Comments, in Mac Photos?

[DanL]

I'd like to find some way to include a significant amount of text, comments, and the like, with photos in Mac Photo. That is, I'd like to annotate photos. Turns out if you put comments in GetInfo in the original jpg, those comments aren't stored in Mac Photos when you put the jpg in Mac Photo. When you copy the photo back out of Mac Photos onto the desktop, whatever commnets you put in the original GetInfo aren't there anymore.

 

[MightyGem]

When you copy the photo back out of Mac Photos onto the desktop, whatever commnets you put in the original GetInfo aren't there anymore.

If you want that, you will have to put the photo on the Desktop, open it with Preview and use Preview's annotation tools to put text on. However, having done that and "Saved", the text becomes part of the photo and can't be delated or edited.

 

[DanL]

Well, that would be damaging the photo. It also is a bit hokey. You'd think that to the extent regular files can be annotated, Apple would have made it possible to do so in Photos.

 

[DanL]

OK, this is interesting. If you open a photo in Photos, and right click on it, you see an "Info" panel". Within that panel you can "Add a caption", which looks a lot like "Get Info" in Finder. That works for me.

Now, in the "Edit" pane for the photo, selecting "Extensions", doing "Markup", you are also offered an opportunity to enter a text "Image Description". That's nice, I guess, but it really isn't obvious where that image description is displayed once you've entered it. Anyone know? Of course, if you want to hokify and plaster text on the picture itself, you don't need Preview on the Desktop. There is a Preview-like annotation tool in Photos "Extensions".

 

[Lufbrarunner]

In 'Photos' select an image then click the info button, a circle with an I in it. You can then add a title, captions and keywords etc.
For my photos I use the software that came with my camera to edit the IPTC or EXIF date

 

[DanL]

In 'Photos' select an image then click the info button, a circle with an I in it. You can then add a title, captions and keywords etc.
For my photos I use the software that came with my camera to edit the IPTC or EXIF date

Ah, we were typing at the same time. Thank you. But do you understand this "Image Description" business in "Extensions"?

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Good to see you are sorted. No idea where the info is kept. My camera software stores the info in a separate sidecar file.

 

[maw_walker]

EXIF data can be stored externally (sidecar) or in the image itself. I don’t know how EXIF data is stored concerning pictures in the Photos app. I use Pixelmator Pro for editing so maybe I can see what it sees for EXIF data in a given photo since it is not an Apple supplied app, if that makes sense…

 

[DanL]

The info pane referred to above that you see when you right click on a Photos image IS the EXIF data. That's where you are offered the opportunity to add a caption. So EXIF is easily seen in Mac Photos.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

There are a number of MetaData editors available on the App store, that my be worth a go.

 

[MightyGem]

OK, this is interesting. If you open a photo in Photos, and right click on it, you see an "Info" panel". Within that panel you can "Add a caption",

Yes, but that won't be visible on the photo when you drag it into Finder.

 

[DanL]

Well, I don't do my sorting and examining photos in Finder, so doing it in Photos is the way to go. I don't want to see the metadata "on the photo" in any case. But it's fair to say that once you move it into Finder, your annotations and captioning won't be visible with Finder. That being said, it's easy to see the EXIF metadata by opening the photo in Preview, and selecting Tools->Show Inspector and press the Exif button. Now, you can't actually edit EXIF values that way, though you can edit date and time in Photos.

 

[MightyGem]

Well, in your original post, you wanted to see them on a photo that you'd dragged into Finder:

When you copy the photo back out of Mac Photos onto the desktop, whatever commnets you put in the original GetInfo aren't there anymore.

 

[DanL]

I don't think I said that. What I said I'd like is to find some way to include a significant amount of text, comments, and the like, with photos in Mac Photos. I was bothered that the comments you could add to a jpeg file in Finder were not preserved in Photos. But that bother presumed that here wasn't a way to do captioning and comments in Photos. There is.