Digital Photo EXIF Data

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Bill McMahon

Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:25 am

For some time I was under the impression that EXIF data (Exchangeable image file format) contained in digital photos would stay with each photo forever.....no matter what you did to the photo. I recently discovered that when a digital photo is copied to a CD or DVD the EXIF data is lost or changed. Since I always make back up copies of my photos, so that I can reuse the memory card, I think you have to Save As "New Photo Name/date" in order to preserve this information. Any one have experience or ideas on how to handle this?

Bill

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby im42n8 » Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:46 am

The exif information is ordinarily embedded in the image. When you copy the image, the information goes with it. Not all exif information, however, is contained in that image but is copied to an additional, external file. Some point and shoot cameras copy this additional exif information to an additional file along with the image itself.

Any exif information that is contained in a sidecar (or some kind of an external exif data file) is not transferred with that image unless you copy the sidecar too (but, only applications that can utilize and know about the sidecar will use that sidecar).

If you export the image from one format to another (say RAW to TIFF or JPG... or even from a format to the same format), you won't always export the embedded exif information with it; in fact, you can choose to copy all or part or none of the exif info to the resulting file.

Dale

Bill McMahon

Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:18 pm

So there is no "fool proof" method that you can use to guarantee the information remains unchanged? I am currently using Canon's Zoombrowser application as my "Master" to retain not only the images but the EXIF information as well. When viewing the "Properties" of these pictures on my back up CDs they will indicate the pics were taken in 2001 (when I made the back ups!). As time goes by I'll never remember that those "new" dates are incorrect....!!

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Barbara_K » Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:20 pm

Bill,

I'm not sure what's going on with your backups but I also use Canon's Zoombrowser and the EXIF information is still present after backing up my photos to DVD. When I hover my mouse cursor over a photo on the DVD the correct date and time the picture was taken is shown not the backup date.

Do you use Zoombrowser to transfer the photos from your camera or card reader? This is the mainly what I use Zoombrowser for. Zoombrowser will put the photos in folders named with the dates the pictures were taken. I find this very useful when I want to locate certain photos.

Barbara

Bill McMahon

Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:02 am

Thanks for the feed back Barbara. I will try backing up to CD or DVD directly from Zoombrowser to see what happens. I assume that Zoombrowser will portray the correct time/date and other info about the photos, but I am curious to see what information will reside in the "properties" of the DVD or CD copy. I have always been reluctant to have my primary back ups left to reside on my hard drive since they are always subject to being lost through a crash.
Regards, Bill

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Barbara_K » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:35 am

Bill,

I do not backup directly from Zoombrowser. I use Nero. As I said I can see the date/time the photos were taken by hovering my mouse. I can also see the complete EXIF data in the "Properties" of the DVD backup by selecting the "Summary" tab > Advanced.

Barbara

Bill McMahon

Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:37 am

I found this doing an internet search:

Saving EXIF data
When photo editing, EXIF data can be lost if an image file is not saved correctly. EXIF refers to settings and scene information recorded by a digital camera and embedded within each file.



The method to preserve EXIF data varies among editing programs, so check your manual. Photoshop 7 was used to illustrate one of the ways to preseve data in a jpeg.

To preserve EXIF after editing an image, use the save aS command (not save or save for web) from the file menu. The save as dialog window opens.
Select jpeg from the format drop down menu, give the file a new name, then click the save button.
Next, select quality settings between one and 12 (1 = lowest quality/most compression; 12 = highest quality/least compression). Select a number that gives you a good balance between image quality and file size.
The EXIF data will remain embedded in the new file. As a reminder, always edit copies of originals. If you make a mistake, start over using another copy of the original.

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby gpsmikey » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:02 pm

One thing I do that helps is to rename all my pictures as soon as I bring them from the camera into the system. The naming is based on the embedded EXIF time/date stamp and is done automatically by a handy utility I use called "SetNameToTime". The resulting pictures are named along the lines of DC_081213_1553_32__mikey.jpg where the "DC" indicates Digital Camera, the "081213" indicates 2008, December 13th and the "1553_32" indicates that it was taken at 3:53 PM and 32 seconds. The "mikey" on the end is done with a string substitution based on the embedded camera model (both kids and wife also have digital cameras -- all end up in the same folder system but with their names as part of the file name. Makes it easy to look at any picture name and even if the EXIF info has been stripped off, I can still tell exactly when it was taken and by whose camera.

I have never had an issue with EXIF data being stripped off during a copy operation (unless it was in a separate file from the image). Some image editors though will strip the EXIF while others preserve the information.

Just as a FYI here, this reminds me -- typically, jpg files have, as part of the header an embedded thumbnail (although it is not required). When you edit an image in a photo editor, many do not update the thumbnail. Now, that all said, when you are viewing a folder contents in windows in thumbnail mode, windows builds the thumbnail images one of two ways -- if the image has an embedded thumbnail, it uses that. If the image does NOT have an embedded thumbnail, then windows creates a thumbnail of the image. The end result is you can end up with a bunch of thumbnails in the folder view where the thumbnails may or may NOT match the actual image if you have edited it and the thumbnail was not updated. Can make for some head scratching when you are trying to find that image you put the text on or something like that in a folder. :evil:

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

Bill McMahon

Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:43 am

Mikey,
That makes a lot of sense.

I have been taking digitals since 1999 with my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica (really state of the art at the time, VGA resolution, 640 x 480 pixels, saved on floppy disks) and a nice vacation would mean you needed to take at least a half dozen floppies with you on the trip. I am curious where you got the utility you mentioned, is it available for download?
Regards,
Bill

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby gpsmikey » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:01 am

Bill McMahon wrote:Mikey,
That makes a lot of sense.

I have been taking digitals since 1999 with my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica (really state of the art at the time, VGA resolution, 640 x 480 pixels, saved on floppy disks) and a nice vacation would mean you needed to take at least a half dozen floppies with you on the trip. I am curious where you got the utility you mentioned, is it available for download?
Regards,
Bill


Hi Bill -- the one I use is called "Set Name To Time" - you can get it from http://www.storcksoftware.com/ (free download/30 day trial, $15 "forever license"). I had settled on that one because it had the string substitution feature built in (I change things like the "Nikon D70" to "__mikey" for example). There are a number of other utilities out there that can do similar stuff (Picture Information Extractor - but it does not do the string substitution trick). I had tried the SetNameToTime utility and had some questions on it - the author was very good about explaining things and fixed a number of little things I found. One of those handy tools that just does what I want it to. It has worked out well -- I have about 65 gigs of digital pictures and so far, my method seems to have worked well for me - easy to find by date, by who shot them etc. I back them up to a different disk AND a Linux machine (2 different directions) every night.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

Bill McMahon

Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby Bill McMahon » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:45 am

Mikey,
Thanks again for the information. I'll take a look at both of these utilities and decide which one I'll use.
Bill

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Re: Digital Photo EXIF Data

Postby gpsmikey » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:44 am

There are quite a few other EXIF tools out there, those just happen to be what I have and have worked with. If you do a Google search on "EXIF tools" you can find lots of things - many of them free too.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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