What metadata tags are useful to add to scanned photographs?
Asked 3/3/2021
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I’m scanning a collection of old printed photos to JPEG and can edit metadata with tools like ExifTool, but the full list of EXIF/IPTC/XMP tags is overwhelming. For scanned photographs, is there a small, commonly used set of metadata fields worth adding? I’m mainly looking for practical guidance on which standard tags are most useful, rather than obscure scanner-specific fields.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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There's no subset of metadata that is specialized for scanned images, so you'll have to use standard tags, possibly re-purposing some for your own use.
Trying to figure out what tags to use based upon what exiftool can edit isn't the best way to go about it, as exiftool can edit thousands of obscure tags that don't get much everyday usage. You're best bet is to use something like Adobe Bridge (which is free) or a Digital Assets Manager (DAM) such as DigiKam (also free). They provide a graphical interface with all the standard tags, taking care of any differences between the various specs (IPTC IIM, IPTC Core/XMP, EXIF) behind the scenes so you don't need to try figure these things out.
I would suggest creating a text template for the details you want to embed, add a basic description to the top of that for each image, and put the whole thing in the Description. Keep the data in an easily parsable like Info: Details and on separate lines. That way, if you figure out a better solution later on, you'll be able to use exiftool to extract and move the data.
Originally by user37960. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37960
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
There isn’t a special EXIF subset just for scanned photos. In practice, it’s better to use a small set of standard descriptive metadata rather than trying to fill many technical camera fields that don’t apply.
A practical core set is:
- title/headline
- description/caption
- keywords/tags
- date the original photo was taken, if known
- location, if known
- people depicted (names; face tags if your software supports them)
- source/provenance (who owns it, where it came from, notes about the print)
For scanned images, camera-specific EXIF fields like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and lens usually aren’t meaningful unless you truly know them.
Also, don’t choose tags based only on what ExifTool can edit; it supports many obscure fields. A DAM or metadata app such as Adobe Bridge or digiKam can present the commonly used IPTC/XMP fields more clearly and handle standards behind the scenes.
If you have archival or genealogy goals, descriptive fields, geotagging, and people/face tags are usually more valuable than technical EXIF. You may also want to keep the same information in a separate catalog or database, since storing everything only inside image files may not be ideal for long-term organization.
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