Want another cool photo tool (or maybe you are just nosy)?

[bvar22]

Have you ever been browsing the Photo Group,
seen a photo,
and said to yourself,
"Boy, I wish I knew what kind of camera, or lens, or what settings they used to get that photo, or when the photo was taken ?"

Well, you can find out instantaneously (most of the time) with a FREE tool called Opanda.
You simply right click on the photo and select
View Exif/GPS/IPTC with IExif

This very cool FREE/Downloadable add on lets you view any and all Metadata that is included in any photo that is visible in your browser. It is seamless and effortless....only one right click away.

(Note: I use FireFox, and cannot vouch for other browsers, but Opana EXIF viewer works great in FireFox.)
This is a screen cap of Opanda at work.


OTOH, you may be surprised at how much data is being encoded in your digital photos and shared with the World over the Net. It may be possible to trace any photo you post back to your specific digital camera.....and ultimately, to YOU.

https://s.p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/ssl/ht4w/2008/03/photo-image-files.html

If I were photographing anything that could be construed as illegal, anti-Government, showed law enforcement in a negative way, or used against me in any way, I would take steps to erase encoded data.

There are ways to erase encoded metadata:
* Save your photo as a .tif file, and then resave it as a .jpg before posting to your host site.
Saving it to a .tif format erases the metadata, and there will be nothing to transfer back to the .jpg format. You would lose very little quality or resolution.

*Some photo hosting sites automatically erase encoded information (metadata), or offer you the option.


You can download your FREE copy of Opanda here:

http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/download.htm

If you are using FireFox, you will have to download the EXIF Viewer first and install it.
Then, you will have to download the FireFox extension from the same site.

I love this little viewer, and use it daily.
More than 1/2 of the photos posted at DU contain encoded details that have helped me learn a bunch about photography.

[NashVegas]

1. Thanks for the Tip

[Richard D]

2. Thank you!

This is great. I've been hoping for something like this.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Just a minor correction.

Saving a pic as TIFF will not necessarily remove the EXIF data. This would be a feature/bug of the editor you are using.

Opanda's IExif add-on is a great feature for browsers.

[bvar22]

4. I am unable....

I am unable to read any EXIF data on files that have been converted to either .bmp or .tif , and then reconverted to jpg.
I guess that could be just a limitation of my software.


Thanks for the heads-up.
A Google Search led me to several programs that claim they can safely remove all EXIF data.
If I ever take any photos that could be considered "sensitive", I will take the extra steps.

[ManiacJoe]

5. Lots of the big name editors

allow the EXIF data to be removed regardless of the file format. Some make it a distinction. For example, some editors will leave the EXIF data in a non-compressed TIF while removing it from the compressed TIF. Some file formats do not allow EXIF data in them. PhotoShop normally keeps the EXIF data in JPEGs but removes it in the "jpeg for web" saves.

Lots of stuff will let you do EXIF stripping. ExifTool (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/) is the Swiss Army knife of Exif (add, remove, edit, copy, ...)