people/ Face manager and iptc or exif data

[Yves Thomazeau]

Hello.

Until yesterday i used classical keyword categories to put a name on a picture.
I am now trying now to use the people or face manager tool and i find it very useful specially with the add of groups and families and more ergonomic than the keywords feature.
That said i d like to know more about the management of these data in the exif or iptc parts of the photos.
When i look at my newly tagged photos i can see the data name only in XMP IPTC Extension and in MWG Regions .. Is it ok?
Is it reliable ? i mean will these data remain if the database crashes or if i quit imatch for another software ?
There is maybe another step to take ? for example, my photolab software does not see that type of data but only the keywords...
Waiting for your advices..

[Mario]

See Working with XMP Face Regions and The PersonInImage Tag

Is it reliable?

Sure.

i mean will these data remain if the database crashes

Yes, unless something catastrophic happens.
This is why you make daily backups of your important data (including your IMatch database) and keep these backups around for several weeks. If you don't, learn about backups and how important they are.

or if i quit imatch for another software ?

Keep in mind that the XMP metadata standard offers a rather 'basic' support for faces.
IMatch persists (stores) XMP face regions for your face regions and the person tag. And maintains the PersonInImage tag. See the links above for reference. This makes this data available for other applications, if they support XMP face regions.

XMP has no concept of persons, families, or teams. Or events.
A lot of the magic that makes the Person concept work so well in IMatch is based on the IMatch Graph that manages things like persons, families, teams, events and more in the database, mostly behind the curtain.
That's why you use a DAM.

If you have to, you can export all persons in your database into a JSON file, which is a standard and can be processed by many applications. Much as like you can export IMatch categories. Or Attributes. Or other IMatch data.
If and how you can use that information in other software depends on how capable that software is.

Note that IMatch persons integrate with your previous keyword feature. You can associate keywords and categories with person, and IMatch assigns the person keywords and categories to the file when it assigns and confirms a person. Very flexible, very cool. See Person Keywords and Categories

[sybersitizen]

Is it reliable ? i mean will these data remain if the database crashes or if i quit imatch for another software ?
There is maybe another step to take ? for example, my photolab software does not see that type of data but only the keywords...

I have DxO PhotoLab. There's no indication that it can understand or make use of face regions in metadata. It can find faces in an image on its own, but that's only so it can use the pixel data in the face areas as a reference for adjustments.

[Mario]

I have DxO PhotoLab. There's no indication that it can understand or make use of face regions in metadata. It can find faces in an image on its own, but that's only so it can use the pixel data in the face areas as a reference for adjustments.

Supporting the proper XMP tags (Regions and PersonInImage) is optional, like all XMP.

We all have learned that proper metadata handling is not on the top list of features for (most) RAW processors. It's hard, expensive, and does not show in ads and neither makes good material for "influencer"videos on YouTube.

I decided to support it (and spent time and money to implement it) because

a) the face annotations created in IMatch should be accessible for other applications (no lock-in)

b) IMatch should be able to import face regions created by other software (mostly Picasa and Lightroom at the time) and devices (smart phones).