EXIF & IPTC: From the Browser

Having gotten 99.99% moved to my new computer I find that I am now discovering small tweaks that I had come to rely on but didn't really think to recreate during the initial massive migration. One of these little items provided the ability to view the EXIF and IPTC data in an image being browsed via a contextual right-click menu choice from Firefox. I tend to use this dozens of times a day.

If you are a digital photographer and don't know what EXIF and IPTC data are, the very quick answer is that they are metadata (data about data) embedded in most modern image file formats. Your camera embeds EXIF data when you take an exposure which records such things as camera type, ISO, f-stop, date, time, etc. IPTC data describes the image and is embedded by the photographer using a software tool such as PhotoMechanic (my choice) or LightRoom (which I use but not for this purpose.) For specifics of these formats do a Google search.

So, I am out browsing around on my favorite photography forum, POTN, and see an image that I find interesting taken in very low light at a concert (something I do a lot of) and want to know what ISO, f-stop and shutter speed was used. With the Add-On I use in Firefox 3 I can just right click the image and select the EXIF viewer and bam ... there's all the information. And with the viewer I use I can also see the IPTC data and even the GPS data if it is there.

I have used several EXIF viewers, all freeware, and I vastly prefer the IEXIF from Opanda. The nicest thing compared with others is that the popup window with the information is expandable and sometimes that EXIF or particularly IPTC data can get very long. The Opanda presentation is simple, elegant and easy to use.

So, what do you do? I don't know what Mac users do! But if you're a PC person you go to Opanda's website and from their homepage you install IEXIF V2.3 (at the moment.) This needs to be sitting on your computer. You then install the Firefox Add-On in the usual fashion. Restart Firefox as normal for adding an Add-On. Browse to an image and right click and there's a new item from Opanda and you simply click it. When you're done, close the IEXIF window because otherwise it will stick around ... you can have several of these open at once which is handy.

I consider the Opanda an essential piece of software.

Be safe!

Dwight