EXIF and IPTC metadata

EXIF

When you upload photos Zenfolio extracts and makes available to you metadata information containing the shooting conditions and equipment used when taking the photograph.

This metadata information comes from EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) -- an industry standard for storing interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format.

You do not need to do anything special to transfer this information.

The type of information available through EXIF depends greatly on the digital camera model used and its manufacturer. Zenfolio will make available most of the meaningful information present in EXIF, and will format it in a way convenient to read.

To view the EXIF information for any of your photographs:

1. In the Organizer, click to select the gallery containing the photograph you would like to see or double-click the gallery in the Main Area. Thumbnails from the gallery will load in the Main Area and the title of the gallery will display at the top.
2. In the Main Area, click to select a thumbnail of the photograph you would like to see. The thumbnail will become highlighted and photo-related information will be loaded in the Toolbox.
3. Change the Toolbox from showing the Photo tab to EXIF tab. Detailed file and EXIF information will be displayed. You can repeat step 2 and select other photos while you continue to display the EXIF tab.

Note: If you do not see EXIF information showing for a photograph, most likely that means that the EXIF information was not present in your original photo. This may have happened for a variety of reasons, the most likely reason being that the file was manipulated in some desktop software and saved in a way that does not preserve original metadata.

IPTC

If you use desktop software for editing IPTC descriptions, they will be transferred to your account and become available as part of the photograph description. This will save you time in organizing and describing your photos. Some examples of software offering IPTC descriptions are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, Aperture, etc. You can also edit the descriptions manually using the Toolbox.

This Description metadata comes from IPTC (The International Press Telecommunications Council) – information standard developed by the Newspaper Association of America to identify transmitted text and images.

If you edit IPTC data by using one of the available software tools, Zenfolio will extract Title (Document Title field), Caption (Description field), Copyright (Copyright field), and keywords (Keywords field) from your files, saving you significant time on re-entering this information.

Unlike EXIF, IPTC is not recorded automatically by your camera but is optionally edited through the use of special software. A number of software programs designed for manipulation and editing of photos allow users to add text descriptions in IPTC standard. It is a very useful and convenient way of adding titles, captions, and keywords to your photographs.