Flickr Uploadr resize loses metadata

Summary: If you want to preserve EXIF-GPS and IPTC metadata in your photos when uploading to Flickr, do not use the auto-resize feature in Flickr Uploadr.

Details:

Picasa allows you to embed some useful metadata directly in your photo files.  These metadata include IPTC keywords, IPTC caption, and EXIF-GPS location information.  Flickr has the capability to automatically detect these metadata, saving you from having to retype or re-create them (keywords are turned into tags).

I noticed some odd behavior with the Flickr Uploadr, so I decided to do a systematic test.

Using Picasa 2.5 + Google Earth
* geocode image
* IPTC tag image
* IPTC caption image

Windows Uploadr 2.3 (and 2.5)
Mac Uploadr 2.2

Scenarios
1. Windows Uploadr (already resized)
2. Windows Uploadr (auto resize to 800)
3. Windows direct web upload
4. Mac Uploadr (already resized)
5. Mac Uploadr (auto resize to 800)
6. Mac direct web upload

1 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
2 IPTC no, EXIF-GPS ok *
3 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
4 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok
5 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS no *
6 IPTC ok, EXIF-GPS ok

So if you resize in Windows Uploadr, it will lose your IPTC tags and keywords, while, just for variety, if you resize in Mac Uploadr, it will lose your EXIF-GPS.

UPDATE 2007-08-09: Incredibly, Flickr Windows Uploadr 2.5 still loses IPTC metadata on resize.  ENDUPDATE

UPDATE 2008-09-28: Flickr Windows Uploadr 3.0.5 doesn't have this issue, IPTC metadata is preserved on resize; they have fixed the problem.  ENDUPDATE

I used an image of the London Millennium Wheel.
First I added IPTC keywords using the little-known CTRL-K option in Picasa.
The only drawback is you can't have multi-word keywords.

I also added a caption in Picasa.
(Minor disclaimer: I initially spelled Millennium wrong and fixed it after.)

Last but not least, I geocoded the photo using the Picasa-Google Earth integration (you can read more about this capability in a previous posting).

With the file now geocoded and IPTC tagged and captioned, I verified it in IrfanView.  (I also used IrfanView to do a resize of the photo to 800x600 for some of the upload tests.) As you can see from the IrfanView photo information inspection, the image now contains both EXIF-GPS and IPTC keywords.

Now, when it all works, it's great.  The photo arrives at Flickr and the metadata are automatically read and filled in for you.

But when you let Flickr Uploadr resize the image on Windows, goodbye IPTC info

On the Mac, just for variety, Uploadr resize keeps the IPTC, but loses the EXIF-GPS.

I hope you've found this report useful, and I hope it leads to Flickr fixing the Uploadr immediately.

Here's the photo itself (the #1 upload, with all the metadata intact)

Comments

[Vince]

Thanks for all the work you put in this. I helps out a lot!

[Felix]

Thanks a lot for posting this. It's now June 2007 and you'd think this would have been fixed. I'd be interested in a short followup on what your current methods of tagging and uploading to Flickr are.

[Justin]

Ah ha! Finally, an explanation for why Flickr upldr doesn't preserve IPTC info. Their web based uploader does seem to preserve the info. One strange thing I noticed is that the Object name field in the Origin tab got mapped to the Title field in Flickr. I would have expected the Headline filed to contain the title, but it really doesn't matter.