IPTC Fields

Preamble

Without IPTC data, your photo does not exist in the digital world.
To enhance the value of your work and manage its distribution, you must master this field. It will also help you protect your work from potential infringements by confirming authorship through these metadata.
In the Hans Lucas ecosystem, via the MDALL platform, part of your personal data (name, surname, phone number, address, agency, copyright status, etc.) is pre-filled when you upload your files. Therefore, we will not cover those specific entries here. However, we strongly recommend filling them in yourself when delivering work for editorial or corporate clients so they too can verify the authorship of the images they may use.
Due to its simplicity (no need for export or saving) and the fact that it’s free, we will use Adobe Bridge in the following examples. However, be aware that each field can be applied in any cataloging or metadata editing tool—from Photoshop to XnView, including Capture One, Photo Mechanic, or Adobe Lightroom.

Essential Fields

The essential fields to be filled in before any import into MDALL are:

Headline (and Title)
Description (or Caption)
Keywords
IPTC Subject Code
Location Fields

Note: All these fields are part of the “IPTC Core” standard.

Displaying IPTC Core Fields

In Adobe Bridge, if the IPTC Core fields are not visible in the metadata panel:

Go to Preferences
Metadata tab
Make sure “IPTC Core” is fully checked

Note: If the metadata panel does not appear, go to the toolbar > Window > Check “Metadata”

Title and Headline

This field must follow the rules below:

All uppercase
No spaces or special characters
No spaces or special characters
English only

Example: FRANCE-INTERIOR-MINISTER-RETAILLEAU-FIRE-PREVENTION-PYRENEES

Description

This field must follow the rules below:

English first, then French on the next line.
⚠️ Important: the line break between the EN and FR versions must be a real line break. In Lightroom, use ALT + Enter on Mac, or ALT / CONTROL + Enter on PC. Simple spaces or simple line breaks will not be recognized.
No spaces, no accent or special characters. Online tool to clean the text.
Avoid commas in the description, as English speakers dislike them. The only comma tolerated is the one in the date.
First sentence: a textual description of the visual content (what, where, when), including sub-location and location (department and country), followed by the date in English format (Month day-number, year)
The image type or shooting style should appear at the beginning (e.g., “Backlight image of…”, “Aerial view of…”)
If needed, a second sentence providing context is acceptable

Example :
Bruno Retailleau and Agnes Pannier Runacher reviewing firefighters in Thuir in the Pyrenees-Orientales department in southern France on June 5, 2025. As part of the launch of the Strategie nationale de defense des forets contre les incendies, Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, and Agnes Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and Forestry, visited the Pyrenees-Orientales, where they were given a presentation of the resources deployed in a department that is highly susceptible to fire.
Bruno Retailleau et Agnes Pannier Runacher passant en revue des sapeurs pompiers a Thuir dans le departement des Pyrenees-Orientales dans le sud de la France le 5 juin 2025. Dans le cadre du lancement de la Strategie nationale de defense des forets contre les incendies, Bruno Retailleau, ministre de l’Interieur, et Agnes Pannier-Runacher, ministre de la Transition ecologique, de la Biodiversite et de la Foret, se sont rendus dans les Pyrenees-Orientales ou ils ont pu assister a une presentation des moyens mis en place dans un departement fortement sensible aux incendies.

Keywords

Keywords are increasingly less used and are even removed by MDALL when exporting to certain partners. Therefore, filling them in is not required.

However, if you do choose to fill them in:

Both English and French are required
No spaces or special characters
Words must be separated by commas “,” or semicolons “;” and end with a period “.”
Never use more than 30 keywords

Example:
ministre; DFCI; feu; incendie; Foret; protection; prevention; interieur; Retailleau; Pannier; Runacher; Biodiversite; ONF; office; pompier; SDIS; Pyrenees; Camelas; pyrenees-orientales; Deplacement; Ministeriel; Les republicains; minister; fire; wildfire; Forest; prevention; interior; Biodiversity; firefighter; Ministerial; Les republicains.

IPTC Subject Code

The IPTC subject code must follow a very specific rule:

It consists of 8 digits
It must be a second-level code: it cannot contain more than 6 zeros after the first two digits
When in doubt, two levels are enough — there’s no need to go deeper to level 3 or 4
It can be found using this tool
You can also perform a text search directly on this page to speed things up.

Examples:
Politics > Government > Ministers: 11006009
Social > Strikes: 09008000

Location Fields

Here are the rules to follow for IPTC location-related fields:

All place names must be written in uppercase and without accents
Sublocation: the exact place where the image was taken (street, building, hamlet, or the most specific geographic area possible)
City: must be written in the city’s original language
Province/State: corresponds to the department where the image was taken
Country: must be written in uppercase and in English
ISO Country Code: use the 3-letter ISO code, easily found online

Examples: (Sublocation – City – Province/State – Country – ISO)
Hotel de Ville – Perpignan – Pyrenees-Orientales – FRANCE – FRA
Plaza Mayor – Barcelona – Catalunya – SPAIN – ESP
Carnaby Street – London – Inner London – ENGLAND – GBR

File Format

Here are some useful rules for your images:

MDALL only accepts JPG (or JPEG) files
Dimensions: The longest side must be 5000px
Resolution: 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch)
Color Profile: sRGB
File Size: Must be under 8 MB