Metadata panel

About histograms

The histogram gives a valuable 'heads up' of the Red, Green, and Blue values present in your image, layer, or current selection, which is useful for deciding if colour or tonal correction is needed.

The light blue values indicate the overlap of the RGB channels (not the luminosity). Purple represents where the red and blue channel representations overlap.

About Scope charts

The Metadata panel also provides a variety of charts which allow you to examine the distribution of luminance and chrominance in an image, allowing you to judge whether tonal or colour correction is needed. It can be used as an alternative to, or in combination with, the histogram in the same panel.

About Metadata

You can use the Metadata panel to add new metadata to an image or edit existing metadata, and import metadata from/export metadata to an external file.

The contents of the panel's fields are saved as part of Affinity Photo 2 documents and optionally included when exporting to other image file formats.

Additionally, you can use the panel to inspect EXIF metadata that describes the hardware and shooting settings used to take a photo. Some EXIF metadata is editable in Affinity Photo 2, i.e. Camera, Make, Model, Date shot. All EXIF data can be removed in one operation.

Metadata categories

The panel's fields are organised into several categories. Use the pop-up menu to switch between them. The following categories are available:

• File—a summary of the image's contents and creator.
• EXIF—a read-only summary of the digital camera hardware and settings used to capture the image, where applicable.
• IPTC (Image)—descriptions of the content and the location depicted, the image's source (owner), the credit line to display wherever the image is used, and a job ID to help track the image through a workflow. Often used by news organisations and photo agencies.
• IPTC (Contact)—the image creator's contact details, including postal and email addresses, telephone number and website. Often used by news organisations and photo agencies.
• Rights—image copyright details, any applicable Creative Commons licence, and rights-related website addresses.

For additional guidance about each field's expected contents, refer to the IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide's Field Reference Table. Many fields in the Metadata panel accept freeform text; the guide contains examples of common practice.

Choosing what metadata to record

Setting metadata is optional. The following properties are recommended as the minimum to be populated:

• Description in the File category.
• Author¹ in the File category. (The same as the IPTC attribute Creator.)
• Source in the IPTC (Image) category. (The same as the IPTC attribute Copyright Owner.)
• Statement¹ in the Rights category. (The same as the IPTC attribute Copyright Notice.)
• Credit¹ in the IPTC (Image) category. (The same as the IPTC attribute Credit line.)

¹ Image-based searches conducted using Google can display this metadata. Further details are available online at this IPTC article.

Ask your organisation or client whether it has its own guidance on which metadata it requires to be recorded and how the data should be expressed.

Metadata in exported images

To include metadata from all the panel's editable fields when exporting a PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PSD or EPS file using the Export command on the Document menu, turn on Embed metadata.

Most EXIF data will also be included; in particular, some lens information may be omitted.

Exported PDFs include the contents of the Title, Author and Keywords fields, which you can set in the panel's File category.

About Locations

For raw files only (in Develop Persona), the Location section of the panel allows you to review and set the GPS metadata of your raw image if needed.

Raw images from cameras with built-in GPS capability will show the recorded image location automatically. For all other cameras, the image location can be set manually from the panel instead.