Working with Metadata Presets in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom–Now with Lightroom 3 Video
June 2010 Update: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 makes building a Metadata Preset even more useful for the professional photographer. In Lightroom 3, we photographers now have access to a new set of metadata fields where we can record critical things like our model or property release information. Check out the new video tutorial and then read the rest of this article.
Building an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Metadata Preset from David Marx on Vimeo.
Metadata is the key to organization in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It helps us find exactly the image(s) we need among the hundreds or thousands of images in our catalogs. It holds our copyright and contact information so it can accompany our images when we share them with others.
Much of the information we add to our photos is quite redundant. In other words, all of our photos share essentially the same contact, creator, and copyright information. We can save time and keystrokes by using a “Metadata Preset” to “stamp” this information onto groups of photos as you import them.
Creating a Metadata Preset
Open Lightroom and choose “Edit Metadata Presets…” from the Help menu.
Choose Edit Metadata Presets from the Metadata Menu
There are lots of metadata fields listed in this dialog box. We’re going to fill in the relevant information in certain fields and save it as a preset to be applied to images later.
If a checkbox is checked beside a particular field, then the corresponding field will be altered on any image to which the preset is applied. If you write something in the “Caption” field and check the box beside it, any existing caption would be overwritten on any image that this preset was applied to. Likewise, if the “Caption” field is left blank with the check box checked, any existing caption would be erased on any image that this preset was applied to. So we need to be very careful to make sure that we only check boxes next to fields that we want active in this preset.
Click the “Check None” button at the bottom of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box.
Click the Check None button to clear all checkboxes.
In this example, we’re going to create a preset that you could conceivably apply to all of your images. It will contain our copyright and contact information.
Let’s go through the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box and fill out any of the relevant fields. Remember, only fill out the information that could be applied to all of the photos taken by you. For me, that would be the following fields:
- Copyright – A simple copyright statement works here. Mine says “© Scott W. Rouse.” If you don’t want to use the copyright symbol (©), you could simply type (c) or just “Copyright” before your name. If you do want the © symbol, you can use the keyboard shortcut Option-G on a Mac. On a PC, hold down your Alt key, then use the keypad on the right side of an extended keyboard to type 0169. If you don’t have an extended keyboard (on a laptop, for example) you could try Control+Alt+C. Check out this link for more information on the copyright symbol.
- Copyright Status – Choose Copyrighted from the drop-down list.
- Rights Usage Terms – I enter “All Rights Reserved” in this field just to make it clear. Legally, this information is implied, but it never hurts to add it.
- Copyright Info URL – I keep a page on my photography website that provides details on my copyright and licensing options for my images. http://scottrousephotography.com/copyright.html
- Creator – The Creator field, and those that follow, are pretty self-explanatory. I fill out everything in the IPTC Creator section, and you should do the same.
Completed and Checked Fields in the Edit Metadata Presets Dialog
Once you’ve entered your information, let’s save it for later. From the drop-down menu at the top of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog, choose Save Current Settings as New Preset.
Choose Save Current Settings as New Preset
Name the preset whatever you’d like and click Create.
Name Your Preset
Click Done at the bottom of the Edit Metadata Presets box.
Click Done
Now, let’s test our new preset. Make sure you’re in the Library Module by tapping the “g” key on your keyboard. Click on one of your images to select it.
On the right-hand side of the Lightroom interface, look for the Metadata panel and make sure that it’s visible.
At the top of the Metadata panel, click on the Preset drop-down menu and select your newly-created preset.
Select your new preset from the drop-down menu.
That will fill-in all of the metadata fields for that image that we had previously specified when we created our preset. Scroll down and check out the Contact or Copyright fields to make sure it worked.
Filled-in Fields
Check out the following video for a demonstration of the steps above.
Creating a Metadata Preset in Lightroom from Scott Rouse on Vimeo.
Applying Your Preset on Import
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have this information applied to our images as we brought them into Lightroom with little extra effort on our part? Well, you guessed it. We can!
Applying a metadata preset on import is very simple. Once the Import Photos dialog is up, all you need to do is select your preset from the Metadata drop-down menu and click the Import button.
Selecting an Import Metadata Preset
Other Uses for Metadata Presets
As I said before, metadata is very useful when it comes to trying to find specific images in your catalog. I make metadata presets almost anytime I’ll be making more than a few imports where that information may apply.
For example, if I were shooting a wedding, I’d probably fill in all of the relevant metadata fields for that shoot and save it as a preset to be applied upon import. In addition to the contact and copyright information we used before, I could probably go ahead and fill out location information and Job Identifier.
You can have as many metadata presets as you’d like.
