Which IPTC metadata field should I use for a photo title in Lightroom?
Asked 6/29/2013
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2 answers
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I’m adding IPTC metadata in Lightroom and I’m unsure how to use the title-related fields correctly: Headline, Title, and Caption/Description.
For example, if I have a concert photo and want the displayed text under it to be “no concert without headbanging,” which field should that go in? I could put the same text in all of them, but that seems messy and probably not the intended use.
What are the differences between these IPTC fields, and which one is most appropriate for displayed descriptive text?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
8
The IPTC Metadata Standard supplies that information, but in short:
Headline - A brief synopsis of the caption. It's not the same as title.
Title - A shorthand reference for the item. A human readable name which can be text or numeric, may be the file name, but doesn't have to be. It is not the same as headline.
Caption - Is Description (as of 1.1), which is basically the description, including caption, of the items content.
Read through the standard, you'll probably find it interesting. Bear in mind, it is intended for use by the International Press and it's geared that way. By the way, from the above, the way I read the standard is that you should be using Description (Caption) for example you gave above. Corrected: Services like Facebook or Flicker will use title or filename if supplied (thanks Bart).
Originally by user472. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user472
13y ago
0
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Use the fields for different purposes rather than duplicating the same text everywhere.
- title: a short human-readable name or identifier for the image. Think of it as a shorthand reference.
- headline: a brief synopsis of the caption, often a short summary, but not the same as the title.
- caption/description: the actual descriptive text about the image content.
For your example, “no concert without headbanging” fits best in caption/description if that is the text you want shown under the photo.
A good pattern is:
- title: a short name, e.g. “Headbanging at the concert”
- headline: a compact summary if needed
- caption/description: the fuller display text or description
Also keep in mind that different gallery or social platforms may choose different metadata fields, or fall back to the filename if a preferred field is missing. So the technically correct IPTC usage is to put descriptive display text in caption/description, then configure your gallery software to read that field if possible.
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