What is EXIF data?

With the introduction of digital photography, several improvements have been added to photography. Among them, the addition of Exif information in the electronic image files. This article describes what does this information contain...



EXIF is the acronym for "Exchangeable Image File Format", and it was proposed by the JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Asociation); it defines a set of technical data related to the captured image. In fact, most of the camera settings are included, together with brand and model information:

• Date and time of the capture
• Image size (width / height)
• Orientation (protrait / landscape)
• Focal distance
• Diaphragm (aperture) value
• Shutter speed
• Used program mode (automated, manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, artistic...)
• Equivalent sensitivity
• GPS data (if provided)
• Brand and camera model
• Camera serial number

Exif data can also include some added information, such as lens used (brand, model, mm, f-value...), data on flash usage (used or not, power...) or camera-internal filtering (white balance, color filters applied).
Furthermore, many cameras can include IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data, such as author, photography name and / or comments, even notes on copyright...

Use of this data
Exif information can be useful towards a deep analysis of taken pictures, or to repeat exactly the same capture conditions (or rather, to try different settings).
In the case of artistic or study photography, they allow to recall setups between different sessions, so that results will be similar - quite useful, when creating image series or collections (for catalogs or exhibitions...)
In exterior photography (portrait, landscape...), action or sports, the data may be used to detect if any parameter has to be corrected (or maintained) if the end result was not as expected (blurred pictures, or rather, too focussed sweep photos)

Conclusion
Check back your photos collection. Taking a look at Exif information, you will see them in a different way - and most likely, you will get new creative ideas to work on during your holidays...
You may have deeper insight on this topic at Exif.org/Exif2-2.pdf...

Originally posted on Jan 25th 2012 (Over-Blog)