Create collections from IPTC-data and assign the pictures to the respective catalogues

[HJStern]

I have pictures that contain information in the "Description" data field of the IPTC data. I would like to use this information to generate names of collections, and to assign the files, that contain the names of these collections in their IPTC description field to the resprective collections, if possible automatically (around 2.000 pictures with information in this data field). If a picture belongs to two or more collections, the names of the collections are separates by ", " (comma space).

What is the best way to do this?

Thank you for your help,

HJStern

[dj_paige]

I'm not aware of an automatic way to do this. I'm not even aware if the tools in Lightroom can search the Description field, as I have never tried to do this (Lightroom might be able to do this, or it might not)

If Lightroom can do this, you can use Smart Collections to search for a specific piece of text. Then, you'd have to set up another Smart Collection to search for the next piece of text. And so on ...

If Lightroom can't make use of the Description field, you could use something like ExifTool (it's free) to copy the contents of the Description field to the Caption field (for example) which Lightroom can make use of.

[HJStern]

Hello dj_paige,

Thank you for your response. I could put the information for the catalogues to be created into almost any IPTC data field (but I cannot find a field called "caption". Nevertheless, with a more than hundred catalogues to create I would prefer to find some automatic way.

HJStern

[dj_paige]

It may be that Description is the same as Caption, I'm not an expert on these things. But it sounds like this won't meet your needs anyway.

There is no automation that I know of available for this sort of thing in Lightroom.

You seem to be using the words "collection" and "catalog" to mean the same thing, they are not the same.

[HJStern]

Thank you, dj_paige, yes, I sometimes confuse the words collection and catalog

[richardplondon]

If your information can be added as discrete and dedicated keywords, it would be fairly quick to first select by these keywords and then create a new Collection named to suit - selecting as you did this, for currently highlighted images to get added to this new collection.

However that said: having such keywords in place would in many senses, be already practically tantamount to - having corresponding Collections in place.

I say this because finding and clicking next to a given keyword in the keyword list, whenever you wished to see just those particular images selected again - would be the same work for an equivalent result - as, finding and clicking on a given collection in the collections list.

[johnrellis]

To build on Richard's reply:

You can use the Search Replace Transfer plugin or the LR/Transporter plugin to convert comma-separate keyword phrases in a metadata field (such as Caption) to LR keywords.  If you really wanted collections rather than keywords (why?), you'd have to do that manually as Richard outlined.  I don't know of any plugins that can build collections from keywords.

Note that LR shows two fields in the Metadata panels, Caption and IPTC Description, that actually come from the same single field in the catalog. LR reads and writes this catalog field from three industry-standard metadata fields: EXIF:ImageDescription, XMP:Description, and IPTC:Caption-Abstract.  (IPTC:Caption-Abstract is sometimes called IPTC:Description.)