gmbrandon Loc: Tennessee

I have imported a large # of old JPG files into Lightroom recently. I then went through them and added keywords for location, activities, and also did face recognition and added names. My question is this. When you add keywords or names to a JPG photo in Lightroom, does Lightroom automatically add them to the actual JPG file? I ask this because if I look at the directory the file is located in using File Explorer in Windows 10 on a PC, the file structure has a column named "Tags" and my keywords are listed within that column. And also, if I hover my mouse over the filename, the keywords also show up. The reason I am asking is that when my pictures are passed on to my children, they most likely will not have Lightroom or my Lightroom Catalog but I am hoping they would still see the Keywords I have attached to each photo. I do understand that if I do any development or cropping of the photo, I would need to export that to a new JPG in order to have that information captured within the JPG file. Thanks for any enlightenment you can add to this.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

My guess would be the keywords are in the Lightroom catalog, not the JPEG file.

Simple to check - look at the file properties for an image file or two that you added keywords in the catalog.
See if the keywords show up in any of the fields.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Using your LR editor, there are two ways to embed the keywords into the JPEG file: a) export the JPEG to a new file or b) update the metadata from LR into the original JPEG.

Option a) is based on a image editing workflow where you import a new image into the catalog, edit the image including adding keywords, and export the edited result creating a new file.

Option b) embedded metadata, such as keywords, revised image shooting date, copyright information, and similar into the JPEG. None of the Develop module changes are saved to the JPEG, things like cropping and exposure changes.

Personally, I would actively manage the image files I intended to pass along to my family. This could be done by:

1) Creating edited export files, possibly resized specifically for online posting purposes, with all relevant keywords and person-names embedded into the image.

2) Renaming the image files to useful descriptive names with sequence numbers that provide the proper / intended sort order, using leading zeros such as 0001, 0200, 1034 covering the max size of the counting sequence. Use a date format the properly sorts as well such as "2018JAN14 Disney 001" as a example.

3) Organizing the images into useful folder organizations, include dates and places in the folder name.

4) Sharing the folders and images in a useful format that minimizes the effort needed by the intended recipient. A CD / DVD is not useful to a someone where these readers are missing on their computers. A thumbdrive might be better, depending on the total size of images / files being shared. A cloud dropbox might be better unless the recipient is not familiar with these tools. Email might work if you don't overwhelm the target addresses.

5) A write-up explaining the details of what is being shared is a MUST, explaining the contents of the media / mechanism being shared and the intended next-steps of the recipient, such as copy the files onto your own computers. If using physical media to transfer the files, include this write-up as a formatted text file or a save PDF at the root of the folders within the media.

6) If you felt you didn't want to cut-off the idea that some images might be printed in the future, simply create two versions of the image files being shared, export a high-resolution version of the image, along with idea 1 of resized images for online sharing. Clearly identify and distinguish the larger files, such as a separate folder name / entire structure with 'PRINT' in the folders, maybe even the file names. Include this explanation into the detailed instructions document.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Lightroom does nothing to the actual files.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Metadata is added to the catalog, UNLESS you tell the software in preferences to save the data into the JPEG file or you hit Command-Save, which then does save the metadata into the actual JPEG file or the RAW sidecar. You might want to rethink the whole thing about your kids! Just give them what you want to give them now, it's unlikely they'll sit down at your computer and figure it out unless one of them is a photographer. Or, transfer the finished shots to a thumb drive and leave it with your will, they'll find them that way!

ikaush Loc: Medford, MA

If you want the keywords for a photo to be saved inside the image, go to Library Module, select the photo and press CTRL-S. I usually after editing and adding the keywords select all photos that I added the keywords to and press CTRL-S once.

sandykreit

Are you saving the keywords after entering them, Command S? That's the only help I can offer I'm an Apple person.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Wow....that was really something to read and absorb Paul....thank you for the detailed explanations.

There is a lot to consider here and it seems overwhelming at first glance but your sequential process sure help me conceptualize the end results. I have a lot to work on in the months ahead. Thanks again.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You can worry and wait or plan and act. Lightroom is the tool to do the latter.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

For those of you who'd like to add keywords, and don't have Lightroom (like me), but use Windows, you can add keywords in File Explorer.

Open File Explorer and select the file you want to tag.
On the View tab, click Details in the Panes group to open the Details pane (right of the main panel).
Enter the appropriate Tags.
Click Save.

I don't know about Mac's, may be similar?

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Seems to me, if windows explorer can see the tags, they are in the jpg file.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I just checked one of my photos in PSE.
Under "File Information" I did find the tag (which I had entered myself after transferring my photos to Windows Explorer.
However, when I opened the same photo with FastStone, it did not show.

gmbrandon Loc: Tennessee

Thanks for all the replies. I have tested adding the keywords and then pressing Cntr S to save the metadata to the JPG. It does save it. I then investigated further and determined that in the Catalog Settings you can click on a check box under Metadata "Automatically write changes into XMP" and LR will automatically update the Metadata when you add keywords.

smussler Loc: Land O Lakes, FL - Formerly Miller Place, NY

2018FEB14 will sort before 2018JAN14 Disney 001 when sorting filenames alphabetically. I would use names in format yyyy_mm_dd - all numeric. I never put spaces in filenames - that confuses some programs - such filenames end up needing encompassing double quotes - when the filename is passed as a parameter. I myself don't put the year/month in the filenames, but in the folder structure (#3 in Paul's list), which admittedly introduces different problems - but I personalty dislike long filenames, even though there are some advantages.

I've written my own application for tracking photos (and vacations) . I know - I'm recreating the wheel, but my application relates vacation times with photo creation dates, to help identifying where pictures were taken. Recently looking at keywords, it seems that the keyword field that one sees in the Windows File Properties window has a pretty small size. I've been wondering where the various commercial apps store those keywords.

Documenting everything. I was big on documentation when working. For my personal files at home - nothing. When working for County Government the amount of time spent on creating metadata, was sometimes more time consuming that creating the data itself. Photographs are pretty much the same. A lot of photographs can be taken in short amount of time. Just creating keywords will probably be more time consuming.

Of late, I've been photographing 35mm slides that my father took in the 50's and 60's. He penciled in partial dates on most. Takes me a minute to copy the slide, documenting it for family reference is the time consuming part.

Also of interest to me is tagging images of people in photos. I haven 't figured out a means to do that yet in my application. Commercial application is probably the best solution.