Messages

@dmilligan...apologizes for the delayed response...been away for a bit.

...YES!!!!  I like the sound of that solution (sending file name) much better!!!!!! 

Then, I can just tell a companion app (yet to be developed) "I'm shooting Bob"...and every image name sent to the app by ML will be "Bob's" image! 

Is there already an example of how to send the current file name?  and also, what it PTP? 

Thanks again for all the great suggestions...i"m really excited to try and wire this all up.

thanks @chmee !!

If I am already tethered w/ an android app, why not write the unique ID directly to the metadata of the picture(s)?  No need to deal w/ DateTime...plus all the other benefits I mentioned.  Just seems more error prone to go w/ TimeStamps rather than get data directly from an existing metadata field...

All that said, and I thank you all for your thoughts and input, is it even possible to write to metadata in camera?

@dmilligan - timestamp?  interesting thought...

I had worked thorough one solution using timestamps...i basically marked the time when the subject would come up to the camera (DateTime.NOW() ex 6:00 pm) and then took a bunch of pics for that subject, then marked the time for the next subject (DateTime.NOW() ex 6:05pm) and took a bunch of pics, etc....then i would use the DateTime(s) as "subject separators"...basically all images from 6:00pm till the next separator  belongs to subject A - all images from 6:05pm till the next separator belong to subject B, etc....
The problem find is that DateTime can be inaccurate between devices (camera time, tablet time, etc) and at the end of the day...this still seems to be a "work around" for me, rather than a fool proof solution.

If I can just select the subject in the companion tablet/android app and know that the subjects unique ID will be written to the keyword field of every image I take, until a new subject is selected, then I believe I have a water tight, and dare say, almost fool/error proof solution. 

Additionally, having that unique ID in the EXIF metadata (keyword field) offers the greatest deal of flexibility for other workflows...I personally use LightRoom...now, if i want to find all of "Ben's" images (ID-12345) I can do a keyword search for "12345" and all those images will be found.  Also, a lot of photo hosting sites (i use SmugMug for example) will extract keyword metadata for site searching....so now, I can give "Ben's" parents his unique ID, they can go to my site and use that ID to find all other their kids photos! 

Long winded of me, I'm sure, but just wanted to paint the full vision I have. 

Thoughts?

@dpjpandone - thank you for your reply!  I have seen that the 7d studio version has bar-code/scanning capabilities...but I'm shooting w/ a 5D MarkII (I probably should have mentioned that in the first post) and am not in the market for another camera body at the moment. 

Having said that, does anyone know if my original request/vision is even technically possible?

Thanks all!

[with each picture taken, "12345" is added to the the keyword field by ML...]

Greetings All-

I've looked...and looked, and I don't think this has been requested yet...if it has, my most sincere apologizes.

Is it possible to add "user defined"  tags to the keyword metadata field of an image (jpeg and/or raw)?  I'm a .net developer and part time photographer trying to get into high volume photography (think youth sports, schools, etc...)

Here would be my ideal workflow...

1) Have a companion android app that has a list of all the subjects that i would be photographing (Ben, Jane, Joe)...
2) tether a tablet to camera running ML...
3) open android app and select "Ben" (say Ben has a unique ID - "12345")...
4) take pictures of Ben...
with each picture taken, "12345" is added to the the keyword field by ML...
5) select new subject in andriod app (Jane  ID - "67890")
6) take pictures of Jane
now, "67890" will be added to each picture taken by ML...

Rinse and Repeat. 

Now, in post processing, i can write a simple c#/.net app that will read the metadata for each image and sort them, by subject, automatically!  viola!!!!!!!! 1000's of photos sorted in seconds  

The key....adding/tagging the metadata to the images WHEN i shoot....

Really looking forward to finding out if this is even possible....

Thank you all in advance!