diff --git a/osxphotos/exiftool.py b/osxphotos/exiftool.py
index ad3dab5d..ea55821c 100644
--- a/osxphotos/exiftool.py
+++ b/osxphotos/exiftool.py
@@ -308,12 +308,13 @@ class ExifTool:
         ver, _, _ = self.run_commands("-ver", no_file=True)
         return ver.decode("utf-8")
 
-    def asdict(self, tag_groups=True):
+    def asdict(self, tag_groups=True, normalized=False):
         """return dictionary of all EXIF tags and values from exiftool
         returns empty dict if no tags
 
         Args:
             tag_groups: if True (default), dict keys have tag groups, e.g. "IPTC:Keywords"; if False, drops groups from keys, e.g. "Keywords"
+            normalized: if True, dict keys are all normalized to lower case (default is False)
         """
         json_str, _, _ = self.run_commands("-json")
         if not json_str:
@@ -334,6 +335,10 @@ class ExifTool:
                 k = re.sub(r".*:", "", k)
                 exif_new[k] = v
             exifdict = exif_new
+
+        if normalized:
+            exifdict = {k.lower(): v for (k, v) in exifdict.items()}
+
         return exifdict
 
     def json(self):
@@ -360,3 +365,7 @@ class ExifTool:
         elif self._commands:
             # run_commands sets self.warning and self.error as needed
             self.run_commands(*self._commands)
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/osxphotos/phototemplate.py b/osxphotos/phototemplate.py
index 6168f168..11b89d07 100644
--- a/osxphotos/phototemplate.py
+++ b/osxphotos/phototemplate.py
@@ -1082,8 +1082,7 @@ class PhotoTemplate:
             return []
 
         exif = ExifTool(self.photo.path, exiftool=self.exiftool_path)
-        exifdict = exif.asdict()
-        exifdict = {k.lower(): v for (k, v) in exifdict.items()}
+        exifdict = exif.asdict(normalized=True)
         subfield = subfield.lower()
         if subfield in exifdict:
             values = exifdict[subfield]
diff --git a/tests/test_exiftool.py b/tests/test_exiftool.py
index 2897f5cf..f131544a 100644
--- a/tests/test_exiftool.py
+++ b/tests/test_exiftool.py
@@ -349,6 +349,15 @@ def test_as_dict():
     assert exifdata["XMP:TagsList"] == "wedding"
 
 
+def test_as_dict_normalized():
+    import osxphotos.exiftool
+
+    exif1 = osxphotos.exiftool.ExifTool(TEST_FILE_ONE_KEYWORD)
+    exifdata = exif1.asdict(normalized=True)
+    assert exifdata["xmp:tagslist"] == "wedding"
+    assert "XMP:TagsList" not in exifdata
+
+
 def test_as_dict_no_tag_groups():
     import osxphotos.exiftool