WHAT IS EXIF DATA?

This article is about the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) and the methods of reading EXIF Data from photographs. Back in the film days, photographers were forced to carry a pen and a notepad with them to record important information such as shutter speed, aperture and date. They would then use this information in the lab, going through one picture at a time, hoping that what they wrote actually corresponds to the right image. It was a very painful process, especially for newbies that wanted to understand what they did wrong when an image didn’t come out right. Nowadays, every modern digital camera has the capability to record this information, along with many other camera settings, right into the photographs. These settings can then be later used to organize photographs, perform searches and provide vital information to photographers about the way a particular photograph was captured. This stored data is called “EXIF Data” and it is comprised of a range of settings such as ISO speed, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, camera model and make, date and time, lens type, focal length and much more. 

Being able to read such data can be of great importance not only for beginners, but also for other photographers who want to find out what settings and tools were used to create a particular photograph. Unfortunately though, the only web-friendly (in terms of size) file format that can handle EXIF is JPEG, which means that you wouldn’t be able to read the data from other image formats such as GIF/PNG and also from websites that use Adobe Flash or other similar products. In addition, some photographers choose to strip EXIF data from their images to protect their image and their style, while others do it to save website traffic (yes, EXIF does add up to the size of the file). Those, who leave this data in their images either have no idea that they even have it, or they intentionally leave it like I do – for others to see and possibly learn.

While I choose to retain EXIF data in my images, they do not show up when looking at photos through a web browser, because the data is embedded in the files and it is not part of the actual image.
So how do you view it? Don’t worry, because there are multiple quick and easy ways to read it from images.

Method #1: Firefox Addon “Exif Viewer”

Install Firefox browser if you do not already have it. Once installed, get the Exif Viewer addon by clicking the “Add to Firefox” button. After the addon is installed and Firefox is restarted, you will be able to instantly view the EXIF data by just right-clicking on an image and selecting “View Image Exif Data”.

Go ahead and try it on this image:

Once you click on “View Image Exif Data”, you should see a new window that looks like this:

Use the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen to go up and down the page and see more EXIF details. As you can see from the above screenshot, the EXIF information indicates that I used a Nikon D700, with ISO sensitivity of 200, an aperture of f/14 and a 5 second shutter speed to photograph the above fireworks. The original date/time field indicates 2009-07-04, which means that those are Independence Day fireworks :) Further down, there is a long list of other settings that I used in my camera at the time of taking the picture.

One thing to keep in mind though – thumbnail images typically do not contain any EXIF data. So, whenever you see a clickable thumbnail image, do not select “View Image Exif Data”, but rather select “View Link Exif Data”. That way, the EXIF Data is taken from the original file the thumbnail is linked to.

Try it on this image:

If you see an error that says “Unable to extract some or all of the Exif data”, it means that the JPEG file you are looking at contains no EXIF information.

Method #2: Save the file and use a photo viewer

If for whatever reason you do not want to install Firefox or the Exif Viewer addon, you can also use the following method to view this information. It is much slower than method #1, because it requires you to save the JPEG file on your PC, then go to Windows file properties or use a third party photo viewer that is capable of displaying EXIF Data embedded in JPEG files.

Save the first photo on this page on your PC, then right click on the file and go to “Properties”. Click on the “Details” tab and you should see the following:

Although the most important EXIF information is provided, just keep in mind that this method will only display some of the data. But if you are only after aperture, shutter speed and ISO, this would be more than adequate for the job…

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