Settings used for images destined for picture news agencies. For news images they should be uploaded within one hour of the event.
Saving a template version of these settings will help speed up the process to meet news deadlines.
[Update July 2020] – see also this post “How to License Images through Google” – for additional meta data that you should add to your images if you post them to other sites, such as your own website, that will allow them to show up in Google image search with a licensable image badge.
Metadata Settings
Import into Lightroom, ensure the metadata option is set to “EXIF and IPTC”, and set the following fields:
Headline
This should be a general description of the event.
Format:
<General description of event>, <town/city>, <country>
Note: Multiple images from the same event should have the same title in order to keep them together in news feeds.
Title
Set to same as Headline.
Caption
Whereas the Headline is a general description if an event, and should eb the same for a set of images, the Caption should be unique to each image and should provide more detail of the image subject.
The Caption should follow the format recommended by agencies for news, and should cover the following within a 600 character limit:
- Where did it take place?
- When did it take place?
- Who is in the image?
- What is going on?
- Why is it happening / why is it newsworthy?
Format:
<town/city>,<country>. <date: [nth month: full name year: YYYY]>. <Details>. Credit: <Name>/<Agency>
Keywords
Keywords will be uploaded to the agency site and will be used to help find images in searches. As well as more general keywords describing the event, its also worth adding very specific keywords describing details in the image, such as the colours of items in the image, this will help when someone is looking for specific images (e.g. I sold an image based on the fact that it showed red boots which was incidental to the main subject).
Optional Settings
The following settings are not mandatory, but will help with export (see below) and ensuring if your images are syndicated on to other services (which is common with news agencies).
Job Identifier
I use this for generating a filename. Generally set to identify the event, a sort of event code which means I can find the image easily in a search and get an idea of what the image file is without having to open or preview it.
Instructions
I also use this field in export to generate a filename, usually as more specific identifier than the Job Identifer.
IPTC Subject Code
Maybe not actually used by agencies, but worth populating just in case.
IPTC codes can be found here: IPTC Subject Codes.
Copyright Status
Set this to Copyrighted
Copyright Info URL
Set this to any copyright terms you may have on your website.
Rights Usage Terms
I set this to:
Rights-Managed. Editorial Use Only. Licence fee payable before use.
Image Export
As per the settings described above, I use the following setting to generate a filename specific to each image:
{Job Identifer»}-{Instructions»}-{Sequence # (01)»>
Rob Sheppard 