PLUS is an international standard for clearly and unambiguously communicating usage rights for digital images, making it easier to manage image rights using automated or manual processes. The PLUS standards allow rights metadata to travel within image files using XMP, and to be efficiently stored and accessed in all types of databases and applications.
PLUS is also an astonishing demonstration of democracy, tenacity, passion and mutual understanding – the result of many years of hard work and contribution from a plethora of sources. We believe it to be an outstanding example of international cooperation and communication. The latest PLUS newsletter puts this success into perspective:
“PLUS has achieved what some believed was impossible. Photographers, illustrators, publishers, designers, art buyers, picture editors, museums, librarians, artist reps, stock agencies, standards bodies, attorneys, educators, archivists and application developers joined forces and cooperatively developed a universal language for image licensing. As a result, the PLUS standards support any and all image licensing models, and will benefit every professional involved in creating, distributing, using or preserving images, for many years to come.”
And the PLUS coalition is being very successful.
As photographers, the ability to control our copyright is critical and we should all be very concerned about how our photos are being used (or abused). In the professional environment it’s absolutely essential that both the photographer and the client understand the usage rights that are being licensed. PLUS solves this issue - it’s the future of digital imagery licensing.
Impassioned by what PLUS had to offer I started to work on a plug-in that would allow me to integrate a PLUS workflow into Lightroom.
PLUS for Lightroom1 allows photographers to create PLUS licenses and to embed them into their images. When starting this project Timothy carefully examined all the metadata fields that PLUS provides and considered the ideal workflow within Lightroom. The result is a plug-in that’s designed for photographers that use Lightroom as their primary cataloging tool. Images are imported without PLUS metadata (straight from the memory card), and are exported with the appropriate embedded PLUS license for passing on to a client (or even for posting on the web with as an unlicensed creation2).
With this in mind I decided to split the PLUS fields into two groups, image specific metadata and license specific metadata. The image specific metadata (associated model releases, image ID, etc.) is entered and maintained from the Library module’s Metadata panel; it is not expected to change on a license per license basis. The license itself is defined at the moment of export, using the Export dialog. Those familiar with PLUS will find themselves right at home, with the ability to use the PLUS Packs, the Media Matrix and existing summary codes.
During export the PLUS metadata – both image and license specific – is embedded into each image. It’s a post-processing plug-in (like LR/Mogrify 2, for example) so it can be used in conjunction with an export plug-in.
This is a genial plugin. I have been a PLUS member for almost a year and I am happy to have found the plugin (via David Riecks). It will save me much time.
(For some reason, the second QT video does not run to completion. It stops about halfway. The first and third appear to be fine.)
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for your comments.
The second one’s playing all the way through for me, so it was probably just a connection issue.
Tim
I also found your plug-in through David Rieck’s Controlled Vocabulary group and just watched your tutorial (http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/plusforlightroom.php?sec=manual) to learn more about the PLUS plug-in. I have a question about customizing the licensing agreements. Is is possible to save a customized licensing agreement as a template that could be updated per job?
Hi Ann,
Good question. Yes, there’s a preset drop down menu for exactly that purpose. You can learn more about it in the user guide.
Tim
Hi Timothy,
First – love your plugins, great stuff, my workflow would be significantly slower without them!
A question about metadata presets and the PLUS plugin when used in Lightroom 3:
When I edit the metadata in LR3, in the IPTC Extension section, I can edit/add more than one “Image Creator” and “Copyright Owner”, both identified by two items, the PLUS Id and the name, and one or more licensors, each identified by a full name/address structure.
When I then swith to your plugin. to “All PLUS for Lightroom fields”, I have very diffent information, for example only one PLUS Id for the image creator, but, if I understand it correctly, three name fields.
Not only are the structures different, information entered into one PLUS preset seems to be invisble/not existent in the other (okay, “IPTC Extended”) preset.
Am I right in thinking that the PLUS plugin still has the Lightroom 2 user in mind, and has not been adapted to live with LR3′s “IPTC Extended” structures?
If yes, will there be an update for the PLUS plugin?
Thanks!
Harald
Hi,
Effectively, the plugin doesn’t yet know about the new LR3 fields.
You should use either the LR3 fields (so that LR3 applies these fields and PLUS for Lightroom does the other) OR you should use the plugin’s fields. If you use both then the plugin will overwrite the metadata that you’ve placed in the IPTC extension fields.
I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to address this problem in a future update – it’s not as straightforwards as you might imagine, especially if the user has already filled in two lots of conflicting information in both datasets.
Tim