Photography | What is EXIF Data? | What Can You Learn From Photo EXIF Data

© 2009 Wazari Wazir | The Photographer and His Camera | My Son Actually

First  of all, what is EXIF, what it stand for? EXIF stand for Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used widely by digital camera.

EXIF was created by the Japan Electronic Industries Development Association (JEIDA). Version 2.1 of the specification is dated June 12, 1998, and the latest, version 2.3 dated April 2010, was jointly formulated by JEITA and CIPA. Though the specification is not currently maintained by any industry or standards organization, its use by camera manufacturers is nearly universal.

The metadata tags defined in the Exif standard cover a broad spectrum:

• Date and time information. Digital cameras will record the current date and time and save this in the metadata.
• Camera settings. This includes static information such as the camera model and make, and information that varies with each image such as orientation (rotation), aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode and ISO Speed information.
• A thumbnail for previewing the picture on the camera’s LCD screen, in file managers, or in photo manipulation software.
• Descriptions and copyright information.

Source (WIKIPEDIA).

Ok, enough details about that, if you want to study more about EXIF Data, you can google it make an in-depth research about it, I just want to talk about, how we can use all the details about EXIF Data for our photographic purpose. Actually there is something that we can learn from photographers EXIF Data but there is also something that we can’t learn or we don’t know or something that does not written there under EXIF Data. Without wasting my time and energy writing a long post, let’s just look at what we can and can’t learn from studying other photographer EXIF Data.

Let’s say we saw someone posting a beautiful picture of Fireworks Display on his flickr  and he is kind enough to let us see his EXIF Data, so what can we learn from it or what can we learn something from the EXIF Data, my answer is yes, you can learn something, for an example, you can learn which aperture he used to captured that fireworks, how long the shutter speeds needs to open in order for him to captured that beautiful fireworks display. Mostly it will takes few second of exposure and maybe you wanted to know also at what ISO the fireworks being shot at. Yes you can use all of this information as a guideline especially to someone who wanted to try to shoot fireworks for the first time but I highly suggested to you if you want to know more, better to check few other photographers EXIF Data about the subjects so you know what settings basically photographers use to get that beautiful shot of fireworks display.

What you can learn is only a technical Data about the picture, it doesn’t make you a better photographer, what you didn’t know is, how the photographer choose his angle, we didn’t know how many hours or days that the photographer make his research about the location where the fireworks will be shot from. This is important because if you doesn’t know where the fireworks will be shot from, you can’t position your tripod in advance, I mean to choose your angle first. It is very important to know where the fireworks will be shot at, so that  you can choose a better angle, a better foreground maybe. Why this is important? It is because even though the fireworks will take few minutes and you think that you can change the position later, you must know that, only the first few shots when the fireworks are up on the air will make a beautiful picture. The last few shots will be just a smoke in the air, will look like you are shooting at war zone. The technical does help but it is not everything.

Let’s use another example, let’s say you saw a beautiful seascape or mountainscape picture, you want to know the setting, aperture, shutter and ISO and that is just basic information. You will be shocked if you see that the EXIF may tell you that he is using 10 seconds  of exposure at ISO 100 and using Aperture f22 to get the shot. So you try it and to your surprise, your picture look whiteout, Overexpose, you may asked yourself, how come my picture look like this, you might think that there is something wrong with that photographer EXIF Data and you asked yourself back, how can did happen? What went wrong here, how come that photographer picture look great from foreground to background. ( I’m talking about Newbie here )

What you didn’t know from his EXIF Data is that, what type of a filters that he used in order for him to captured that seascape at such a long exposure, which Graduated filter that he use, which ND or Neutral Density filer that he use, your camera can’t extract that information from the filter, there is no electronic circuits from your filter to the camera to gives info to your camera about which  type of a filter that being screwed or attach on the lens. You will never see this info unless the photographers write that information in his Flickr or blog, otherwise you wouldn’t know.

I think the best think to learn photography is to go Back to Basic, once you know how camera works, you will not need to know about the EXIF Data, if you don’t know how your camera works, you really can’t relate that EXIF with the picture. You wouldn’t know why the photographers use long exposure, why the photographers use small shutter, and you wouldn’t  know why the photographers use low ISO  for his photographers. Go back to basics so you will have a better idea about how and why that setting being used for that particular photographs. Don’t just simply use that EXIF Data blindly without knowing the reason behind why the setting being used.

And when it comes to editing, nothing much you can learn actually, if someone use layer masked heavily, it is hard to know the editing technique base from the EXIF Data, you wouldn’t know which part the photographers burn more or dodge more and even though you can “guess” about it, the lighting where the picture is taken might be different from  where we shot and this will also make a difference. Morning lighting and late afternoon lighting have a different color temperature, yes it may look not much different but is is different. And also about someone skin tone, the exposure for dark color skin tone and light color skin tone will be different and the environment where the portrait photograph being taken also will affect the exposure, portrait taken outdoor will have a different exposure from a portrait taken indoors, if you have a firm grip about basic photography, you can differentiate this one easily and you wouldn’t need to waste your precious times studying other people EXIF Data, you will be busy shooting rather than studying.

Yes you can learn from someone EXIF Data, especially as a guide where to start but it is not the best or the right way to learn photography. If it were the case, let’s us study the EXIF Data all the winning shots in the photography competition and discuss about the EXIF Data more than about the picture itself.