How Fotoware applications handle EXIF fields
EXIF data is metadata that digital cameras and scanners produce to give information about a recording, such as shutter speed, aperture, camera orientation GPS coordinates of the shoot, image dimensions and other information.
General behavior
Generally, Fotoware handles EXIF fields as read-only fields. This implies that the information can be read out and displayed to users. They can for instance be displayed (but not edited) in FotoStation by adding them to the Display Template shown below the thumbnail grid.
Some EXIF fields, however, are mapped to XMP, and as such can be edited. When a file containing EXIF enters the Fotoware system, this will be done automatically. In the default metadata configuration that ships with the Fotoware system, you will see that there are two XMP namespaces to which EXIF Fields are mapped. Those fields are:
| Field name | Mapped to XMP Field number |
|---|---|
| Original Date (aka. Camera date) | #350 |
| Digitized Date | #351 |
| ISO Speed Ratings | #352 |
| User Comment | #353 |
| Image Unique ID | #354 |
| GPS Latitude | #355 |
| GPS Longitude | #356 |
| Serial Number | #357 |
| GPS Processing Method | #358 |
An example - rotating images
When a user rotates a large image file in the Fotoware system, there may already be an orientation tag in the EXIF data of that file. Because the EXIF tag cannot be changed directly, Fotoware will create an XMP Orientation tag and store the rotation info there. XMP compliant software (such as Photoshop) "knows" that the XMP orientation tag takes precedence over the EXIF data and will pen the image shown according to how it's been rotated. An added benefit of this is that there's no heavy processing involved even when rotating images that are several hundred megabytes in size.
A special case: JPEG files
When Fotoware applications encounter EXIF information in a JPEG file, some of the EXIF fields (Width, Height, Orientation, Thumbnail, GPS data, Camera Date, Color Space, Copyright, Byline, Image Description) are updated directly in the EXIF data. That's because the design of the JPEG format makes it possible to easily modify the EXIF data directly.