD
Photographer and web designer, Laura Cotterman has discovered that resizing images on your website using the popular server-side application GD can inadvertently remove metadata from your image files. As there are many widely distributed PHP scripts used within various image gallery software which resize (or watermark) images with GD, the potential exists to create a lot of "Orphan Works" so Cotterman decided to do something. She wrote the code for a couple of simple functions that can be added to PHP scripts for applications that use GD for image resizing so that the IPTC metadata is maintained, and more importantly she built a website to give them away. The ImageMetadata website has a full complement of resources, including a "Live Example" where you can test out the functions on one of your own images. These functions are available at no cost under the GNU license and can be downloaded at the ImageMeta website.

IPTC releases draft specification of the IPTC Core "Extended"
The draft specification of the "IPTC Photo Metadata 2008" is now publicly available. There have been some minor modifications to version 1.1 of the IPTC Core (released in 2005), however the new IPTC Core "Extended" adds a significant number (42) of new properties which complement and extend the current IPTC Core. Download the draft specification document (PDF). The IPTC managing director has asked that all comments be made by posting to the iptc-photometadata Yahoo group prior to May 15, 2008. If you are not already a member, go to iptc-photometadata to apply for membership.

David Riecks participating in "Metadata Guidelines and Standards" Panel at ASPP Education Conference:
David Riecks will be giving a presentation and participating in a panel discussion on "Metadata Guidelines and Standards" at the American Society of Picture Professionals Education conference in Phoenix, on April 26, 2008. The photography industry is exploding with change while picture professionals are racing to keep pace in an era of shifting demands. There are seven additional sessions with key panelists addressing pressing issues, such as how to keep creativity at the heart of commerce; figuring out where all the great stock photography is going to come from; determining how copyright has been affected by issues like Orphan Works and more.

Notes from the First International Photo Metadata Conference:
I have posted my notes from the First International Photo Metadata Conference —"Working towards a seamless photo workflow"— that was held in Florence last summer, in three parts. The first focuses on Photo Metadata Creators and Users, the second on Photo Metadata Standardization Bodies, and the last on Photo Metadata Implementers.

Updated Support pages for Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture:
Additional information on a third, undocumented way of adding keywords to images in Lightroom can now be found on the CVKC-Adobe Lightroom support page. In addition, information about problems applying keywords to multiple image selections in Apple Aperture, as well as methods of removing keywords from single images or selections can be found on the CVKC-Apple Aperture support page.

Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog now available for IDimager 4.0.
Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) is now available in a form that can be imported into the new version 4.0 of IDimager (available for Windows XP and Windows Vista). IDimager has an extensive Catalog Assignment feature that uses synonyms effectively within it's hierarchical format. The same 11,000+ keyword terms (which includes the three schemas provided by the IPTC: Subject, Scene and Genre) are in a form that can be used in both the Professional Edition v4 and Personal Edition v4. For details, visit the CVKC-IDimager Product page.

Check out Jeffery Friedl's Online Exif (Image Data) Viewer.
Jeffrey Friedl has made use of Phil Harvey's excellent Image::ExifTool library, but packaged it as an Online Exif (Image Data) metadata viewer.You can view IPTC (IIM), XMP, Exif metadata and more from images on your local hard drive, or on the web. If you're using Firefox or Safari, you can even install an Exif-viewer button on your button-bar toolbar. After doing that, you can simply click the button anytime a single image is in view and you'll be whisked to a new tab showing the image's data (unfortunately, it doesn't work in Internet Explorer). For details, visit the Online Exif (Image Data) Viewer explanation page.

Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog now available for Adobe Bridge 2.1.
Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) is now available in a form that can be imported into the version 2.1 of Adobe Bridge. The same 11,000 keyword terms (which includes the three schemas provided by the IPTC: Subject, Scene and Genre) are in a form that can be used in the Keyword section of Bridge (which now supports hierarchical keywords). For details, visit the CVKC-Bridge Product page.

