IPTC metadata and HEIC

[bradsayers]

Happy New Year Everyone!

I just moved nearly 10,000 pics off my iPhone to ACDsee photo studio ultimate 2020 (moved from XS to 13pro in December).

Once there, I began to process and keyword - but was a little upset to see that I can no longer embed IPTC data (keywords are essential since I use Onedrive to hold my images as a backup (original size, and they finally got tags back working). I like my metadata to travel with the pics....

It's been a while since I did some processing in ACDsee, and I know that this is because of HEIC format that I was using on my iPhone, but can anyone let me know what my options are right now? Going forward I think I need to change my iPhone setting to save in jpg rather than HEIC, but what are my options for these 10,000 images?

Thanks, Brad

[Greyfox]

bradsayers

ACDSee lists IPTC as "Not Supported" (https://www.acdsee.com/en/support/ph...-notes/2022-0/) but doesn't mention XMP.

When I "embed" ACDSee metadata in HEIF images here, it creates a sidecar XMP file for each image. That sidecar file supports Categories, Keywords, Tagged, Notes, Rating, Author. DateTime and Caption. It would appear to support collections as well, but as I don't use them, I can't confirm that.

Neither XMP or IPTC are currently being embedded in the image itself.

You could of course opt to Batch convert the HEIC files to JPG, at the expense of an increase in size.

[Emil]

OP is using "ACDsee photo studio ultimate 2020". Greyfox is linking support notes for ACv15 (aka Ultimate 2022).

AFAIS the support for HEIC files has changed: My ACv14 (aka Ultimate 2021!) doesn't allow me to embed any tags into HEIC files (or side car files) at all: The embedding flag is set but AC doesn't do the job. (Another good reason not to rely on embedding as replacement for DB backups.)
ACv15 indeed embeds tags into a XMP files (Please note the naming scheme). I haven't got "ACDsee photo studio ultimate 2020" (aka ACv13) installed.

[Greyfox]

OP is using "ACDsee photo studio ultimate 2020". Greyfox is linking support notes for ACv15 (aka Ultimate 2022).

Oops, yes I missed that .

AFAIS the support for HEIC files has changed: My ACv14 (aka Ultimate 2021!) doesn't allow me to embed any tags into HEIC files (or side car files) at all: The embedding flag is set but AC doesn't do the job.

Strange, U2021 is creating working XMP sidecar files here for HEIC images, same as U2022

I haven't got "ACDsee photo studio ultimate 2020" (aka ACv13) installed.

I have U2020 on another PC here. Will check on that tomorrow and advise.

The bottom line for me though is that even with U2021 and U2022 there is currently no support for exporting in HEIC format, so as soon as you edit an image, even a simple crop, you have to save in a different format anyhow.

[Emil]

Interesting indeed. I've cross checked the plugins and still get this in ACv14 (Build 2451):



Could be another setup issue.
After some googling iptc.org I'm pretty sure that IPTC isn't defined for use with HEIC yet.

[Greyfox]

Emil
bradsayers

I've now tested this on Ultimate 2020 on an 12 year old Intel i7-2600 PC with Window 10 Pro 21H2 build 19044.1415, and found that that U2020 also produces XMP sidecar files when ACDSee metadata is "embedded" in HEIC images. That PC has both the Microsoft HEIF extension, and the HEVC Video extension installed. (As does the PC that has U2021 and U2022.) .


Emil Yes, AFAIK HEIC images (at least at this stage) don't support IPTC.

Both Sony and Canon are now marketing cameras that have the option to export HIF format images. As I understand it, HIF is a form of HEIC (or HEIF) but has larger color depth. At the moment Sony's Imaging Edge software can handle HIF files (Sony do say only their HIF) BUT needs an extension to do so and that is only available to those who have one of the relevant Sony camera models that support HIF (serial number needed). Canon's DPP software can handle the Canon HIF files (not sure whether that is theirs only), but again needs an extension that is only available to those who have one of the relevant model Canon cameras (again serial number needed). I have no idea what metadata HIF supports.

[bradsayers]

Thanks everyone for your responses, and testing, much appreciated. I noticed xmp files before in U2020 but didn't go any further in understanding what they were....just noticed that my videos had them attached (for keywords I understand now).

I ended up converting nearly 10,000 heic to jpeg. Took just over an hour with Pixillion Image Converter. And I changed my iPhone setting to take pics in jpg/jpeg rather than heic. I think that's best for me going forward, at least for this year.

I have a related question regarding xmp. Is this sidecar file only useful in ACDSee products? How would I use these files?

Thanks, Brad

[Greyfox]

..I have a related question regarding xmp. Is this sidecar file only useful in ACDSee products? How would I use these files?

Xmp files are the only way of saving ACDSee metadata for RAW files, as it can't be embedded in the RAW file itself.
But they can also be used to save process settings if for instance you choose to tweak your JPG's in Develop mode you can use them to store the settings you used, as well as retaining the original. So if you are subsequently. not 100% happy with what you did, you can retweak them without starting from scratch. See the help file "How ACDSee Saves Changes to Images"

ACDSee is not the only software that uses xmp sidecar files, but the information it saves in them is primarily related to ACDSee functionality and would generally be of limited use in other applications.

[brajaq]

I convert my raw files to dng files (with free Adobe dngconvert tool) and ACDSee stores metadata in them (no sidecar files).