Writing EXIF data

[Dario]

Hello,

this is a follow-up to a question I raised in the FAQ (http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=28257).

Would not it be nice if we could write a more complete, possibly personalized, set of EXIF information from within XnViewMP? As a newbie, I wonder why we are able to read and write a comprehensive set of XMP and IPTC tags, but we cannot do the same for the more standard EXIF, where we can read all, yet are allowed to write a few fields only.

Personally, I am not interested in writing or modifying any technical field such as Exposure time, F-Number, Exposure program, .... Yet, in order to be able to efficiently arrange and filter my photos, I would definitely need to operate on certain fields that currently are not writable. For example:DocumentName, ImageDescription, Make, Model, Software, ModifyDate (DateTime), Artist, Copyright, DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate (DateTimeDigitized), UserComment and maybe a few more. (some of these fields are already changeable)

I understand I can still get along quite well using the set of XMP/IPTC tags that I am allowed to set and modify, but before I venture into such an effort (we may have 10,000+ photos to tag) it would pay to accurately decide which tags to use. EXIF seems to be a better standard, while some popular applications may read EXIF and ignore XMP/IPTC tags.

Because of the hundreds of tags available, it would be extremely comfortable to be able to filter such fields according to one's needs. For example, I would like to be able to select Make, Model and Software fields and have only these three tags shown (and editable) under the EXIF (or XMP/IPTC) tabs, much in the same way I can choose to display these columns in the file browser.

I would like to hear a few opinions about this.

Thanks.

[oops66]

+1, I support ... for GPS data too (geolocation/geotaging even if no EXIF data exist) - & for XnViewMP too.

[Dario]

Well, I must say I am very disappointed by the general lack of interest in this matter, about 140 views and just 1 comment says it all about the usefulness of storing/retrieving EXIF data to/from pictures and the disinterest shown by most amateur photographers (as I assume we are) to a neatly-arranged collection of photos.

In the meantime, I have tried using an image-editing ActiveX control which does allow a simple read/write access to most popular EXIF data, yet my slight enthusiasm quickly disappeared as I found out that, even if only changing a few EXIF tags, the entire image must be loaded and subsequently saved back... (NOT a lossless operation! )

So, at this point, I think I will give up my search for software having such a trivial feature, and forget about trying to reorganize old and new photographs. I will continue snapping a few shots and throwing them in my hard-disk for good.

[oops66]

Hello,
FYI: You should see and participate here ...
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=28345

[mrwul]

Well, I must say I am very disappointed by the general lack of interest in this matter, about 140 views and just 1 comment says it all about the usefulness of storing/retrieving EXIF data to/from pictures and the disinterest shown by most amateur photographers (as I assume we are) to a neatly-arranged collection of photos.

In the meantime, I have tried using an image-editing ActiveX control which does allow a simple read/write access to most popular EXIF data, yet my slight enthusiasm quickly disappeared as I found out that, even if only changing a few EXIF tags, the entire image must be loaded and subsequently saved back... (NOT a lossless operation! )

So, at this point, I think I will give up my search for software having such a trivial feature, and forget about trying to reorganize old and new photographs. I will continue snapping a few shots and throwing them in my hard-disk for good.

+1

I too would like XnView to be able to add/modify EXIF Into.
Yes.. I know about ExifTools and ExifGUI.
A few times I have been trying to use commandline instructions but after spending a lot of time and numerous tries I gave up.
I cud use the GUI for a timeshift sometimes, but apart from that, well, ExifTool, though admittedly a great tool, regretfully isn't for me.
The GUI has limited options.

Batch add keywords/descriptions etc.
Copy or Move files to subfolders based on Exif->CreationDate
etc.

-

[Lemons22]

I REALLY want this feature. WIndows uses EXIF data for tags, and I want to be able to tag my photo collection in a way that's readable by Windows! Simple as that. I want to be able to tag in XnView, then do a WIndows search and get results based on my tags. Why is that so difficult?

It seems to me that XnView is just one of those massive programs that's trying to be all things to all people, so it surprises me that the author is so adamantly apathetic on this issue. It's been brought up multiple times and he just doesn't seem to care.

[xnview]

I REALLY want this feature. WIndows uses EXIF data for tags, and I want to be able to tag my photo collection in a way that's readable by Windows! Simple as that. I want to be able to tag in XnView, then do a WIndows search and get results based on my tags. Why is that so difficult?

It seems to me that XnView is just one of those massive programs that's trying to be all things to all people, so it surprises me that the author is so adamantly apathetic on this issue. It's been brought up multiple times and he just doesn't seem to care.

Writing EXIF is not easy, Which fields do you want to edit?

[Karl02]

...
Because of the hundreds of tags available, it would be extremely comfortable to be able to filter such fields according to one's needs. For example, I would like to be able to select Make, Model and Software fields and have only these three tags shown (and editable) under the EXIF (or XMP/IPTC) tabs, much in the same way I can choose to display these columns in the file browser.

I would like to hear a few opinions about this.

Thanks.

ExifToolGUI can do exactly that: It has a "Workspace" which is a table of your favorite tags (Exif and others). You can create, change and save them. The Workspace can be configured with the Workspace manager.

Writing EXIF is not easy, Which fields do you want to edit?

Couldn't you use ExifTool just like ExifToolGUI?

[larsen]

+1

Some photos I get from smartphone users are missing EXIF data, but the filename contains the correct date. I want to take the date from the filename and create correspondend EXIF timestamp values.

It would be sufficient if I could write previously missing EXIF data with XnView (atm, I am using Exifer which is not that user-friendly). Would be great if XnView included a function to automatically take the date from the filename and create EXIF data from that.