BreezeBrowser Pro 1.7 supports synonyms and more.
With Version 1.7, BreezeBrowser Pro, now supports a different Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) which is now available in a form that can support synonyms and excluded category headers! For installation details, visit the CVKC-Breezebrowser Help page.

Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog now available for Adobe Lightroom 1.1.
Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) is now available in a form that can be imported into the version 1.1 of Adobe Lightroom. The same 11,000 keyword terms (which includes the three schemas provided by the IPTC: Subject, Scene and Genre) are in a form that can be used in the Keyword Tag Panel. For details, visit the CVKC-Lightroom Product page.

Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog now available for Apple Aperture.
Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) is now available in a form that can be imported into Apple Aperture. The same 11,000 keyword terms (which includes the three schemas provided by the IPTC: Subject, Scene and Genre) are in a form that can be used in the Keyword Heads Up Display (HUD) in Aperture. For details, visit the CVKC-Aperture Product page.

Hindsight releases updated converter for StockView, launches METAmachine.
Hindsight has updated their converter so that Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) can be imported into StockView 5.5, or their newly launched product METAmachine. For details, visit the Products or StockView Support pages.

David Riecks invited to Speak at the First International Photo Metadata Conference
David Riecks was asked to speak at this first ever conference devoted exclusively to Photo metadata. The conference title is "Working towards
a seamless photo workflow" and is being jointly sponsored by IPTC, IFRA, and CEPIC. This should bring together all interested parties in the photo metadata field, from the camera manufacturer to the photographer. Details are available at the PHMDC conference website.

Version 3.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog now available and compatible with iView and Photo Mechanic.
This revision to the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) brings several major changes. The number of keywords has increased to over 11,000 terms, and includes the three schemas provided by the IPTC (Subject, Scene and Genre). The CVKC is now available in formats compatible with the Structured Kewords feature of Photo Mechanic 4.5 (see item below) as well as iView MediaPro's Vocabulary Editor. Support for previous applications continues. For details on each application, visit the new Products page.

Public beta of Photo Mechanic 4.5 features "Structured Keyword Panel"
Photo Mechanic is now fully IPTC Core (XMP) compatible and they have added a "Structured Keywords Panel" which allows user-customizable hierarchical keywording. With the new Structured Keywords feature, you can apply keywords, as well as synonyms and the rest of the keywords along their hierarchical path, to various IPTC fields such as Keywords and Caption. Photo Mechanic 4.5 includes a sample hierarchical keyword database of animals and world regions provided from Controlled Vocabulary. The full press release is available on the Camera Bits website.

iView Visual Tutorials available
The iView website has a number of excellent visual / video tutorials (podcasts) that show you (literally) how to take care of certain tasks using iView MediaPro. Their first one shows the five way to add metadata to images in the iView Catalog. The rest of these tutorials can be accessed from the main iView Podcast page, where you can view them as iPod (MPEG-4), QuickTime Movie, Windows Media Video, or MP3 audio only formats.

Image Database >> Program page updated
I've update the Programs page, by adding a half dozen new applications, and also by dividing the various applications into either Desktop Image Database/Cataloging Applications, Metadata Annotation, Online Image Databases & Services, and Image Database Utilities.

"A Metadata Manifesto" released
In conjunction with the Stock Artists Alliance, and as chair of the Imaging Technology Standards committee I participated in crafting this document that will distributed at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit, and posted online at the Stock Artists Alliance website and on a companion Metadata Manifesto blog. Please read and share with your peers. If you want to share your feedback,, post your response to this initiative on the blog.

David Riecks to attend Microsoft Pro Photo Summit
I will be participating in a panel discussion on image metadata June 28-29, 2006 at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit. This event is being billed as: "a gathering of the thought-leaders in the professional digital photography industry....it will provide an opportunity to engage in dialog about the latest trends and future direction of digital photography at the professional level, network with the key people in the industry, and see demonstrations of the latest technology."

Added "Recommendations for Limitations on Image Filenaming"
I've added a page with specific "Recommendations for Limitations on Image Filenaming" and made some updates to the Filenaming page.

