A graphics design artist using Adobe Photoshop on a Mac.
Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock.com

A photograph's metadata is the information embedded in the file that tells you (or your reckoner) about information technology. It includes things like when a photo was taken, what camera and settings it was taken with, the resolution of the image, and who took it (copyright metadata).

How Image Files Get Metadata

Some of this metadata, such equally information near the lens you used, is added automatically by your camera. However, other pieces of metadata, such as data about when a file was final opened, are kept up to date by your computer.

But you tin also add together some important bits of metadata yourself, such equally copyright information and contact details. Here'southward how to practice it in Adobe Photoshop.

How to View a Photo's Metadata in Photoshop

Open the photo that y'all desire to edit in Photoshop and get to File > File Info. (You lot can also use the keyboard shortcut Control-Alt-Shift-I on a Windows PC or Command-Selection-Shift-I on a Mac.)

image info option highlighted

This will bring up the file data window.

To add or edit something, click on it and start typing. When you lot're done, click "OK."

Note: Not all metadata is editable. Some things, like the photographic camera that was used or the date upon which the file was created, are automatically set.

file information window

The metadata is described using a standard called XMP. It's split into 12 categories in the left sidebar, although not all of them are relevant to images. They are as follows:

  • Basic is some of the well-nigh important metadata, similar the file's writer, the copyright status, and the copyright information.
  • Camera Data is all of the information about the paradigm added by the photographic camera.
  • Origin is information about when the original work was created. For example, if I scanned a historic photo today, information technology would have a file cosmos appointment of 2021. Even so, the original photo is obviously much older.
  • IPTC and IPTC Extension are the International Press Telecommunication Council'southward metadata standards. This is used to add information nigh and categorize news, stock, and other professional photographs.
  • GPS Data is information about exactly where an epitome was taken.
  • Audio Data and Video Data are only relevant for those item file types. They're things similar artist, album, and frame rate.
  • Photoshop is an optional (and rarely used) log of the edits made to a file.
  • DICOM is medical metadata similar patient name and file number.
  • AEM Backdrop is things related to an Adobe enterprise service. It's non relevant to photographers.
  • Raw Data enables y'all to see the raw XMP structure with all of the metadata that's embedded in the file.

What Metadata Should I Add?

OK, so there's a lot of metadata categories available, but not many of them are relevant to photographers—some aren't fifty-fifty editable. My lovely photo of a moo-cow, for example, doesn't demand the same metadata categories equally an 10-ray.

Near photograph metadata either tells other people who created the file and other information about it—or makes it easier for you lot to search and sort things. Some of the information worth adding is as follows:

  • In Basic, add your proper noun to "Writer," under "Copyright Status," select "Copyrighted," and add your website or contact details to "Copyright Notice." This will list the file as copyrighted anywhere that supports metadata. Y'all can also use this to release your work nether a Creative Commons license.
  • In Basic, add together information almost the photo to "Rating," "Description," and "Keywords" that you want to apply to sort it. Apps similar Adobe Bridge, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and other file browsers volition be able to read information technology and enable you to filter by them.
  • If y'all want to keep your family photos incredibly well sorted or arranged like a nifty archive, fill in as much of the information in Origin equally is relevant.
  • If y'all desire to sell your images to news organizations or through stock photo sites, or otherwise release them professionally, fill in every bit much of the IPTC and IPTC Extension sections as you can.

copyright metadata

Does the Metadata Stay with the File?

Metadata stays embedded in a file—unless y'all, or someone else, removes information technology. Even when you lot modify a file blazon, say, past converting a RAW image file to a Photoshop file, it will be conserved. If you lot upload it to your website and someone downloads it, they'll be able to read information technology all using Photoshop or another app.

Still, some metadata is regularly stripped by social media sites, file storage apps, and other web services. Some keep the camera information, but others, like Instagram, strip everything, including copyright details.

There's besides a example to be made for removing metadata before uploading your images, equally it tin can identify you or your subjects. The Export Every bit feature in Photoshop (File > Export > Export Equally), for example, gives y'all the pick to either embed "Copyright and Contact Info," or no metadata at all.

Personally, I like to leave copyright information embedded in my images. Even if it does get stripped at some point, it's a small gesture toward maintaining buying of my photos.

metadata removal options