Can Picasa write face/name tags to photo metadata for use in Lightroom?

Asked 1/7/2011

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2 answers

I use Lightroom for most of my workflow, but I’d like to use Picasa’s People/face tagging to identify people in photos and then continue editing and organizing in Lightroom. Can Picasa store those face/name tags in the image metadata so Lightroom can read them? If so, how do I enable it, and are there any format limitations or external tools that help?

metadata picasa lightroom face-tagging xmp

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

2 Answers

Picasa stores faces information in the .picasa.ini files:

[test.jpg]
faces=rect64(1eb1929f885e),15441a598f9f1866
backuphash=29866

The id numbers can be found in the contacts.xml file which stores all the contacts of your pictures:

<contact id="15441a598f9f1866" 
  name="Test Test" 
  display="Test" 
  modified_time="2010-05-13T17:19:46+01:00" 
  sync_enabled="0"/>

Several programs can read these files and modify the EXIF accordingly. For instance:

faceextract.pl ( command line perl script )
AvPicFaceXMPTagger (GUI)

Originally by user507. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user507

15y ago

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes. Picasa can store face/name tag metadata, and Lightroom can then read it.

In newer Picasa versions, enable:

Tools > Options > Name Tags > Store Name Tags In Photo
If needed: Tools > Experimental > Write Faces to XMP

After tagging in Picasa, in Lightroom select the files and use Read Metadata from Files.

Older Picasa workflows stored face data in .picasa.ini, with person IDs mapped in contacts.xml. If your files only have that sidecar-style data, third-party tools such as faceextract.pl or AvPicFaceXMPTagger can convert it into XMP metadata.

Important caveats from users:

In Picasa, simply recognizing a person may not be enough; make sure the photo is actually tagged so the metadata gets written.
This was reported to work with JPGs; one user could not get it to work with DNG.
Since Picasa was discontinued, availability may be limited.

So the basic answer is: yes, via XMP metadata, with possible format limitations and some extra steps in Lightroom.

Can Picasa write face/name tags to photo metadata for use in Lightroom?

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