IPTC and Adobe offer "Fix" for issue in creating Metadata Templates with IPTC Core panels
Check out the Workaround page for the link to the fix on the IPTC site when batch entering metadata.

"Workaround" for creating Metadata Templates after installing the IPTC Core panels
Check out the Workaround page for an way to avoid missing metadata when batch entering metadata.

IPTC Mapped Fields PDF now updated to include IPTC Core Schema for XMP
Check out the IPTC Standards page for an updated PDF file (compatible with version Acrobat 5) of the IPTC Core Mapped fields that includes updated information on the new IPTC Core Schema for XMP.

ControlledVocabulary "Video Tutorials" available on Stock Artists Alliance website
I developed a set of "Video Tutorials" introducing the IPTC Core Schema for XMP, for which the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) has graciously provided webspace (follow the link in the gray/grey box when you arrive at the site above). If you don't have Adobe Photoshop CS and want to learn more about the panels before downloading, here's a way for you to see them in action. These were saved as Quicktime movies and are compatible with both mac and windows operating systems. Depending on your operating system, however, each file will need to partially or fully download before you can begin viewing. Expect a slight delay (30-40 seconds on broadband) before you can begin seeing a video.

IPTC Core Schema for XMP officially released
The "IPTC Core Schema for XMP" version 1.0 specification was approved by the IPTC in 2004 and was released publicly on March 21, 2005. From the IPTC site you can download the custom panels for Adobe Photoshop CS, as well as a full package that includes a comprehensive user guide to these panels (which I authored for the working group), example photos with embedded XMP information, the specification document, and an implementation guide for developers.

SiteMap added to ControlledVocabulary site
Several repeat visitors had asked about adding a "sitemap" page to help them find information on return visits. I've added a link to this new SiteMap for the Controlled Vocabulary site into the bottom menu that is accessible from any page on the site.

New Metalogging section debut
This new section discusses efficient strategies for creating captions and keywords to be added to images in image databases is titled "metalogging" and can be access from the link here or in the navigation bar above. If you have suggestions on how to add to this resource, please send email using the address on the contact page.

Updated IPTC Mapped Fields PDF
Check out the IPTC Standards page for an updated PDF file (compatible with version Acrobat 5) of the IPTC Mapped fields that includes updated information on how iView Media Pro 2.6 handles IPTC fields.

StockView from HindSight Ltd creates converter to work with CVKCv2
The tab-delimited text file in the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog version 2 can be converted and imported into (mac or windows versions) of Stockview 5 from Hindsight Ltd. (the StockView program must be purchased separately). Once imported, the hierarchy is compressed to match StockView's three levels for the Cross Reference file. A click of a button and the imported data is inserted into the Cross References file. You have the choice of having it replace any existing Cross References in the file or having the new words added to your own list. This CVKC Converter is free for owners of StockView 5. It's incredibly simple to use and utilizes a new interactive help system. It's a whopping 5K so will only take mere seconds to download from the HindSight website.

Download the Windows cvkc converter from: ftp://ftp.hsltd.us/hindsight/win/cvkc.zip

Download the Macintosh cvkc converter from: ftp://ftp.hsltd.us/hindsight/mac/cvkc.sitx

New Years Special on Version 2.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog
You can save 15 percent off the cost of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog from today through January 31st. Use this New Year Special link to get the discount.

Version 2.0 of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog is now available
The first major revision to the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC) is now available. The major benefit is for subscription holders, as the subscription version includes a tab-delimited text file of the entire CVKC. This allows the option to import the keyword structure into MySQL and other relational databases. It also provides another way to view the entire hierarchical structure of the CVKC. For additional information, proceed to the CVKC page.

IPTC approves new standard to describe images within Adobe's XMP framework
The IPTC's well known digital photo header has gotten its first major revision in nearly a decade. The approved plan will easily allow IPTC's metadata to work with such best-selling software packages as Adobe Photoshop CS. Dubbed the "IPTC Core" XMP Schema, the standard is both a roadmap and a glossary of data that describes photographs. Read more in the IPTC's news release, or on the ITnews website.

