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Metadata


Paul

Former Member
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How do you read an images metadata that as been posted online please?
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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I don't believe metadata is available for images that are other than the originals. At least looking at images in Bridge that's the way it appears to me.
 

Paul

Former Member
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Yeah i mean images that people put up as taken from their own devices, sorry for confusion.
 

Tom Mann

Guru
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Lots of programs can display both EXIF and IPTC metadata that may be embedded in an image, and some of these can even edit the metadata that is present (eg, change the caption, correct for clock or time zone offsets, strip all or just some of the other info, etc.).

Some programs (eg, EXIFtool / EXIFtoolGUI, PhotoMe, JPEGsnoop) can display every single byte of metadata that's there, but you've got to be a hard core geek or a forensic analyst to want to see absolutely everything that might be present (eg, serial number of the camera, serial number of the lens, focus point used, byte order, estimated focus distance, a list of each identifiable person and the corresponding model release info, codes pertaining to newspaper publication, etc.).

Other, more general purpose programs (eg, Bridge, PS, Photo Mechanic, Irfanview, Elements, etc.) will display various of the fields that each feels is most useful to various sets of users such as designers, photographers, PJ's, editors, etc., but these programs omit the more obscure / highly technical / specialized fields fields that might be present.

Finally, programs that are more for the general public, or are a bit older, or have different goals (eg, Picasa, XnView, VuePro, Corel Painter) that typically display only the most common metadata fields like the caption, date of capture (if it's a photo), etc.

So, if you want to see everything, use a program from the first category. OTOH, if you're the photographer for your family, and all you want to do is put some captions on a few pix and get on with your life, use a program from the 3rd category. If you are a pro, time is money to you, so you need to accurately but efficiently caption a huge number of pix from an event (eg, sporting, wedding, product shoot), and move on to the next project, use a specialist program from the 2nd category such as Photo Mechanic.


All of the above is pretty straightforward. What complicates matters is if you are presented with a photo (say, one posted on the web), in general, you won't have a clue about how the photo was handled before it got to you. Specifically, the photographer might have stripped out (or changed) all or some of the metadata, or they might have left all that info alone. In addition, the image uploading software used (eg, for the forum, for the photo sharing site, for facebook, email, etc.) also might have made major changes to the metadata, so, if you don't see a particular field, and you are not familiar with the particular practices of the on-line source, you won't know who made the changes / deletions.

With respect to this forum, the in-line preview images seem to have most, if not all, of the EXIF and IPTC info stripped out. However, if you click through to the version uploaded by the user, most of this info seems to be left intact, assuming the photographer didn't strip it out himself.

I hope this answers your question, Paul.

Cheers,

Tom
 

Paul

Former Member
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Thanks Tom, as always informative and very accurate.
 

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