Adding Metadata in Lightroom

There are many places that you may want to display your work that can take advantage of metadata in the image file. For example, if you are preparing images to send to us for use on the Corbell Photographic Workshops website, you'll want to ensure that the image Title and Caption are included in the file.

Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to display the copyright information that's in the image file. That doesn't mean it should not be included. On the contrary, it should be included in the metadata. We also recommend that the copyright information is included as a watermark on your image. 

Adding Title and Caption

In the Lightroom Library module, you'll see a tab on the right that's labeled Metadata. Open this tab and set the view to 'Default'. The Default view hides a lot of the unnecessary metadata fields and shows you both the Title and Caption. Fill in an appropriate Title and Caption for your image.

Note: This only adds the metadata to the Lightroom catalog. To use it in any other application you must save the metadata to the original file. 

Save Metadata to the Original File

In the Library module, be sure the image file you are working with is selected. Then go to the Lightroom menu and select Metadata > Save Metadata to File. This synchronizes the metadata in the original file with that in the Lightroom Catalog. 

You can do this for any file type but if you're going to use the image on social media or on a website, you'll want to be sure it's in a compatible format like .JPG.

Save File as JPG

If you've added the metadata to a RAW file, you'll need to export it as a JPG first.  

 

Adding a Watermark to Your Image

Whenever we post an image to social media or our website, we like to include a watermark with our copyright information. In our workflow we use Adobe Lightroom and adding a watermark is very simple in the export routine. 

In the Export dialog box, you'll see a tab for Watermark. If you haven't already done so, you'll want to set one up.

Read the Lightroom help files for details on how to use this section but here are a few pointers.

  • Image Options - If you want the watermark to be a graphic logo then you'll specify the logo file here. PNG files support transparency while JPG files do not.
  • Text Options - Select the font of your choice. Of course Corbell Workshops will be using 'Corbel" as our font.
  • Watermark Effects - This section defines how large the watermark will be as well as the placement on the image. The trick here is to specify some 'Inset' values. This will keep the watermark from sitting right on the edge of the image.
  • When you're done editing the watermark, you may find the 'saving' process a little confusing. I don't think it flows right. Don't just click Done. Instead you'll want to click on the drop down menu above the image and save the watermark.   

  

Preparing an Image for Posting Online

If you want to use your image online somewhere such as social media or on your website, you'll find that the image file that comes out of your camera can be quite large and may not be in a format compatible with the Internet. 

To prepare an image to be posted online you'll want to do a few things first. 

Edit Your Image

Get your image looking as good as possible. Once you release it to the Internet it's too late. You don't want to keep telling folks that it would look better if you just had time to edit it. 

Add Metadata to Your Image

Metadata is information about information. In our case, it's information about the image. This can include the Title, Caption and copyright information. Metadata is included in the actual image file so it moves around the internet with the image. Some applications, like the one we use for our website, can use this information when displaying the image.

[See Adding Metadata in Lightroom]
[See Adding Metadata in Photoshop Bridge]

Our website software will read the Title and Caption metadata and display it along with the image in any gallery we create. This saves us a lot of time when building web pages. Unfortunately, one field our web development software doesn't read is the copyright information. For that, we recommend that you include it in a watermark on the image.

Export Your Image as a JPG or PNG File

Image files straight out of the camera are not quite ready for the Internet - especially if you shoot RAW files. Use your file management software to export the image. For posting to social media, our website or blog we've standardized on exporting JPG files with the longest dimension of 800 pixels. From time to time, we may need something larger but this works well for us.