Exif being stripped

[Ken Jackson]

Apparently all my EXIF information is being removed by either GIMP or by one of the compression utilities I have...

Living in Tahiti has it's benefits as well as it's drawbacks and the fact that bandwidth is terribly expensive I am almost required to reduce both the physical and data size of my posts if I want to have uninterrupted internet service... We are allowed 10Gigs combined downloads and uploads per month and that is for a cost of $130.00 a month (USD).

I didn't realize that the exif was missing, but then I very seldom look at the exif and didn't have a reader.. (I do now though)

What I need to know, is there an area in the various editors that allow me to keep the exif intact or will I need to change over to others, if so, which do I need?

Any and all help will be welcome and appreciated, I still have all my originals so the exif is still available, but it means that my smugmug account probably has nothing with exif in it either....

If someone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction I would be eternally grateful.

 

[Abhijit Biswas]

Hi Ken,

Photoshop CS4 allows you to keep all your metadata while saving for web. Original EXIF data might be helpful for techical discussion. But might not add much value for business. Here is a little video from ASMP.org which I thought might be of interest in this thread.

http://www.asmp.org/strictlybusiness/2009/04/digital-essentials-for-business-today/


Thanks,
Abhijit
http://www.exposurebits.com

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Be careful with CS4, it doesn't work as advertised!

..Photoshop CS4 allows you to keep all your metadata while saving for web. Original EXIF data might be helpful for techical discussion. ...

Hi Abhijit,

Although the functionality of CS4 advertises for that feature, it doesn't work unfortunately. I have been pulling my hairs in vain until I've discovered the problem. In the beginning, I trusted Adobe and "saved for web" by checking the option box that I wanted to "keep all metadata including exif". Later, I have realized that the metadata or the exif weren't visible in the resulting jpg when viewed in any other program or browser. Why? Because Adobe saves them in a format only readable by CS4 itself. All other programs cannot see/read that data. Only when you reopen the file in CS4, the data is there again. To me, this is yet one more incident showing how arrogant Adobe can get at times. Not thinking about the users but only about their own proprietary "standards". Very bad business practice if you ask me.

OTOH, if one "saves as" jpg (rather than the save for web option), all works normally as expected (ie the exif and metadata are visible).

 

[Abhijit Biswas]

Thanks, Cem, for pointing that out.

I don't save the exif data at all for my web version. But recently I started doing the IPTC info (Thanks to Asher) and I am using Adobe Bridge which seems to work.

Anyway, thanks for help. This will save some time and frustration for few/many.


Regards,
Abhijit
http://www.exposurebits.com

Hi Abhijit,

Although the functionality of CS4 advertises for that feature, it doesn't work unfortunately. I have been pulling my hairs in vain until I've discovered the problem. In the beginning, I trusted Adobe and "saved for web" by checking the option box that I wanted to "keep all metadata including exif". Later, I have realized that the metadata or the exif weren't visible in the resulting jpg when viewed in any other program or browser. Why? Because Adobe saves them in a format only readable by CS4 itself. All other programs cannot see/read that data. Only when you reopen the file in CS4, the data is there again. To me, this is yet one more incident showing how arrogant Adobe can get at times. Not thinking about the users but only about their own proprietary "standards". Very bad business practice if you ask me.

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Thanks, Cem, for pointing that out.

I don't save the exif data at all for my web version. But recently I started doing the IPTC info (Thanks to Asher) and I am using Adobe Bridge which seems to work.

Anyway, thanks for help. This will save some time and frustration for few/many.


Regards,
Abhijit
http://www.exposurebits.com

Hi Abhijit,

I, too, have stopped using exif for images to be posted on the web. But the "bug" I was referring to applies also to the IPTC info which I desperately need (copyright, instructions, caption). So for now, I only "save as" jpg. To be able to do that, I first have to change the image mode into 8 bits RGB and also convert profile to sRGB manually. It is more work that way, but it makes sure that all goes well.

Cheers,

 

[Abhijit Biswas]

Oh, that sounds a lot of work, Cem! I have incorporated this step at the very last in my workflow, just before publishing whether for web or some other form of publishing.

I know some apply this while shooting tethered. They might be having the same issue if they use Adobe Bridge. Not sure how this works in Lightroom. I have never used that program.

Anyway, thanks for the clarification.

Regards,
Abhijit
http://www.exposurebits.com

Hi Abhijit,

I, too, have stopped using exif for images to be posted on the web. But the "bug" I was referring to applies also to the IPTC info which I desperately need (copyright, instructions, caption). So for now, I only "save as" jpg. To be able to do that, I first have to change the image mode into 8 bits RGB and also convert profile to sRGB manually. It is more work that way, but it makes sure that all goes well.

Cheers,

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Oh, that sounds a lot of work, Cem! I have incorporated this step at the very last in my workflow, just before publishing whether for web or some other form of publishing.

Hi Abhijit,

You can wrap up the necessary steps for Web publishing in a single Photoshop action. You can also include downsampling to a common size to that action.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Abhijit Biswas]

Hi Bart,

How do you optimize the color in an action when saving for web? Would appreciate any help.


Thanks,
Abhijit

Hi Abhijit,

You can wrap up the necessary steps for Web publishing in a single Photoshop action. You can also include downsampling to a common size to that action.

Cheers,
Bart