Inconsistent Photo Title Display

androidtandroidt Registered Users Posts: 71 Big grins
edited August 30, 2013 in SmugMug Support
Not sure but my issue may be related to threads:
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=237369
and
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=239056

However my issue is a little different.

I use Lightroom to add Titles and Captions to my photos. Photos are updated using the SmugMug Publishing Service in LR and is set to update both the image file and metadata. If you browse my Portfolio, you will see that some images have titles and some do not. What is strange compared to the two other posts mentioned at the top of this post is that this image has a title but it is much larger than the titles of other images such as this one (title text is the same size as the caption text), while other images like this one have no title at all.

I did some experimentation since I wrote the previous paragraph and have found that in Lightroom if a photo is Right-Clicked then select "Metadata" and finally "Save Metadata to File" and then republished using the SmugMug Publishing Service, the title shows up correctly on my website. The strange thing is, I always keep the Metadata sync'd with the file (otherwise a notification icon shows on the picture thumbnail indicating they are not synchronized). So I have no idea why I would have to re-sync my files to get titles to appear.

I hope this information is helpful to whomever is trying to figure out this problem.

Andrew
AndrewThomasArt

Comments

  • ablichterablichter Registered Users Posts: 294 Major grins
    edited August 28, 2013
    androidt wrote: »
    Not sure but my issue may be related to threads:
    http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=237369
    and
    http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=239056

    However my issue is a little different.

    I use Lightroom to add Titles and Captions to my photos. Photos are updated using the SmugMug Publishing Service in LR and is set to update both the image file and metadata. If you browse my Portfolio, you will see that some images have titles and some do not. What is strange compared to the two other posts mentioned at the top of this post is that this image has a title but it is much larger than the titles of other images
    Which is as it should be. Larger Title, smaller Caption.
    But the image only has the title (Beartooth Falls 1) embedded and not the caption "Beartooth Falls in the Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming" Have you added the caption later online?
    such as this one (title text is the same size as the caption text), while other images like this one have no title at all.
    Yepp, those are strange. Have you replaced them?

    FYI: You have a strange URL in the field "Document Notes", which is not to see in LR metadata: "http://smugmug.com/e/%2FhiuWHXKoBRaoSfQkF%2BMhzxuoSWVMaQZ7rKL9zfgrdo%3D"
  • androidtandroidt Registered Users Posts: 71 Big grins
    edited August 28, 2013
    ablichter wrote: »
    Which is as it should be. Larger Title, smaller Caption.
    But the image only has the title (Beartooth Falls 1) embedded and not the caption "Beartooth Falls in the Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming" Have you added the caption later online?
    Yepp, those are strange. Have you replaced them?

    Very strange behavior....

    I only replaced a few photos. I wanted to leave the problem in tact to show the SM Heroes the behavior I described. I'll update the rest of the pictures later today.

    I downloaded the Beartooth Falls 1 photo and sure enough, no caption. I added the caption as described in my OP (in Lightroom if a photo is Right-Clicked then select "Metadata" and finally "Save Metadata to File" and then republished using the SmugMug Publishing Service, the title shows up correctly on my website.) I downloaded other photos and the caption is embedded as it should be. The only difference I can think of is that all my other pictures had captions when they were uploaded to SM whereas Beartooth Falls 1 had the caption added after upload and then had its metadata sync'd and the photo was then republished to SM. The caption is now embedded but I had to delete the photo from my site and then republish it from LR. It makes me wonder if it is a problem with the SmugMug Publishing Service rather than a problem with the website.

    ablichter wrote: »
    FYI: You have a strange URL in the field "Document Notes", which is not to see in LR metadata: "http://smugmug.com/e/%2FhiuWHXKoBRaoSfQkF%2BMhzxuoSWVMaQZ7rKL9zfgrdo%3D"

    What program are you using to view the "Document Notes" field. I tried Bridge, Photoshop, Windows Picture Viewer, Photo Viewer and Irfanview. I didn't see the "Document Notes" field in any of them.

    Thank you Jörg for taking the time to look into this issue.

