Documenting images

[allmat]

I’ve a JPEG of a photo of a woman named Eliza Ann Roe (born in 1880 and died in 1954) who was my daughter-in-law's maternal great grandmother. I wasn't sure where I got this, but I suspect it was from a website, and so I presume was uploaded by a descendant who has the original and is, in effect, the ‘source’. But who is that descendant and what web address would link back to the image I downloaded?  Had I made a note at the time, how best could I have linked that data to the image file – preferably in such a way that they could not become separated?
A search on Ancestry’s public trees does in fact lead me back to the mage I downloaded, and I can see who originally posted the image – more than 12 years ago! But the question remains. How do I document the provenance of the photo?
I use Family Tree Maker as my primary record mechanism, sync’d to an Ancestry Family Tree. In FTM I can add a ‘Description’ to the photo to document the source, but that doesn’t appear to upload to the AFT – or if it does I can’t find it!

[Erato]

Why not just write the information right on the photo?  Paste the jpeg onto a blank Paint document, then trim it leaving enough space above or below the picture to write whatever you need to write.

[allmat]

Thanks but that’s not really solving the problem, as the original JPEG still won’t hold details of its source.  But following a Google search I’ve found a solution, which I’ll detail here in case anyone else finds it useful.  Right-click on the JPEG file, select ‘Properties’. In the ‘Details’ tab. Under ‘Comments’ add your source citation and explanation of provenance.  In my case I then attached that image to the subject in FTM as a profile picture, and sync’d to my Ancestry tree, where (when I display the picture via ‘View profile image’) the source and provenance details appear in the sidebar. Exactly what I want – an image with a proper source citation clearly visible to anyone who views it.

[Biggles50]

A jpg file has information written with it, this information is its EXIF data.

On your computer using Explorer or File Manager browse to the image, right click on it and select Properties.

You will see something like the image below

With the right software or App you can Edit and add to this EXIF information it will be then saved with it for all time.

Search EXIF Editing on whatever system you use.

Or if you are adept at using Image processing software you can write directly on the image whatever you want as per my image below which I use as an example.

[allmat]

Indeed.
That's exactly what I suggested doing. But as for amending the actual image - less happy with that, I'd prefer to do that to a copy, so the original is preserved as found.

[Biggles50]

Indeed.
That's exactly what I suggested doing. But as for amending the actual image - less happy with that, I'd prefer to do that to a copy, so the original is preserved as found.

It’s not quite the same.

Without knowing FTM I would think that when you add a description to an image it does not permanently add it to the image.  The text resides within the FTM database where it is linked to the image, its like the text being in its own file that is hyperlinked to the image file.

The methods I suggest permanently add text to the image, using the EXIF editor you can add whatever you want to the image and it stays with the image permanently with it only being visible when you want to see it.

[allmat]

What I did was edit the EXIF data for the image on my local computer BEFORE adding it to the individual as a media item in FTM. And looking at the details for that media item within FTM I find it has the same text held as the 'description' for the image.  As you say, I assume FTM has extracted it and holds it as a field somewhere within its data structures, which is why it appears as it does once I sync the FTM tree with Ancestry.  But the fact remains that the original image that I downloaded from a different Ancestry tree and stored on my local PC now has permanently within it the detail of its provenance, and that information will remain embedded in that image if I send it to someone else. So the source in permanently recorded.  At least, that's how I see it . . . . .