[X4U] Tiger, iPhoto and Metadata

[Pete Zimowski]

OK you brainiacs!

As I was poking deeper into iPhoto (5, specifically) than I had ever 
before in anticipation of "presenting" it to our local user group 
(MMOOS - Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society), I made the 
following discovery:

iPhoto 5 (and, I presume all others before it) does not and cannot edit 
metadata embedded in the image from the digital camera.  It certainly 
does display some of the EXIF data, but there's no way to examine or 
edit IPTC data or keywords or comments.

But wait, you say, there are keywords and comments capabilities in 
iPhoto.  Yes, but they are "proprietary" keywords and comments to 
iPhoto, and stored not in the photo but in the "AlbumData.xml" file 
within the iPhoto Library folder.  This would not be an issue with 
casual consumers, I would think, unless they "graduated" to Photoshop 
Elements or higher and discover that all their organization schemes in 
iPhoto won't carry over.

I know that there are AppleScript packages out there that attempt to 
handle the task of adding the iPhoto keywords and comments to the 
appropriate metadata tags.  I have used a couple and found them to be 
"quirky" at best.  Has anyone found any that work?

Secondly, can anyone using Tiger tell me (off-list if need be) whether 
or not this "shortcoming" is addressed in 10.4?  With all the apps 
getting embedded Spotlight, perhaps iPhoto will change its tune and go 
to actually editing metadata, so that there would be a seamless 
crossover of capabilities with File Browser (soon to be "Bridge"), and 
any other tool that actually used metadata.

If the incongruity is not addressed in Tiger, seems to me there would 
be an opportunity for a commercial (shareware at the least) application 
that would contain AppleScripting to "convert" iPhoto data into real 
metadata.

Any thoughts, oh wise ones?

Pete Zimowski
macmaineiac.com