Editing Existing Metadata Presets
If you’ve created a metadata preset or two and you’d like to make a change to it, that’s no problem at all. To edit an existing metadata preset:
- Bring up your list of presets by choosing “Edit Metadata Presets…” from the Metadata menu.
- From the Preset drop-down menu at the top of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box, select the name of the preset you’d like to edit.
- Make whatever changes you’d like to make to your preset. In the screen shot below, I’ve changed the state from “MT” to “Montana.” Look at the top of the dialog box, and you’ll see that the preset name now has “(edited)” added to end. Don’t click the Done button yet…
- From the Preset drop-down at the top of the dialog box, choose “Update Preset.”
- Now you can click Done.
Choose Edit Metadata Presets from the Metadata Menu
Select the name of the preset you'd like to edit.
Make your changes.
Choose Update Preset
Click Done
You’ve updated your metadata preset but, Lightroom doesn’t go through and change the metadata on images to which the old version of this preset was applied. Does that sentence make sense? Hmmm… What I mean is: If you’ve previously stamped a group (or all) of your images with a certain metadata preset, updating that metadata preset using the method described above does not change any metadata in your photos.
To update the metadata in your images:
- Select the images you’d like to change.
- At the top of the Metadata panel, click on the Preset drop-down menu and select your newly-updated preset.
- Your updated information will now be in the proper metadata fields.
Select your newly-updated preset from the drop-down menu.
Your updated contact information.
This video demonstrates the process of changing a metadata preset once you’ve created it.
Updating a Metadata Preset in Lightroom from Scott Rouse on Vimeo.
Deleting a Metadata Preset
You may find yourself with metadata presets that you would like to get rid of so they don’t clutter up your Preset menu or something. To delete a metadata preset:
- choose “Edit Metadata Presets…” from the Help menu.
- Select the name of the preset you’d like to delete from the Preset drop-down menu at the top of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box.
- Now, from the same drop-down menu, select “Delete Preset”
- Once you click Delete in the confirmation dialog, your metadata preset will be moved to your computer’s trash/recycle bin and will no longer appear in Lightroom.
Choose Edit Metadata Presets from the Metadata Menu
Select the name of the preset you'd like to delete.
Select Delete Preset
As with modifying a preset, no changes to the metadata of your images will be made.
This video demonstrates the process of deleting a metadata preset.
Deleting a Metadata Preset in Lightroom from Scott Rouse on Vimeo.
All of the videos from this article can be viewed at the Working with Metadata Presets in Lightroom Album at Vimeo.
Filed Under: Getting Started • Importing Images • Organizing • Tutorials • Workflow
About the Author: Scott Rouse is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), photographer, teacher, and graphic- and web-designer in Missoula, MT. His photography focuses on wildlife and adventure sports and can be viewed at 
[...] you have all your switches set, I suggest checking out this tutorial on how to build a Metadata Preset so that Lightroom can automatically add your copyright information into each and every photo that [...]
Nice article except you write (c) can indicate copyright. Everything I’ve read says no, that (c) has no legal meaning.
Following is a quote from the US copyright office circular (www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf) on the 3 accepted forms (the symbol, the word, the abbreviation):
“Visually Perceptible Copies
The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all three elements described below. They should appear together or in close proximity on the copies.
1 The symbol © (letter C in a circle); the word “Copyright”;
or the abbreviation “Copr.”
2 The year of first publication. If the work is a derivative
work or a compilation incorporating previously published
material, the year date of first publication of the derivative work or compilation is sufficient. Examples of derivative works are translations or dramatizations; an example of a compilation is an anthology. The year may be omitted when a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with
accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or
on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or useful articles.
3 The name of the copyright owner, an abbreviation by
which the name can be recognized, or a generally known
alternative designation of owner.
Example © 2007 Jane Doe”
Dear Mark L Brian,
I think that your advice is excellent. Thank you for correcting my mistake. In the US the © symbol has legal meaning but the legal definition of the (c) is not as clear. To create the Copyright Symbol on a Mac hold the ALT key and press the letter G. On a PC try Ctrl+Alt+C or Alt+0169 on the ten key number pad. You can also create the symbol in a word processing program or find it on the Windows Character map and then cut and paste it into the appropriate Metadata field.
I’ll go one further too and suggest that simply marking your copyright is not sufficient protection in the United States. As I understand it, for true legal protection an image must be both marked and registered with the United States Copyright Office before any infringement occurs. For more on how to register you copyright check out this excellent tutorial from the American Society of Media Photographers and this article from attorney Carolyn Wright. It is my understanding too that the copyright mark has far less legal weight in other countries, particularly the EU, then the legal terms spelled out in the Rights-Usage Metadata Fields.
Thanks again for the great comment.
David