Adding a Copyright Preset in Adobe Lightroom

Adding a Copyright Preset in Adobe Lightroom

You really only need the minimum amount of information to cover yourself and once it is set up it only takes moments to add the copyright information to all your images. Once you have imported a new batch of photos into Lightroom, this should be the first thing you do. If you do not care who uses your images or where they use your images then this post is probably of no use to you.

If you are applying the preset to already imported images then make sure you un-stack all images before applying the preset. The stacking option is usually used if you have bracketed images such as a set of 3 images for an HDR. If you do not un-stack all images before applying the preset then the Preset will only be applied to the top image and not the underlying images.

The best way to un-stack images is to go to –

Menu Bar > Photo > Stacking > Expand all Stacks

To Re-Stack images –

Menu Bar > Photo >Stacking > Collapse all Stacks

To set up the Copyright Preset you need to be in the Library Module of Adobe Lightroom. On the right-hand side of the interface, you will have several panels. You need to open the Metadata Panel. To the left, you will have a dropdown panel with many options. Select the EXIF and IPTC option. This will show you all the current data in the Metadata file.

STEP 1.

Directly below the Metadata Panel Header there is a box labelled “Preset” with a drop-down box. You’ll see the two small up and down arrows to the right. Click in the box and several options will appear. If you have never set up a Preset before the “None” and “Edit Presets” should appear. Click on “Edit Presets“. A panel titled “Edit Metadata Presets” will open (see below).

STEP 2.

There will be several collapsible panels but here are the only ones you will need to enter info into for the preset. Naturally, you can extra info into any of the other fields as well but just remember that when applying the Preset to all your images in a folder they will all contain this information.

IPTC CONTENT

There will be checkboxes on the right-hand side. As soon as you add text to one of the fields a tick will appear in the checkbox to the right of the field. Lightroom will naturally assume that as soon as you add text to a field you will want to include the info in the Preset.

• Description Writer – Enter your name in the field

IPTC COPYRIGHT

There will be checkboxes on the right-hand side. As soon as you add text to one of the fields a tick will appear in the checkbox to the right of the field –

• Copyright – Enter ©Your Name in the field. The copyright symbol can be typed by using OPTION + G (Mac) or ALT + 0169 (PC)
• Copyright Status – there will be drop-down options. Select Copyrighted.
• Rights Usage Terms – Enter No reproduction without permission. All Rights Reserved. into the field.

IPTC CREATOR

There will be checkboxes on the right-hand side. As soon as you add text into one of the fields a tick will appear in the checkbox to the right of the field-

• Creator – Enter your name in the field
• Creator City – Enter your home town/city in this field
• Creator Country – Enter your home country in this field
• Creator Phone – Enter your phone number (optional). We add our mobile/cell number here with the international code eg. +61 (country code)
• Creator E-mail – Enter your email address in this field
• Creator Website – Enter your website URL in this field eg. http://www.widescenes.com
• Creator Job Title – Enter Photographer in this field

Any of the other fields are optional so if you do want to add your address, postal code etc then that is up to you, however, we prefer to leave these blank.

IPTC STATUS

There will be checkboxes on the right-hand side. As soon as you add text to one of the fields a tick will appear in the checkbox to the right of the field –

• Instructions – Enter No Reproduction without permission in this field
• Creditline – Enter ©Your Name in the field. The copyright symbol can be typed by using OPTION + G (Mac) or ALT + 0169 (PC)
• Source – Enter your name in the field

These are the only panels that you need to complete however if you want to be more elaborate then fill in as much information as you want. For example, if you want to create a Preset to include model Release or Property Release info for a particular job then fill in the appropriate fields. If this is the case, we would suggest you save it as a new Preset as the Model Release/Property Release info etc will change for future imports.

STEP 3.

Click on DONE. A box will appear. Click on Save As. An option will appear to give your preset a name. You can call this anything you want however something simple such as Your Name – Copyright is sufficient. Click on CREATE.

STEP 4.

Now return to your Metadata Panel on the right side of Lightroom. Under the Preset drop-down box, your Preset should now appear in the list.

STEP 5.

Go to each of your imported folders and open them. Go to the Menu bar and click on EDIT > SELECT ALL. This will select all the images in the folder. As mentioned above, make sure that any stacked images are unstacked.

STEP 6.

Once all the images in the folder are selected simply click on the preset you created from the Preset drop-down in the Metadata Panel. A box will appear. Click on ALL SELECTED to apply to all the images in the folder. A progress bar will appear in the top left of the Lightroom interface. Alternatively, if you wanted to apply two separate Presets to images in the same folder (maybe some shots need a Model/Property Release and others don’t. In this case, just select all the images that require the standard Preset and follow the procedures above and then select the remaining images and apply the Custom Preset that includes the additional info).

STEP 7.

Once completed, you can check the Metadata Panel (make sure you are still in the EXIF and IPTC panel. The information should all be added in the fields.

If you want to create the Preset as per the steps set out here and later want to add more info to the preset for a particular job/shoot that is to include extra information then click on your current preset and from the drop-down menu select Edit Presets > Your current Preset > Add extra info to the fields required > Save Current Settings as New Preset > Give the Preset a unique name > Done. You can then select all images in the new import with the new preset which will include the additional info. 

We hope this helps. If you have any comments or questions about this post then we’d love to hear from you. 

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