Specio and Peakto 2.8: how species confirmations reach your catalog

Specio and Peakto 2.8: how species confirmations reach your catalog

Overview

When you confirm a species in Specio, it writes the species to the photo's metadata, and Peakto 2.8 (and above) picks it up automatically. You don't need to export or re-import anything.

This works because Peakto 2.8 (or above) reads XMP metadata and watches for changes in two places:

  • XMP metadata: the .xmp sidecar next to a RAW file, or the XMP embedded in a JPEG or PSD.
  • Lightroom Classic catalogs: changes made inside the catalog itself.

Specio writes to both. Whichever one Peakto sees, it gets the same keywords and the same IPTC fields.

What Specio writes when you confirm a species

With Auto-write metadata on validation turned on (Settings ▸ Sync ▸ General), each confirmation writes the following. With it off, nothing is written until you click Send Metadata on the species card.

What

Contents

Where you set it

Hierarchical keywords

The species' full lineage, for example Animalia › Chordata › Aves › … › Griffon Vulture

Settings ▸ Sync ▸ General ▸ Hierarchical keywords, and Lineage language (Latin or your language)

Title

Built from your template, for example {common-name}

Settings ▸ Sync ▸ Advanced IPTC

Description (caption)

Built from your template

Settings ▸ Sync ▸ Advanced IPTC

Headline

Built from your template

Settings ▸ Sync ▸ Advanced IPTC

Keywords

A flat list built from your template, for example {common-name}, {family}, {order}

Settings ▸ Sync ▸ Advanced IPTC

Templates combine tokens such as {common-name}, {specie}, {genus}, {family}, {order}, {date}, {camera}, {lens} and {location}. Specio never writes a keyword twice. For example, the family name appears once even if both the lineage and your template contain it.

Your own metadata is safe. Specio fills a field only when it is empty or still holds a value Specio wrote earlier. It never overwrites one you typed yourself, unless you choose Replace for that field. If you later change a photo's species, Specio removes the old species' keywords and leaves yours untouched.

Photos in a Lightroom Classic catalog

For a Lightroom Classic photo, Specio writes the same metadata twice, always in this order:

  1. The XMP. For a RAW file, that's the .xmp sidecar next to it. For a JPEG or PSD, it's the XMP inside the file, written only if you allow it (see below).
  2. The catalog. The Specio plugin then writes the keywords, hierarchical keywords, title, caption and headline directly into the Lightroom catalog.

Writing the XMP first means the catalog holds the newer change. Lightroom therefore doesn't flag the photo as "changed outside Lightroom" with its "!" badge, even when Automatically write changes into XMP is off in your catalog settings.

If the photo's catalog is closed, its XMP is written right away. The catalog update waits and is applied the next time you open that catalog with the Specio plugin running. Nothing is lost in between, and Peakto already has the change from the XMP.


Photos from a folder (without Lightroom)

When the photo comes from a folder you added to Specio, the XMP is the only place the metadata goes. Peakto 2.8 reads it from there.

File type

Where Specio writes

Your consent

RAW (and other files with a sidecar)

A .xmp sidecar next to the file; the original is never touched

Not needed

JPEG

The XMP and IPTC embedded in the JPEG itself, since a JPEG has no sidecar

Write into JPEG files

PSD / PSB

The XMP inside the Photoshop document

Write into Photoshop documents

Both consents are off by default, in Settings ▸ Sync ▸ General ▸ Files Specio may rewrite. Until you turn one on, Specio doesn't modify files of that type. The Send Metadata button then tells you so, instead of failing silently.

Specio also keeps a short record inside the XMP, in its own namespace, of what it wrote. That's how it knows later which values are its own and which are yours. Lightroom Classic and Adobe Bridge keep this record intact.


Settings to check, and common questions

  • Settings ▸ Sync ▸ General: Auto-write metadata on validation on, if you want each confirmation written right away.
  • Settings ▸ Sync ▸ Advanced IPTC: your Title, Description, Headline and Keywords templates.
  • Settings ▸ Sync ▸ General ▸ Files Specio may rewrite: JPEG and PSD consents, if you shoot JPEG or edit in Photoshop.
  • The Specio plugin is installed and enabled in Lightroom Classic (Settings ▸ Lightroom Classic in Specio).

FAQ

Do I need to run Read Metadata from Files in Lightroom? No. The plugin writes into the catalog directly.

I confirmed photos while Lightroom was closed. Will Peakto see them? Yes. The XMP is written immediately, and Peakto 2.8 picks up XMP changes. The catalog is updated the next time you open it.

I edited a title in Lightroom. Will Specio overwrite it? No. Specio only replaces values it wrote itself, unless you set that field to Replace.

What about GPS? Location is written to the XMP only, when Auto-write GPS when setting a location is on. Lightroom's plugin interface can't set GPS coordinates in the catalog.