Learn to Use Your Digital Camera’s EXIF Data

In the olden days of photography, a true student of the hobby would carry a note pad and write down the shutter and film speed as well as the lens setting and information such as whether or not a flash was used. The photographer would then use this information as a reference in becoming familiar with the camera.

Even with digital it is extremely important to learn how your camera reacts in various settings. Digital cameras often have very hot flashes that wash out a subject if it is too close. Other cameras may be picky about shooting strange lighting.

Whether a photo comes out perfect or awful, it is often useful to be able to go back and see how your camera was setup for the shot. Your digital camera automatically records such information but you have to know where to find it.

Along with every photo is recorded EXIF data. EXIF stands for Exchange Image File, but that isn’t really important. What is important is what it contains.

The following is an example of the EXIF data in a single image. As you can see there is very little information that is not recorded. My favorite program for reading EXIF data is called IrfanView. You can download it here for free. Good image editing programs will let you read EXIF data as does Windows XP when you RIGHT click on a digital camera image and click Properties.

File: – C:\Camera Pics\IMG_6031.JPG
Make – Canon
Model – Canon EOS 10D
Orientation – 1 (top left)
XResolution – 180
YResolution – 180
ResolutionUnit – 2 (inch)
Software – Adobe Photoshop 7.0
DateTime – 2004:05:19 21:32:59
YCbCrPositioning – 1 (center of pixel array) ExifOffset – 212 ExposureTime – 1/60 seconds FNumber – 4.0000 ISOSpeedRatings – 800 ExifVersion – 220 DateTimeOriginal – 2004:05:14 17:44:33 DateTimeDigitized – 2004:05:14 17:44:33 ComponentsConfiguration – 1 2 3 (YCbCr) CompressedBitsPerPixel – 3 (average) ShutterSpeedValue – 1/60 seconds ApertureValue – F 4.00 ExposureBiasValue – 0.0000 MaxApertureValue – F 3.50 MeteringMode – 6 (partial) Flash – 9 FocalLength – 35 mm UserComment –

FlashPixVersion – 100
ColorSpace – 1 (sRGB)
ExifImageWidth – 3072
ExifImageHeight – 2048
FocalPlaneXResolution – 3443.9462
FocalPlaneYResolution – 3442.0168
FocalPlaneResolutionUnit – 2
SensingMethod – 2 (other)
FileSource – 3 (digital still camera)