Updates to IPTC standards page
I've updated the IPTC Standards page with some details on the history of the IPTC Information Interchange Module and XMP metadata standard.

Controlled Vocabulary founder, David Riecks, invited to assist on updating IPTC standard for XMP
Based on my work for this site, I was invited, along with a dozen other international members, to participate in this revamping process by IPTC Managing director, Michael Steidl and Adobe's metadata guru, Gunar Penikis.

Our mission?: "This project is a collaborative effort of the IPTC, Adobe Inc. and IDEAlliance to specify a set of news object related metadata elements for the XMP enviroment. Its primary intention is to allow unambiguous mapping and a smooth transfer of metadata currently held in "IPTC Headers" of digital photo image files to a new scheme of IPTC metadata. This new scheme should also reflect the additional requirements for metadata elements as they emerged since the creation of the "IPTC Headers" about ten years ago. This project aims to deliver a specification for this new IPTC metadata scheme for XMP as an XML Schema, Customized Panels for Adobe software to allow editing the metadata, and a documentation for mapping metadata back and forth between the old "IPTC Header" and the new scheme. A first set of deliveries should be made available to the public in October 2004."

IPTC and Adobe Cooperating on an update to the IPTC standard for XMP
Adobe is working with the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to flush out the full IPTC fields in an XMP compliant format. See http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200406/062104XMP.html for the full press release.

Comparative Matrix for Evaluating Image Databases available
I've placed a preliminary version of the Comparative Matrix for Evaluating Image Databases as a PDF file (compatible with Acrobat version 4) on the "programs" page of the Image databases section. If you have suggestions for additions, please contact me.

Updated IPTC Mapped Fields PDF
Check out the IPTC Standards page for an updated PDF file (compatible with version Acrobat 4) the IPTC Mapped fields that include the IPTC fields as written from Adobe Photoshop CS.

Updates to IPTC standards page
Check out the IPTC Standards page for details on the XMP metadata standard that is now in use in Adobe Photoshop 7 and CS.

Step by Step Instructions for Auto Batch Renaming
If you are shooting with a digital camera and want to rid yourself of the naming structure forced upon you by your camera manufacturer, then read how to use the "Auto Batch Rename" feature within the Photoshop File Browser (version 7.0 and CS). This page is currently linked to the "filenaming" page within the "imagedatabase" section of the site.

The full version of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog is now Available
Licensed users of the Image Info Toolkit software, will be glad to know that the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog is now available. Approximately 6000 keywords can be conveniently imported into the Image Info Toolkit in less than a minute.

Free Keywords?
If you are using or testing the Image Info Toolkit software, check out the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog samples.

Controlled Vocabulary "list" now offered on Yahoo Groups
I've started a list for people who wish to engage in discussions related to the use of Controlled Vocabularies, Hierarchies, Thesauri, and Classification schemes used in databases, with a specific interest in image databases. Other topics of interest, such as the use of IPTC meta data, Dublin Core, XML, and Adobe Photoshop's XMP data format are fair game as well. Use of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog and the Image Info Toolkit will be new topics under discussion. Please join us by entering your email address in the form box below.

Subscribe to controlledvocabulary
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Resources added to IPTC-NAA page
A PDF file was added to the IPTC-NAA page that shows how the different fields in the IPTC standard appear in different applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Image Info Toolkit, and Irfanview. More applications will be added as time permits.

Review of the Image Info Toolkit
A thorough review of the Image Info Toolkit and how it can speed your captioning and keywording of TIF and Jpeg files is available from this page.

IPTC-NAA page added
Which came first, the IPTC or Adobe Photoshop's "file info" feature? Learn the answer to that question and much more on the IPTC-NAA page. Things like what kinds of information should go in each IPTC field, as well as applications that can help speed the embedding of IPTC metadata into your image files.

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