What a photo carries: EXIF, XMP and IPTC.
A JPEG can hold three separate blocks of metadata, written by different programs for different reasons. Here are the fields that say something about you, under the names the tools use.
Three blocks
EXIF is written by the camera when the photo is taken: the device, the settings, the time and, if allowed, the position. XMP is written by editing and cataloguing software, and repeats some EXIF fields while adding its own. IPTC is the older press standard for captions, credits and places, still used by news photo desks. A file can carry all three, and cleaning one leaves the others.
EXIF
Field names as listed in exiftool's EXIF and GPS tables:
| Place | GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude and their Ref fields, GPSAltitude, GPSImgDirection (which way the camera faced), GPSSpeed, GPSDateStamp and GPSTimeStamp. They sit in a sub-block that GPSInfo (0x8825) points to. |
|---|---|
| Device | Make (0x010f), Model (0x0110), LensModel (0xa434), SerialNumber (0xa431, called BodySerialNumber in the EXIF standard), Software (0x0131) |
| Time | DateTimeOriginal (0x9003) and OffsetTimeOriginal (0x9011), which gives the time zone and so roughly where in the world |
| Person | Artist (0x013b), Copyright (0x8298), OwnerName (0xa430, CameraOwnerName in the standard) |
| Words | ImageDescription (0x010e), UserComment (0x9286) |
EXIF can also hold a small preview copy of the picture, made by the camera or an editor.
XMP
XMP is a block of XML text inside the file. The fields that identify people and places, with the property names from the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard:
dc:creator: the photographerdc:rights: the copyright noticedc:description: the captionphotoshop:City,photoshop:State,photoshop:Country: the place, typed in by a person or filled from GPS by software
An edited photo often also carries xmp:CreatorTool, the editing program, and an edit history.
IPTC
The older IPTC block uses numbered datasets. Names from exiftool's IPTC table:
| 2:80 | By-line: the creator |
|---|---|
| 2:90, 2:92, 2:95, 2:101 | City, Sub-location, Province-State, Country-PrimaryLocationName |
| 2:120 | Caption-Abstract: the caption |
| 2:122 | Writer-Editor: who wrote the caption |
| 2:116, 2:118 | CopyrightNotice, Contact |
| 2:25 | Keywords |
A caption written on a news desk can name a source or a street that never appears in the picture. Read it before the file goes anywhere.
PNG
PNG files use chunks instead. The PNG specification defines eXIf for an EXIF block, tEXt, zTXt and iTXt for text, which is where XMP and fields like Author or Comment go, and tIME for the last-modified time. Screenshots are often PNGs, and some screenshot tools write text chunks.
What to keep
Not every field is a leak. The Orientation tag keeps the photo the right way up, and the ICC colour profile keeps its colours. exiftool's FAQ warns that removing all metadata can remove colour space information, and its recommended command keeps the profile. A good cleaner removes what describes you and keeps what describes the picture.
To read your own files, see check a file is clean. To remove the position only, see remove the location from a photo.
Or clean it here
FileSanity's photo cleaner reads all three blocks from a JPEG, and the text and EXIF chunks from a PNG, and lists them in plain words: who, where, when and on what. It removes them, keeps orientation and the colour profile, and does not re-encode the picture. The file stays in your browser.
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