How to search metadata for copyright holder?

[moab]

I have Aperture. How can I search a library or large group of images by copyright holder name? I'm trying to cull out photos who's copyright name I do not want to use.

I can either use Aperture or another Apple software solution.

Does this make sense?

 

[snowbear]

The author/creative/copyright holder information has to be there to begin with; not all photos have that data. Where did you get them and what's the licensing?

 

[moab]

I work as a photo editor. We have agreements with all the photographers. But some we don't use anymore. Out of thousands of images I want to cull those or avoid those that we no longer work with. Thus the question. Most all of them are professional photographers that include their name or company name in the copyright field. I'd like to be able to search that field in the widest possible way in Aperture or just on the server. So we don't use them even in comps.

They are in large groups like by state or country that the photos were taken in. And go back several years. So we might have dozens or hundreds of photographers across many different geographic areas. So being able to single out the copyright field with a search by folder on the server, or library or multiple library's or folders or even light boxes in Aperture would be very helpful.

I can do a simple text search in a light table. And single the ones out we don't use anymore. But from there it's a matter of having to write the file name down. And then going in manually and removing them from the project/album. I'm working on several hundred light tables at the moment. Just hoping to find a more expedient way of doing it. And on a larger group of photos. Like say by library would be awesome. Or by a series of folders on the server.

 

[snowbear]

Apparently Windows will allow you to search (through File Manager / Windows Explorer) with tag: photographersname. There may be some way to do the same in OS-X; it's been a while since I've had a Mac, so I really don't remember.

 

[480sparky]

The data has to be put there by someone, using one of the following methods:

In-camera, but not all cameras have that ability.
During ingestion, processing or saving. This can be automated by some apps, but not all.
Manually editing and saving it. This is the most labor-intensive method and rarely used.

Someone, somewhere, along the line, between the click of the shutter and getting the image to you, has to input the data. If it's never done, it's not going to be there.