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Erasing camera metadata

Does software exist or is there a technique available to erase the camera metadata that is automatically embedded in photo files? —eg. lens, aperture, shutter speed, iso, etc. I am aware that one can do this in photoshop by placing the photo on top of a blank canvas then merging down or flattening, but I’m looking for some kind of batch process.

by T F at Tue Jan 30 21:04:04 UTC 2007 (ed. Mar 12 2008) New York, United States | Bookmark this | Digg this |

Using “save for the web” will strip the metadata.

by Tommy Huynh | 30 Jan 2007 21:01 | San Antonio, United States |
Hi Tim,

The data you refer to is called EXIF data. For Windows, I’ve used a piece of software called Exifer which can remove EXIF data in singles or bulk. I now use a Mac,and found a similar thing, but my Powerbook went to be repaired yesterday and I can’t remember what its called : (

Try Googling for ‘Exif stripper’, Exif removal’ etc and you should find something pretty easily.

by Sion Touhig | 30 Jan 2007 21:01 | London, United Kingdom |
Timothy, Photo Mechanic works for the Mac.

by Andy Levin | 30 Jan 2007 21:01 (ed. Jan 30 2007) | Chocolate City, United States |
You can also remove it in Graphic Converter.

by David Carr | 30 Jan 2007 21:01 | Paris, France |
Andy, I have photo mechanic but I don’t see how it works to strip the camera exif data. It only seems to allow you to add/change the “file info” (caption) data.

by T F | 30 Jan 2007 23:01 | New York, United States |
You can do it, I am not sure how I did it though….. I just sort of played with it and then voila, trick is to get to the fields where the camera data is, change them to zero, or whatever, and then look for an export EXIF, or edit EXIF option, its somewhere on there, and the data get written to the sidecar whatever the fuck that is. Good luck Timothy, sorry I can’t be more specific.

by Andy Levin | 30 Jan 2007 23:01 | Chocolate City, United States |
if i ever wanted the exif data removed i simply copied the whole image into a new file of the same size and saved that file. don’t have any experience with special tools for that but if you only need that from time to time it will do the job as well. :-)

by Martin Fuchs | 31 Jan 2007 08:01 | Vienna, Austria |
Hi Tim,

Removing the EXIF data is simple. First you need to download a script to do this-can’t remember where from but contact me at john@jr-photos.com if you want to go down this road and I’ll send you a copy. Next you stick that file in your scripts folder within photoshop. Now all you need to do is make an action to go to file and ‘strip exif’ and the job is done. I’ve carried that a stage further and created a droplet onto my desktop which I just drag my selected pics onto and it will strip the metadata out, add my copyright and contact details, sharpen, etc.

by John Watts-Robertson | 31 Jan 2007 09:01 | Northants, United Kingdom |
why would u need to do that?
jerome

by jerome delay | 31 Jan 2007 15:01 | joburg, South Africa |
Hi Jerome,
Simple answer-I dont need to strip out the metadata-I choose to. Smacks of big brother to me that anyone can open one of my images & find out what camera,lens,settings,shoe-size, etc. I used to take it. Also it means I can occasionally use my G7 point & shoot camera without some wag on the picture desk making stupid comments about ‘amateur gear’ !

by John Watts-Robertson | 31 Jan 2007 16:01 | Northants, United Kingdom |
Open the image file in Photoshop, then open a new document of the same size and ppi, go back to your original image file and select all, then just paste it into the new document!

(I discovered this technique when I was trying to create HDR images in Photoshop, but the metadata kept messing it up!)

by Nicola J Cutts | 31 Jan 2007 17:01 | London, United Kingdom |
Here’s an easy and simple way to do it on a Mac or a PC:

http://tinyurl.com/35oqac

by PJ Heller | 31 Jan 2007 19:01 | Christchurch, New Zealand |
I’ve tried all the recommendations and performing a batch strip of EXIF data is most easily done using Graphic Converter. Thanks to all for the advice.

by T F | 31 Jan 2007 20:01 | New York, United States |

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Participants

T F, T F
New York , United States
Tommy Huynh, Feral Photographer Tommy Huynh
Feral Photographer
Port of Spain , Trinidad and Tobago
Sion Touhig, Photographer Sion Touhig
Photographer
Singapore , Singapore
Andy Levin, Photographer Andy Levin
Photographer
New Orleans , United States ( AAA )
David Carr, Photographer David Carr
Photographer
Paris , France
Martin Fuchs, Photojournalist Martin Fuchs
Photojournalist
(Magnum Blog Editor)
Vienna , Austria ( VIE )
John Watts-Robertson, Photographer John Watts-Robertson
Photographer
(JR)
somewhere , United Kingdom ( GBG )
jerome delay, jerome delay
Johannesburg , South Africa
Nicola J Cutts, Photography/Digital Nicola J Cutts
Photography/Digital
Brighton , United Kingdom
PJ Heller, Freelance Photojournalist PJ Heller
Freelance Photojournalist
(Freelance Photojournalist)
Santa Barbara, CA , United States


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