How to Get EXIF Data from Photo
EXIF or Exchangeable Image File Format was introduced in the year 1998 by JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industries Development Association). It is the standard format used for images and sound files used by digital cameras, scanners, etc. the EXIF specification makes use of file formats like JPEG, TIFF, RIFF WAV and IMA-ADPCM by adding metadata tags to them. It does not extend support to PNG, GIF, and JPEG 2000 file formats. The EXIF file is supported by all the camera manufacturers and gets embedded into the images. All the recent image processing application preserves the EXIF data of an image and also display it along the images.
The list of metadata tags that are associated with the EXIF file is:
- Data & Time: The camera records the current date and time when the image has been captured.
- Camera Settings: This section includes the information related to the camera like its model. In addition to this, information, which changes with every image like the rotation, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, etc. are also included.
- Thumbnail: It also includes a thumbnail for giving a preview of the image on camera screen, file manager, and other applications.
- Description: The entire description of the image like its latitude, longitude, altitude, etc. is also listed.
- Copyright Information
Structure & Deployment of EXIF Files
The tag structure Of EXIF file is similar to TIFF files. When the EXIF file is used for JPEG files, the EXIF data gets embedded in the Application Segments utility of JPEG. When it is used in TIFF files, the EXIF file gets embedded in the sub-image file defined by the TIFF private tag. This sub-image file holds the entire TIFF tags specified by EXIF.
The EXIF also holds standard tags that define the location information of the images. Almost every phone and camera nowadays, have a built-in GPS receiver, which stores the location coordinates in the EXIF header of the image when it is taken. This process is termed as geotagging. Thus, it is considered as one of the most crucial information that the EXIF of an image holds.
How to View EXIF Data?
Accessing the EXIF data to extract information of an image is a very easy task. In case you have clicked an image from your smartphone or a digital camera, the EXIF of that file will be automatically attached into the image. There are times, when a user wants to view the image properties while browsing it online. There are two ways by which this can be done:
#1 View The Image Via EXIF Viewer Add-On
In order to get the EXIF data from an image , you can install EXIF Viewer add-on in Firefox. Once the add-on is installed, right click on the image and select the View Image EXIF Data.
The image shown below has been clicked from a digital camera. In order to view the EXIF data of this particular photo or image via Firefox EXIF Viewer Add-on, we right click on it and select the View Image EXIF Data option.
Once the option is selected, a new window-EXIF Viewer pops up, showing the entire EXIF details of the image. The details are shown in the below image:
It is to be noted that the EXIF data of Thumbnails cannot be viewed by selecting this option, as they do not contain any such data. For viewing the information, you will have to select View Link EXIF data option. This will show the information of the original file to which the thumbnail is linked.
#2 Download And View Image Properties
In case, you want to see the EXIF data of an image that has been already downloaded, you can do so by doing right click on the image and selecting the Properties option. Select the Details tab and view the entire EXIF data of the image.
At times the users clip-off the EXIF data from their images before uploading them, in order to hide the information of the image. When the use tries to view the EXIF data of such an image, following error is displayed:
Conclusion
The users can get EXIF data from photo or any image with the help of above-mentioned methods. At times, users remove the EXIF data from their images in order to protect their privacy. Therefore, in such cases the user cannot view the EXIF data of the image.