Aside from basic name/copyright/date/camera model, it also records editing info from programs like Lightroom and darktable. XMP is an Adobe format (no longer proprietary) that can store all sorts of stuff. IPTC is much more limited and stores only date/time, creator, copyright and descriptions that you might add like title, keywords and caption. Copyright and author info are often there too. EXIF is where the interesting info is stored, like camera settings, capture time, location and colour space. Types of metadataĮXIF, IPTC and XMP are the 3 metadata formats you will commonly find in an image, with EXIF being the most familiar to photographers. Here are some examples of what an image file can hold: Google likes to keep every bit of info. Image metadata can contain info about the time and location a picture was taken, the camera settings that were used, the camera itself (make, model, serial numbers), how it was edited, the copyright and author, and many other things. If you make and share pictures, even just snaps you make with your phone, it’s good to have a little knowledge about what’s actually in those picture files. Why would I want to use ExifTool in the first place?ĮxifTool is a program that edits metadata on images. This intro is about why you would want to use ExifTool in the first place. For the instructions straight up, skip to the section ‘Actually Using ExifTool’.

Exiftool windows