How to display EXIF/IPTC metadata
Imagevue allows you to seamlessly integrate EXIF metadata tags into your image descriptions.
What is EXIF meta data?
EXIF(exchangeable image file format) is information about the camera that took the photo, and the specific settings the photo was taken with. These settings includes static information such as the camera model and make, and information that varies with each image such as orientation, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed information. This data is stored in the image when the photo is taken, and Imagevue can extract this information and display as a text description. Below you will see an example of Imagevue displaying EXIF tags:
There are virtually dozens of EXIF tags that can be displayed, but most users will only wish to display important ones as in the example image above. Read more about EXIF in the links below:
How to enable EXIF for your Imagevue gallery
To display EXIF tags, you must goto your admin settings, and locate the setting under image.text.text[].items. In the array there, you must add the exif item to any of your text descriptions. Like any other description, EXIF tags may be displayed along with other description items, or independently. In our demo gallery, we have set it to appear independently when rolling over an image:
Some things to be aware of
- Your PHP server must support EXIF. You can check this by going to your admin. If there are any warning signs in the top right corner related to EXIF, then your server does not support EXIF. You must contact your server admin, and request them to enable the PHP EXIF extension
- Your images must have EXIF data stored in them. If there is no EXIF data stored in your image, then no EXIF data will display. Like in our demo gallery, we have mostly images with no EXIF data. Therefore only a few of the sample folders will display EXIF description field when rolling over an image.
- If you are resizing large images from a digital camera, then make sure you also keep EXIF data when saving! This is normally automatic, but in some cases, EXIF data may be excluded
Changing what EXIF tags to display
To change what EXIF tags you want your gallery to display, you need to open and edit the file: iv-includes/include/ivExifParser.class.php. Below you will see the entire list of tags from this file:
var $_allowedTags = array(
//'FileName',
//'FileDateTime',
//'FileSize',
//'FileType',
//'MimeType',
//'Make',
'Model',
//'Orientation',
//'XResolution',
//'YResolution',
//'ResolutionUnit',
'DateTime',
//'YCbCrPositioning',
//'Exif_IFD_Pointer',
'ExposureTime',
'FNumber',
//'ExposureProgram',
'ISOSpeedRatings',
//'ExifVersion',
//'DateTimeOriginal',
//'DateTimeDigitized',
//'ShutterSpeedValue',
'ApertureValue',
//'ExposureBiasValue',
//'MeteringMode',
'Flash',
'FocalLength',
//'FlashPixVersion',
//'ColorSpace',
//'ExifImageWidth',
//'ExifImageLength',
//'InteroperabilityOffset',
//'FocalPlaneXResolution',
//'FocalPlaneYResolution',
//'FocalPlaneResolutionUnit',
//'CustomRendered',
//'ExposureMode',
//'WhiteBalance',
//'SceneCaptureType',
//'InterOperabilityIndex',
//'InterOperabilityVersion',
//'AEWarning',
//'BlurWarning',
//'BrightnessValue',
//'CCDSensitivity',
//'ColorMode',
//'CompressedBitsPerPixel',
//'Company',
//'ContTake',
//'Converter',
//'Copyright',
//'DigitalZoom',
//'FirmwareVersion',
//'FlashMode',
//'FlashStrength',
//'Focus',
//'FocusMode',
//'FocusWarning',
//'ImageAdjustment',
//'ImageDescription',
//'ImageNumber',
//'ImageType',
//'JPEGQuality',
//'LightSource',
//'Macro',
//'MaxApertureValue',
//'OwnerName',
//'PictureMode',
//'Quality',
//'SensingMethod',
//'Sharpness',
//'SlowSync',
//'Software',
//'SoftwareRelease',
//'SubjectDistance',
//'Version'
);Notice how some lines have been commented out using ‘//’(double slash). This means that they are disabled, and you can easily enable them by removing the //. Similarly, you can disable items by adding // in front of them. This file needs to be edited manually and uploaded to your server.
Styling your EXIF tags with CSS
You can style your EXIF description tags with various classes in the CSS files. There are a few styles:
.text_1_exif, .text_2_exif - Sets the style for all EXIF within a specific text description
.exif_name - Sets the style for all EXIF tag names(f.ex.: "Model").
.exif_value - Sets the style for all EXIF tag values(f.ex.: "Canon EOS 450 DIGITAL").
.exif_[TAG] - Sets the style for a specific EXIF tag.
.exif_name_[TAG] - Sets the style for a specific EXIF tags name.
.exif_value_[TAG] - Sets the style for a specific EXIF tags value. 
hi, (first post and new-bie inside :) )
it is great to have exif data on the photo, but i’m looking for how to have it disabled in some folders. Can we do that for specific one or 2 folders ?
Thank you.
