Embed Metadata in JPEG Source/Master

[ariel]

I have two main usecases for aftershot
1- to cull & develop & edit metadata in NEFs, then export JPGs
2- cull & edit metadata and then make copies of the selected smartphone pics containing the metadata

I am having an issue with usecase #2. If I create an Output Job that just Copies the flagged/selected files, ASP will make a copy of the original file and will not embed the metadata (it will also make a copy of the XMP sidecar). If I create an Output Job that creates JPEGs and set quality to 100%, it will create new "re-encoded" JPEGs of bigger size (and lesser quality), with the proper metadata.

Basically what I would like to do is have ASP save the IPTC metadata I entered in the original JPEG, and then after culling is done, use the "Copy" output job to make a copy of selected pics. I couldn't find any way to have ASP write the IPTC data to the original JPEG - is there a way to do this? or a better way to achieve #2?

Thanks

[Dutchmm]

Trying to understand your second usecase.
You want to add some metadata that wasn't present in the original smartphone photo?
Is this metadata already present in the case 1 NEFs? Or is it something you add only to the case 2 photos?
I am thinking of an exiftool (a program that can embed metadata, as well as read it) solution, but don't feel I grasp the whole question yet.
PM me if this sounds a promising avenue?
MM

[ariel]

Thanks - the two use cases reflect that I carry and use both my DSLR and my smartphone for pics in the typical vacation. ASP is great for culling (sorting/classifying/rating) even in the case where other image processing may not be needed (e.g. for smartphone pics), and also for adding metadata (I have been adding IPTC descriptions, author, location etc to both my DSLR shoots as well as smartphone shoots using ASP's metadata GUI). The second use case is related to the smartphone pics.

Ideally, what I would like to do for this use case is create an output Job that creates a copy of the original (JPEG to JPEG) but embedding the IPTC metadata, without touching the actual image (i.e. lossless process). Alternatively, I am OK if ASP could just embed the IPTC metadata in the original JPEG file from the smartphone.

You seem to be implying that ASP is unable to do the latter; are you aware if it can do the former ("copy" output but embedding the metadata I added in the ASP GUI)

Why do I need to create a new copy? I create JPEG version (or copy) of my originals with embedded metadata and move it from my desktop to my HTPC (home theater PC).

ps. I use ASP on Linux / Fedora.

[Dutchmm]

I am edging closer to an understanding of your case. But to dig deeper:

Can we assume that you always want to transfer the same IPTC data? I mean the same tags, not necessarily the same tag contents.
Will there be some way of relating the set of DSLR photos to the set of Smartphone photos? For example, one collection is in /home/ariel/DSLR/jobN and one in /home/ariel/Smartphone/jobN? It is unlikely, after all, that you would be able to contrive a direct filename match, or relate them based on synchronised timestamps.

It wasn't my intention to make any pronouncement on what you can or can't do in an ASP output job. That said, my understanding of the output job mechanism is that it focuses on one image file at a time. Yes, you send all the (cull surviving) photos to the same batch queue, but they go through that queue, and any scripted additional processing, one at a time. If you always wanted to add the same tags and the same content for those tags to a set of images, such a script would be ideal. If you always want to copy the same tags from a batch of .NEFs and have them added to another collection of smartphone .JPGs, this too is a scriptable task, but one I wouldn't have chosen to do each time I processed a single .NEF.

exiftool has an option to overwrite the original file whose metadata it is modifying. So there is no need to suppose that implementing a batch outside ASP would lead to any proliferation of image files.

[ariel]

Thanks.
Typically, after a photo session or vacation, I create a folder such as /home/ariel/Photos/20160218-Photo-Session, and then subfolders for the RAWs and the Cell pics if any (/RAWs, /Phone-Pics)
After I am done with the culling and RAW development and IPTC metadata editing in ASP, I create another subfolder (/Selected), and I use ASP Output jobs to create

a) JPEG versions of the chosen & developed RAWs, stored in the /Selected folder
b) and (up to now) copies of the selected phone pics (via a "Copy" output job, directed to the same /Selected folder)

Looks like moving forward I will need to use an external tool for to edit the cellphone pic metadata in-place - I'm new to exiftool but it seems like the swiss-army knife for metadata manipulation.
There seems to be a python GUI for it - https://github.com/hvdwolf/pyExifToolGUI
Will give it a shot. Would have been nicer to have this integrated into ASP - giving ASP the option to store metadata in the original file if that file was a JPEG.