[southlander]

I'm looking to create on-line albums of my parents' family photos that can be shared within the wider family group.

I'm currently 'scanning' by photographing with K-1 and M100/4 Macro lens, processing in LR/PS. That process seems to be working well. Still considering what final file format to export - probably JPEG for the on-line albums and a master TIFF of the tidied up images for my retention (in addition to the camera DNGs).

The plan was to record details of the photos in LR in the title/caption field and output these when exporting to JPEG and TIFF. That bit seems fine.

The challenge seems to be finding a photosharing site that will read either of these EXIF fields and display them in a user friendly way. I usually use Google Photo. Captions once showed in Picasa days but no more. Flickr - well it's there in the Show Exif area but not in a user friendly way.

I'm trying to avoid having to enter photo information a second time in the photo sharing site - once and once only in LR so it embeds in any exports and is permanent within the file is my preference. Then there is only one version of the truth.

Anyone know of a sharing site that reads EXIF titles and or captions fields and displays them in a user friendly way? Or has a hack that works?

Am thinking I will avoid Google Photos - if you ever retrieve all your photos back from it, I believe the files you get back are stripped of their EXIF data. Not a great tragedy in the short term but thinking of the long term where maybe my copies are lost and the wider family only has access to whatever is on the sharing site. Yet to try a bulk download from Flickr to check if the EXIF data remains intact.

At least with Flickr, after uploading files, it's relatively simple to copy and paste the caption into the description. But still needs to be done for each and every photo

Any advice would be appreciated.

[UncleVanya]

You can use Exif tools to embed the Exif data in the jpg. Then anyone shared the file will have the data. Also this data would be read by Flickr and shown on the info page.

[ramseybuckeye]

500px will display the LR caption field into their description field on upload. I have never used the caption field but just tried after reading your post. However, it doesn't display a BB code like Flickr does, but does have a few "sharing" options.



500px

[nosliwmit]

At least with Flickr, after uploading files, it's relatively simple to copy and paste the caption into the description. But still needs to be done for each and every photo

I use the jf Flickr plug-in and my captions, titles and keywords transfer from LR to Flickr seamlessly.

[southlander]

You can use Exif tools to embed the Exif data in the jpg. Then anyone shared the file will have the data. Also this data would be read by Flickr and shown on the info page.

Thank you for your reply. Lightroom will embed the title and caption data on export to Jpeg if I select export all metadata, so I don’t need to go to EXIF Tools for this. Flickr will show the title and caption if you click on Show EXIF data and you scroll down sufficiently to find it. Not very user friendly for family members I plan to share these photos with. I was hoping the site might insert it into Flickr’s own description field but apparently not. If desperate, at least it is then reasonably easy to cut and paste within the same Flickr page.

---------- Post added 8th Apr 2021 at 11:08 PM ----------

500px will display the LR caption field into their description field on upload. I have never used the caption field but just tried after reading your post. However, it doesn't display a BB code like Flickr does, but does have a few "sharing" options.



500px

Thank you for suggesting 500px. If I have no joy with Flickr, I’ll trial 500px. I don’t really need BB code for my intended use which is to make the old albums accessible to the wider family.

---------- Post added 8th Apr 2021 at 11:13 PM ----------

I use the jf Flickr plug-in and my captions, titles and keywords transfer from LR to Flickr seamlessly.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m familiar with Jeffery Friel’s plugins. I used his export to Picasa plugin until Google screwed all us Picasa users by dumping it for Google Photos. I love his Japanese temple garden photos and in particular the images his Voightlander 125mm APO lens could produce. I’ll install his Flickr plugin and test.

---------- Post added 8th Apr 2021 at 11:25 PM ----------

The first old album I’m working on is one of my father’s from the mid 1950’s. Most photos in that album are what I think are contact prints from square 120 film. I’m surprised (in a positive way) by the detail hidden within these roughly 2” square photos when a sharp photo was actually taken. Also surprised (negatively) by how much contamination these old prints (as issued by the photo lab) had with dust, lint and water spots. Keeping me busy in Photoshop retouching. Slow going but working on the theory that if I don’t do it no one else ever will.

Sample of one of the sharper photos.

Shared album - Aussie Southlander - Google Photos

This would have been from a folding camera. Quite a few photos are very weak in the upper left corner - I suspect the camera maybe had a tendency not to lock properly when unfolded. I think the camera may still be somewhere in my parent’s house.

As mentioned earlier, I’m photographing the prints with my K-1 and M 100/4 macro lens. Using indirect sunlight near a set of double glass doors seems to provide even illumination. White balance can be a bit all over the shop but I’m putting a grey card next to the photos and using this to correct WB in LR.

[UncleVanya]

According to this, Smugmug offers a photo album service.

10 Best Websites to Make Online Photo Albums for Free - FlipHTML5

[southlander]

I've installed Jeffrey Friel's Flickr Export plugin to LR and given it a quick test.

Yes, the LR caption loads to the Flickr description field

To test later: how the title field comes across.

Also LR keywords come across as tags so a bonus I hadn't even thought about till now. I'll need to develop a useful keyword hierarchy to make best use of that.

Looks like Flickr will be the home for these old photos. Hopefully I can stay below the 1Gb freebie limit.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

[fs999]

I use Exify on FireFox...

[southlander]

I use Exify on FireFox...

Looks like an interesting app for iPads where the lack of image information in the Photos app is quite annoying.

Update: Exify for iPad and Exify for Firefox appear to be two unrelated apps that share a name and similar purpose.