Yes, you can disable EXIF on specific folders by using folder-parameters. More info:
http://imagevuex.com/documentation/folder-parameters/
Most likely, you would just add something like this in the “parameters” field for this folder:
image.text.text2.enabled=false
Is there any posibility to get Lens name from EXIF ?
I have tried tag name: ‘LensModel’ (tag ID: 0xa434 – it shows EXIF-reader, plugin for firefox) but it don’t work.
Thank you :)
You mean your lens data is stored under a tag “LensModel” that displays in Exif-reader plugin for Firefox? Would you happen to have a link to an example-image with this data?
Not exactly “LensModel” tag. There’s only TagID- “0xa434″, but this TagID = “LensModel”.
http://www.philip-freestyle-life.com/content/Gallery/PEOPLE/PIC_0333.jpg – there is an example.
I use Exif Viewer plugin for firefox.
Thank You.
What is exactly I am looking for?
aux:Lens = “smc PENTAX-DA* 300mm F4 ED [IF] SDM” ?
Unfortunately we can’t read this information from PHP, it is just not being returned by PHP IPTC Reader.
This data is stored in XMP format. We’ve added XMP support to Imagevue 2.7
Yep, we would need a test subject first.
Ok. Thank you for the clarification.
By the way, Imagevue is just great – well done ;)
Hi,
Hello I would like to add the tag “LensModel” to display Exif Tag under the “Model” and above “Aperture” ….
I tried to add this tag in the file IVexifParserClass, but to no avail, I can not get the tag displayed.
I have this tag in “Exif: LensModel” and under “XMP-aux: Lens” (ex: EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM)
Exiftool I use to keep this information.
How to add in IVexifParser or mix with IVxmpParser and display it as I would like
Thank you for your help
Daniel
Hi
I found a temporary solution by transferring “ExifIFD: LensModel> IFD0: Make” with exiftool,
And I read “Brand/Make” to display lens tag. (I don’t use Make)
But I preferred to have the Tag “ExifIFD: LensModel” included in “ivExifParser.class.php”
if possible.
And it’s also possible that i haven’t understand something.
Thank you
Daniel.
I need to know how to modify color font in the exif window.
Do I need to edit the “ivexifparser.class.php” file ? if yes, which arguments must be set ?
No need to edit any class, as this can be done in your theme CSS Stylesheet. See this document:
http://imagevuex.com/documentation/cssreference/
Depending on what text# block you are using, you can set styles with
.text_1_exif { }
… or you can set styles specifically for EXIF values. Just search further down on “exif” in the link above …
Hi
During the image upload some of the files lost the EXIF. do you know how to prevent that?
Thank you
Unfortunately, I think the uploader wipes EXIF data from the image and there is not much we can do with this. You may need to batch-resize your images manually before upload, and make sure to keep the EXIF data. Many applications have batch resizing features, for example Irfanview for Windows or iPhoto for Mac.
If I do upload directly through FTP do I have to upload image and image_thumbnail? Or just the image. I did FTP upload and some images have black thumbnail please have a look http://www.photocollections.ca under Calgary Zoo gallery. Thank you
Solved the problem. The image has to be at 1000×800 resolution to create the thumbtails, otherwise we should create our own thumbs resized and renamed as tn_.jpg and copy to the content folder.
Thank you
Hi, I wanted to show the filename of an image in the EXIF field.
I did edit ivExifParser.class.php and add the tag ‘FileName’ to the list.
But nothing happened. The filename didn’t show up in the EXIF field.
Please help…
Jochen
Could you upload the image somewhere so we could take a look at the metadata?
Hi, I want to display just essential exif data (not everything), so I’ve tried this solution and it indeed removes the commented fields from view… but the image info button is still displaying info such as whitebalance, lens info and some others that are nowhere to be found in the ivExifParser.class.php … ?
No big time really since I’m able to remove the undesired fields via exifview, but I it would be more convenient for me to be able to just filter out these fields automatically from the exif parser. What am I missing here? Thanks a lot for your help.
Do you have a link? I am assuming you have EXIf there in the first place because you want to show some of the EXIF data? We are speaking of the flash interface here I assume? ivExifParser.class should be working … Another way to hide items, is to add CSS:
http://imagevuex.com/documentation/cssreference/
Scroll down to the EXIF section, and see examples how you can refer to specific exif items, and then hide for example:
exif_exposure {display:none;}
Hi Mjau mjau, thanks a lot for your quick and detailed answer. I’ve been reading your documentation and forum answers these last days, and I truly admire the high level of service your provide. In fact, some days ago I was just about to buy The turning gate plugin for my galleries (mainly because of the Lightroom integration), but the TTG author seems… well, let’s say “not-so-friendly” when it comes to answering doubts. Both products, TTG and ImageVue, could fit my needs, but it was your politeness helping people that made me chose ImageVue finally, and also the fact that there was a test version for Imagevue! That was priceless since it allowed me to make 100% sure it would work for me, so just let me take this chance to congratulate you (and anyone that works with you) for all your work and support.
