Ability to limit Metadata

[Richard]

I was content with IPTC and EXIF before XMP came along and would like to have a way to limit what is written to XMP. If maker notes in EXIF provide the type and number of batteries used in the camera, I don't care. Thus I would like to have a choice of even what EXIF data gets added to XMP. GPS interests me but the scanners I have used don't have GPS and it would do me no good if they did. 

[Mario]

IMatch uses ARG files provided by ExifTool to map data between EXIF and XMP (both ways). These ARGs files have been written to follow the guidelines for migrating data between EXIF and XMP given by the Metadata Workign Group and the corresponding sections in the XMP specification by Adobe. Using these ARGS files in IMatch means that IMatch will always be up-to-date with changes incorporate by Phil in order to implement changes in the XMP or MWG specifications.

Limiting EXIF->XMP mapping would require custom ARGS files and a number of new features in IMatch to use such user-defined ARGS files. Using such a user-defined EXIF <-> XMP mapping would probably violate the MWG rules and maybe even make the XMP record incompatible with other applications.

Most Maker Notes (like your battery example) are not covered by any standard and are not part of the EXIF->XMP mapping. See http://www.metadataworkinggroup.com/specs/ for a full list of tags to map between standards.

Tip: To see all XMP tags contained in your files do this:

1. Create a new Metadata Panel Layout
2. Hide all standard Panels, except the Metadata Browser
3.  For the Browser, select only the XMP group

This gives you a Metadata Panel layout which shows all the XMP data.

[Richard]

IMatch uses ARG files

That fits - when I saw that a TIFF file had gone from 1,160 KB to 46,568 KB after being added to IMatch 5 I said "ARG".

[Mario]

You mean that the file size increased that much just by adding a file to IMatch?

Do you use background (automatic) write-back?
Then IMatch may update the metadata in the file after import, because when you use the default settings it will add/update the XMP record of the file from IPTC/EXIF data available in the file, and then write-back this data.

This sounds like a problem with the data which causes ExifTool to produce random data. Never had such a case. Is this the file you've sent to me?

[Richard]

Is this the file you've sent to me?

That is correct. After deleting that file from my database things cleared up and now it is working as expected.

My wild guess is that each time I added that file to a new category, it got bigger. All I really know is the size of the file it was copied from and the size of the file when I started having problems.

I use the default settings for write-back. When I add my test images to a database, it takes a long time and three processes so I am sure you are correct. ExifTool is reading the embedded IPTC/EXIF data and then writing it back to XMP. Another wild guess is that if the data written to XMP is somehow corrupted, the next time Metadata is added, ExifTool adds all the IPTC/EXIF data again because the existing data is no longer recognized as IPTC/EXIF data.

[Mario]

My wild guess is that each time I added that file to a new category, it got bigger.

Assigning a file to a category does not change metadata - unless you assign to a @Keywords category. Is this what you do?

By default, IMatch does not immediately write-back data to files. Check under Edit > Preferences > Background Processing.

I will look at the file you've send within a couple of days.

[Richard]

Assigning a file to a category does not change metadata - unless you assign to a @Keywords category. Is this what you do?

No but I have seen the pencil icon appear on thumbnails I hadn't done anything to and had no clue why they appeared. I no longer use "For all pending files". The last time I used that it turned into 14:37 for just the first phase.

I really believe that the file I sent was what caused problems. There has to be something wrong for the file size to increase 40 times the original. Especially without adding any Metadata to it.