    Andrew
    AndrewThomasArt
  • ablichterablichter Registered Users Posts: 294 Major grins
    edited August 28, 2013
    androidt wrote: »
    Very strange behavior....

    I only replaced a few photos. I wanted to leave the problem in tact to show the SM Heroes the behavior I described. I'll update the rest of the pictures later today.
    Okay, I see. You can make copies of the images and put them an unlisted gallery, providing the link to the Heroes.
    What program are you using to view the "Document Notes" field. I tried Bridge, Photoshop, Windows Picture Viewer, Photo Viewer and Irfanview. I didn't see the "Document Notes" field in any of them.

    Thank you Jörg for taking the time to look into this issue.

    Andrew
    You are welcome. Later I saw that all (mine as well) resized image have such funny URL in that field, which is an IPTC field. Not to see in Adobe Applications.

    Aside others I use Exiftool and Exiftool Gui or use this online tool and provide the URL of an image of yours. Here it is with some of mine -> http://tinyurl.com/pmsxm43 scroll almost to the bottom.

    Works only when images are not right click protected and as said: the URL only exists on smaller images, not the original.
    I'll ask later in here what is it about and why metadata are altered.
  • androidtandroidt Registered Users Posts: 71 Big grins
    edited August 29, 2013
    I give up. The method of using LR to update the metadata and then republishing the photos does not work consistently either. Not only does it fail to load some of the titles but actually strips titles off of images that had the titles displayed correctly and were not even involved in the update process. headscratch.gif

    I would love a response from SM on this issue. What is the proper way to get titles to show?
    AndrewThomasArt
  • ablichterablichter Registered Users Posts: 294 Major grins
    edited August 29, 2013
    androidt wrote: »
    I give up. The method of using LR to update the metadata and then republishing the photos does not work consistently either. Not only does it fail to load some of the titles but actually strips titles off of images that had the titles displayed correctly and were not even involved in the update process. headscratch.gif

    I would love a response from SM on this issue. What is the proper way to get titles to show?
    Aside from what I said (if Title and Caption are the same, Title is stripped) - and sometimes when replaced, there seems to be no issue.
    I don't have problems with Title and Caption when they have been embedded right.

    To rule out file handling by you / LR you first should try what you get without using the LR uploader, this is because
    1. SM still is buggy
    2. SM's LR plugin at least was buggy (or not adjusted to the new design) until some days ago.
    There is a thread somewhere around.
    So its hard to tell where something is going wrong.

    If not done so far I would like to advice you another LR plugin which can be installed parallel to the other - you might want to give it a try on an new gallery.

    Or try a better image organizer (DAM) than LR, f.e. IMatch. The metadata handling in LR is a PITA.
  • androidtandroidt Registered Users Posts: 71 Big grins
    edited August 29, 2013
    Thanks for all the suggestionsclap.gif They helped lead me to a solution. Its not a pretty solution but its a solution. I ended up having to delete all the photos off my website and then readded them and the titles now display correctly.
    AndrewThomasArt
  • G-ForceG-Force Registered Users Posts: 21 Big grins
    edited August 30, 2013
    Be sure you are using the latest version of the plugin - 2.0.2.1 at the time of this writing. I had a similar issue and once I republished with the current version of the plugin it seemed to fix the issue you are describing. There are still images on my gallery that haven't been updated with the correct metadata, but I will update them eventually.

    http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/121321-lightroom-plugin-update
  • androidtandroidt Registered Users Posts: 71 Big grins
    edited August 30, 2013
    G-Force wrote: »
    Be sure you are using the latest version of the plugin - 2.0.2.1 at the time of this writing. I had a similar issue and once I republished with the current version of the plugin it seemed to fix the issue you are describing. There are still images on my gallery that haven't been updated with the correct metadata, but I will update them eventually.

    http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/121321-lightroom-plugin-update


    Thanks for the tip but I was using the 2.0.2.1 plugin and even went so far as upgrading from LR4 to LR5 to rule out any potential problems between the plugin and LR4.

    I visited your site and even though titles are showing up, some titles are using a larger font and some have a font size that is the same as the caption. Does republishing your metadata fix this problem?
    AndrewThomasArt
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