Back to my question, I have provided an example here:
http://luzsingravedad.com/#/parroquia_patriarca_abraham/15.jpg
If you hover over the image info button, you should see something like this:
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/7871/easycapture2oy.png
While on my other pics, the ones I already removed (manually) unwanted exif data from before uploading, the image info displays something like this (less cluttered, just basic info as I want):
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7748/easycapture4t.png
Note that 15.jpg, is the only image in the gallery with “too many” exif data, since I’ve already remove the unwanted data on the other fotos – I’ve left this one as an example.
As for the CSS option, I’m using a copy of carbonizer wich I’ve named “carbonizer02″, and I’ve gone to themes>carbonizer02>stylesheet and tried adding:
.exif_name_whitebalance{
display: none;
}
.exif_value_whitebalance{
display: none;
}
But after saving the changes and even emptying the browser’s cache and trying again, I see no change, white balance keeps being displayed. So I have not bothered to try with the other parameters I don’t want to see.
Maybe “whitebalance” is not the proper name to use, and anyway, I’m not a genius when it comes to css, so the fault might be on my side. Just for what it might be worth, the .bat file I’m using on Windows to remove the unwanted metadata (with exiftool) is this one, it assigns “” to everything I don’t want to see:
“[path to exiftool]\exiftool.exe” -exif:AllDates=”" -xmp:WhiteBalance=”" -xmp:ApproximateFocusDistance=”" -xmp:LensInfo=”" -xmp:subject=”" -iptc:Keywords=”" -overwrite_original [filename].jpg
As I say it works, but it would streamline my workflow being able to just set it once somewhere else (css or exifparser), since I want the same metadata for all my photos – just camera name, basic exposure info (shutter speed, aperture, iso), lens used and focal length. It would spare me having to remove metadata before uploading every single time.
(By the way, exposure info is missing in some of my other photos because they are HDR, a combination of 3 exposures, but pay no attention to this should you happen to notice).
Excuse me if just overlooked something, and thanks again for your help.
Hi Carlos,
First of all, I don’t see why the ivExifParser.class.php edit is not working for you. The array is here that controls what output is made available for EXIF, and commenting out items will effectively remove them. I would need FTP though to be able to check and confirm if/why this is not working. Its the most straight forward way to set the EXIF items you wish to display globally.
As for the CSS, this is a bit complicated, and basically it was just mentioned as an option. The reason your whitebalance does not work, is because the name is in fact not whitebalance but Camera_White_Balance (including upper-case for first letter). I would try this if I was you:
.exif_Camera_White_Balance{
display: none;
}
You would need to add/amend the above into your theme CSS stylesheet, and refresh/empty browser cache.
Hi mjau-mjau and thanks for your reply.
Oh, but I don’t dare to say ivExifParser.class.php is not working. In fact, it clearly is working. If I comment out any of the additional fields (adding // at the beginning), they indeed do stop being displayed in the image info overlay. The problem is that I can’t comment out the unwanted fields if I can’t find them on the ivExifParser.class.php file in the first place.
For instance, Whitebalance is filtered out, yes, but there is another whitebalance field called “camera white balance”, as you correctly point out, and I can’t find such “camera white balance” on the ivExifParser.class.php file – I can’t find “approximate focus distance” and “lens info” neither. I mean, it’s not that I am commenting these fields and they keep appearing – it’s that I can’t find them in the ivExifParser.class.php file, so I can’t comment them out.
I can create an ftp account if you want to check it out, just tell me where or how do I send to you the login details.
If you want to check the original 15.jpg file, it is temporarily available at:
http://www.luzsingravedad.com/15.jpg
(it includes the full metadata).
Hi Carlos,
I believe there is other metadata in place, Imagevue extracts EXIF, XMP and IPTC meta-data. Check the corresponding parsers for other fields. You can see the data extracted here:
http://www.luzsingravedad.com/imagevue.php?a=fileinfo&path=parroquia_patriarca_abraham/01.jpg
You’right, Nick, there’s also an xmp parser! (ivXmpParser.class.php) I hadn’t realised and I was blindly focusing only on the exif parser. I have found there (in the file) the other fields that I couldn’t find (camera white balance, lens info, approximate focusing distance), I have commented them with // and they have stopped appearing!! Great!
As I said, it was more of an annoyance than a serious issue, since at least there was a workaround (to “strip” the unwanted metadata from the original file) but it’s much much better to be able to do it like this (in fact, it even allows me to change my mind in the future, to show more or show less data without having to re-upload everything).
Thanks a lot Nick, and thanks a lot mjau-mjau, for your help, you’ve been really helpful. Take care
Carlos