Erasing camera metadata

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

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.

Timothy, Photo Mechanic works for the Mac.

You can also remove it in Graphic Converter.

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.

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.

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. :-)

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.

why would u need to do that?
jerome

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’ !

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!)

Here’s an easy and simple way to do it on a Mac or a PC:

http://tinyurl.com/35oqac

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.