CS4 SaveForWeb Still Stripping EXIF???!!!

NN
Posted By
Neil_N
Jan 8, 2009
Views
608
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I seriously apologize if I’m missing something obvious. There has been some hoopla here & there on the www re: CS4’s improved handling of metadata when Saving for Web/Devices, particularly preserving EXIF data.

In the dialog, I see an option for Metadata, w/ a dropdown box & an "All" option. Files I save this way have NO EXIF, at least not readable by any mainstream application, i.e. any of the web sites, php/js photo gallery scripts, firefox plugins etc. which have the capability to display EXIF in jpgs.

Please tell me I made a mistake somewhere, and that the heavyweight champion of image processing s/w is not still neutering web-bound images in the broadband era of 2009, in the name of "smaller files"…
Related Tags
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RP
Russell_Proulx
Jan 8, 2009
Files I save this way have NO EXIF, at least not readable by any mainstream application, i.e. any of the web sites, php/js photo gallery scripts, firefox plugins etc. which have the capability to display EXIF in jpgs.

Just tried it. You’re right. It appears to be broken. Sigh …
WE
Wolf_Eilers
Jan 8, 2009
I believe EXIF data is stored in an XMP format and therefore applications that understand XMP can read the metadata properly. For example, saving a JPEG with the ALL option will indeed preserve all metadata if viewed by Bridge.

See: <http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/>
NN
Neil_N
Jan 8, 2009
Wolf,

When I read the following:

"(Photoshop only) From the Metadata menu, choose what XMP metadata to save with the optimized file. Metadata is fully supported by JPEG file format, and partially supported by GIF and PNG file formats. It can include any metadata file information that was added to the document (choose File > File Info to view or enter document metadata).

None
No metadata saved. Produces the smallest file size.

Copyright
Saves copyright notice, rights usage terms, copyright status, and copyright info URL.

Copyright and Contact Info
Saves all copyright information, plus the following information: creator, creator job title, e-mail(s), address, city, state/province, postal code, country, telephone(s), and website(s).

All Except Camera Info
Saves all XMP metadata, except EXIF data. EXIF data includes camera settings and scene information such as shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern, and whether a flash was used.

All
Saves all XMP metadata in the file."

I see nothing which would indicate that the "ALL" option would:
a.) Store the info in an external file. Note particularly the reference to "file size"
b.) Produce a jpg w/ EXIF that is only readable by other Adobe products. Absolutely useless, and NOT what users were begging for in previous versions.

Adobe is not a small company, Photoshop is not a young product, and certainly not an inexpensive shareware product maintained by one underpaid, overworked individual. This bug, along with the inability to contract selections which include a document border, and assorted other "features", are, IMO, inexcusable & just plain sloppy at this stage of Adobe’s prestigious tenure in a fairly mature industry. Other companies routinely release patches and/or interim updates/fixes. (Before anyone says anything, ACR is NOT a Photoshop-only component). The Save For Web, in particular, is not a core functionality, such that this couldn’t be fixed in 5 minutes if someone with any authority/conscience would just make the decision.

It is truly sad that we live in a time where the status quo is to stop 10% short of the finish line because it’s cheaper and accepted as "the way things are"…
//Rant Off
PR
Paul_R
Jan 8, 2009
Are you sure it is a problem with Adobe?
I for one don’t think it is, the files created with the All option DO have all the information embeded within the jpeg!
My thought, and only a guess is that some scripts might be testing for a Save For Web JPEG if so don’t do anything about displaying data. As we all know this is a new feature having the data within SFW jpegs.
Check your scripts and see what they are doing.
NN
Neil_N
Jan 8, 2009
Paul,
Yeah, I’m positive it’s an Adobe issue. Here is how you can reproduce it.

My test mule is Firefox w/ the freeware EXIF Viewer Add-On. Pretty generic & available here:

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905>

Or you could use EXIFER, etc, or any generic program that will view embedded EXIF data.

For any given jpg or RAW w/ proper EXIF data, save out two copies from CS4, one using "Save AS", the other "Save for Web" w/ Metadata=ALL.

When I do this, if I look at the Save As version in the Firefox viewer I see this (sorry for the link, can’t seem to post images inline in these forums, also sorry for the compression, but it’s readable…)

<http://www.wildsuburbia.com/private/SaveAs.jpg>

That’s what "normal" EXIF looks like to me, anyway.

OK, now, "Save For Web" Metadata=All:

<http://www.wildsuburbia.com/private/SaveForWeb.jpg>

See, it’s "all there" as you say, but definitely not where the non-adobe world wants to find it.

Now here is where it really gets fun. I’ll reload that image into CS4, and this time, Save As. Should come out "normal", since after all the metadata was "preserved"…

< http://www.wildsuburbia.com/private/SaveForWebThenSaveAs.jpg>

See, we get back all that EXIF camera data that was "preserved"…NOT!

Come, on guys, at least be consistent…

OK, enter Phil Harvey, wizard extraordinaire of all things metadata, and a Prince among men to boot, with his much-celebrated & free "exiftool" command line alchemy, available here:

<http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/>

I bounced this issue off of Phil, and, as usual, he had the answer before I asked the question.

Here’s how I implemented it in windows, you should season to taste for your OS:

Download the exiftool executable. If you get the version named

exiftool(-k).exe

rename it to exiftool.exe, and copy it to your windows folder, or anywhere in your path, if you know what that means.

Create a text file, rename it to anything you want.cmd, I used fix-exif.cmd

edit the file, and add only this line:

exiftool.exe "-exif:all<xmp:all" %1

Save the file, and place it in a folder where you have neutered CS4 Saved for Web images. BACK UP YOUR IMAGES BEFORE YOU TRY THIS! Simply drag & drop the patient onto the icon for your newly created cmd(batch) file. Drumroll please…

<http://www.wildsuburbia.com/private/exiftool.jpg>

Almost brings tears to my eyes. Phil, you may have a bright future in Regrowth 😉

Hey, hope this helps someone else out there. If it does, fire off a thanks to Phil. He’s a tireless soldier.

___
Neil
PR
Paul_R
Jan 8, 2009
Sorry but none of the pictures have the camera data not even your saveas! Check the Raw Data. So sorry no point made.
NN
Neil_N
Jan 8, 2009
OK. The links I provided are to screengrabs of the firefox exif viewer for each case I illustrated. They are not photos. They simply illustrate that the metadata result of "Save For Web-Metadata=ALL" is not the same as "Save As", which is my point, the EXIF is being altered/munged.

When you click those links, and zoom to actual size, are you seeing something different than the text output from an exif viewer?
PR
Paul_R
Jan 8, 2009
Does not prove anything except the program used can not cope with the new feature!

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