Extended notes associated with Lightroom library photos

[vikasmg]

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I have taken it upon myself to archive photographs of my family, both on my side and my wife's size. The pictures are not a problem other than the usual quality issues with old transparencies and prints. My father was an enthusiastic photographer (from who I inherited my now unused IIIg) and he left behind many transparencies and I have scanned in most of his, my wife's and my own Kodachromes and Ektachromes and I am now in the process of scanning pictures from my wife's family, most of which are prints. Since I don't know or recognise many people in the older pictures here I created a Zenfolio gallery and have asked particularly the older people in the family write notes on whatever the know about individual photographs as comments in the Zenfolio gallery. Some of the comments from my eldest brother-in-law are turning to be very interesting and I want to be able to archive them along with the pictures. The pictures are all in Lightroom but Lightroom does not seem to support extended text metadata (a paragraph or two long sometimes). In the Library module I see a "Comments" field but can do nothing with it. There's a message below that says "Selected Service does not support comments".

 

Is there a way to have a paragraph or two of text associated with pictures in Lightroom? Or is my best bet to export the pictures to some other software library that will support text associated with pictures? If so, any suggestions as to which software would be best? I can of course leave the pictures and comments on the Zenfolio gallery but I am keen not to keep these pictures on line indefinitely or to at least have a backup on a disk at home.

 

I will really appreciate any help.

 

- Vikas

[Bill Allsopp]

The "Caption" field in Lightroom will do what you want.

[Jeff S]

And try the 'Large Caption" metadata view mode in the menu for clearest access to this field (use the return key to 'carriage return' to a new line).

 

You can of course create collections, use keyword sorts, etc., to group those pics that share your basis for commentary.

 

Jeff

[vikasmg]

The "Caption" field in Lightroom will do what you want.

Like many things, once shown the way it looks so blindingly obvious. Thank you very much for showing the way!

[vikasmg]

And try the 'Large Caption" metadata view mode in the menu for clearest access to this field (use the return key to 'carriage return' to a new line).

 

You can of course create collections, use keyword sorts, etc., to group those pics that share your basis for commentary.

 

Jeff

Thank you Jeff. I hadn't realized there was a "Large Caption" option. This will be very useful as comments get more elaborate. Keywords etc I've already been using extensively or I'd be completely adrift by now.

 

Problem quickly solved by Bill and you. I'm glad I posted a question here!

[Jeff S]

I recommend (if you haven't already) picking up an LR 4 book by either Scott Kelby or Martin Evening, which will not only address questions like this, but will give you many other helpful hints on questions you didn't even think to ask. The forum has proven to be a good resource for me, too, but there are a lot of other sources of good info. as well. These Julieanne Kost videos are another useful resource.

 

Jeff

[vikasmg]

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Thank you Jeff, I will look out for the books. I'm aware of the Julieanne Kost videos but in the past I've fond I either don't have the time and patience to sit through on line videos. Maybe I should make the time for it though :-).

 

Regards.

[Jeff S]

People have different preferences and ways of learning. I tend to prefer books over videos since they offer a handy desk reference tool via a subject-oriented index. But I make an exception for Julieanne's videos...the topics are generally clear in advance, and the demonstrations are on-point, concise and easy to follow. Just as in a class setting, some teachers are good and some aren't; she is. YMMV.

 

Jeff