Export List of File Name with Faces Identified

Question

Export List of File Name with Faces Identified

I'd like to export a list from Aperture, into any file format - Words, Numbers, rich text, MS Word, MS Excel, anything!!

The list would show the file name and all the faces identified in that file.

My daughter is in her High School dance team. I've taken more than 1000 photos. Here is is the end of the season and I'd like to distribute the photos among the dancers/parents. They don't have the software or care to take the time to sort through the pics to figure out which photos they are in. I'd at least like to give them a list of photos so that can find the ones

Faces can be a helpful feature (though I hate all the file versions all over the place in iPhoto and Apeture).

I've read that Faces is not stored in the metadata of the file. I've tried to export metadata, but not much comes out other than the standard file size, camera settings, etc.

Easier to describe the situation, I guess, but would be helpful for many photos with people (weddings, parties, reunions, genealogy photos ...)

which is Faces is supposed to be about, RIGHT???

I guess a work around could be exporting the files from the identified faces. That seems like it would just junk up more storage/memory. I guess you could use a file list naming app and then delete the exported files - that just seems stupid.

I expect a little more from a souped up version of iPhoto for $79. Especially if I have Adobe Creative Suite with Bridge. If Apple wants to give a little shove to Apple, and bring novice users from looking for a non Apple solution, I think this would be an EASY no brainer.

Thanks anyone who has a solution of a decent work around.

Beth in Wisconsin

Aperture 3.06

Adobe Creative Suite 6

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 27" iMac, 17" MacBookPro, iPhone 5s

Posted on Feb 16, 2015 7:29 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 16, 2015 8:04 AM in response to graphiclizard

Hi Beth,

Faces has never been particularly useful. It's a gimmick. (Ken Hart posted a good comment about this recently.)

I wasn't able to tell from your post what _exactly_ you want to do. Do you want to convert named Faces to keywords? How will you use a list of file names, even if it includes named Faces? How is Faces preventing you from distributing your files or prints?

"Metadata" is a general term for anything about the data that is in a file. There are many standardized forms of metadata for digital image files (EXIF, IPTC, etc.), but even those standards change. Aperture applies its own metadata to Images (flags, color labels) and much of the organizational aspects of Aperture can be distilled to Image-specific metadata: Project, Album, etc. When you ask about metadata, you must specify the data field(s) in question.

Separately, Aperture never was "a souped up version of iPhoto". That Apple marketed it as one, or allowed iPhoto users to think of it as one, was misleading.

HTH,

—Kirby.

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Answer 2

Feb 16, 2015 8:41 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Dear Kirby, Thank you so much for your reply.

I'm familiar with Metadata. I've worked with Canto Cumulus and Filemaker.

I guess a more important question - where is the Faces data stored?

I'm looking to export a text version by file name, such as in a spreadsheet. Something like this

File Name PhotoFile_01.jpg PhotoFile_01.jpg PhotoFile_03.jpg

Faces ID'd Nina Totenburg Carl Kasel Tom Ashbrook

Faces ID'd Carl Kasel Peter Sagel

Faces ID'd Terri Gross Terri Gross Nina Totenburg

Faces ID'd Renee Montaigne Tom Ashbrook

OR

File Name Face 1 Face 2 Face 3 Face 4

PhotoFile_01.jpg Bob Braun Tina Fey Andy Warhol

PhotoFile_02.jpg Leah Jones Beyonce Tina Turner Dave Matthews

PhotoFile_03.jpg Lisa Liu Geena Davis

Anything that would identify the faces in a photo to a text file ....

Yes I understand that most of the IOS software is supposed to make it easier for the new and less techie user. But if you are going to create all these versions and mini files for the photos, why not make them accessible to a power user. I'm not a coder, but I've been using macs for 25 of my 40 years.

What gets me is that you go to the trouble of identifying all the Faces. What is Faces really supposed to help you with?

I mean Facebook is better at face recognition than this. Don't go on a tangent - about this - just sayin'.

Thanks for your time!

Beth

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Answer 3

Ken Hart

Level 2

185 points

Feb 16, 2015 10:15 AM in response to graphiclizard

if you "show package contents" of an iPhoto or Aperture library, there is a file called "AlbumData.xml" which is a OS X property file. In it you will find a key called "List of Faces" that will have the names, along with other associated information. However it's not a sequential list you can copy and paste, each name has 6 or more keys associated with it.

If you know enough about Cocoa and Xcode you can write a simple program to easily parse the names out of it and save it to a text file I have a program that does this for the face names, album names and number of photos in each, it's pretty simple. If you're interested I can post the code for you, but you're on your own from there.

Kirby: Thanks for the mention.

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Answer 4

notcloudy

Level 4

1,258 points

Feb 16, 2015 10:29 AM in response to graphiclizard

After scanning in childhood photographs - cleaning up scratches and dust - used IPHOTO faces to name everyone.

I then selected a face - shows all pictures associated with that face - highlighted all the pictures with that person and printed them out. (you could also export them - or share them).

Earlier poster answered an IPHOTO question I had about faces - only way to print on photos is to setup a keyword.

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