editing exif ?

[ex1z7]

Well it was advised of me to post here in request to exif editing..

As one or two people around here know, a few of my pictures got jacked from Flickr, stripped of my name/watermark, printed, and sold for personal profit while leaving any credit to myself out of it.. I'd like to find a few other ways of preventing this in the future..

Aside from shrinking my pictures down, which I'm fine with I guess.. I'd like to know how to edit exif data so I can have my name there.. I know a few people (Trevor?) have it set up like that.. Just wondering what I need to do for this?

Any help would be appreciated :) Thanks !

[AccentAE86]

do you use lightroom by any chance? You can specify default metadata presets which will embed all the copyright data into your images, so it can have your name, address, phone number, email, website etc... all in the copyright section of the EXIF.

The only problem is... it's pretty easy to remove this metadata from a photo.

The best way is to always shrink down photos when posted online. Always. I don't like to post anything larger than 700 pixels, which is only good to print a wallet sized photo.

[Mitsu3000gt]

If you get a smugmug pro account, you can't right click on your images, and you can watermark them in addition to shrinking them. I'm not sure how easy that stuff is to get around, but it's $150/year.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
If you get a smugmug pro account, you can't right click on your images, and you can watermark them in addition to shrinking them. I'm not sure how easy that stuff is to get around, but it's $150/year.

just be careful with the "right click" feature, most the time you can view page source and pull out the JPG, if not you can always do a screen capture and crop it out, it's low quality, but easy to do.

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by ex1z7
Well it was advised of me to post here in request to exif editing..

As one or two people around here know, a few of my pictures got jacked from Flickr, stripped of my name/watermark, printed, and sold for personal profit while leaving any credit to myself out of it.. I'd like to find a few other ways of preventing this in the future..

Aside from shrinking my pictures down, which I'm fine with I guess.. I'd like to know how to edit exif data so I can have my name there.. I know a few people (Trevor?) have it set up like that.. Just wondering what I need to do for this?

Any help would be appreciated :) Thanks !

Ouch, that's harsh. Out of curiosity, how did you find out about this? Doesn't your camera's software come with anything that embeds your name directly into the camera? Canon does.


Originally posted by AccentAE86
The best way is to always shrink down photos when posted online. Always. I don't like to post anything larger than 700 pixels, which is only good to print a wallet sized photo.

That's what I do too. The largest I'll ever post is either 700 horizontally or 600 vertically. You'll never be able to get a decent print with that kind of resolution. I never understood why people felt necessary to post photos much larger than this.

I've read on a few forums that some people actually upload all their photos in full resolution up on Flickr and other image hosting sites as a their backup. Anyone who does that is asking for trouble.


Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
If you get a smugmug pro account, you can't right click on your images

That's easy to get around.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Nikon has a built-in Image Comment feature in the menu system - at least my D50 does, and any newer Nikon should. That's what I use to put my name on them.



Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
If you get a smugmug pro account, you can't right click on your images, and you can watermark them in addition to shrinking them. I'm not sure how easy that stuff is to get around, but it's $150/year.

Any goof can get around that in 30 seconds or less.

[nich148_9]

That's harsh. I'd hate it if that happened to me.

As far as prevention goes, uploading at no bigger than about 640-720 px across (or tall, whichever results in a smaller image) is good for web viewing, and almost impossible to get a decent print out of.

After a quick Google, this free software (http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Graphics_Viewers/Abander_PhotosControl.html) came up that would allow you to batch edit EXIF data. But usually, it doesn't matter, because most people (even at photo print places) won't look at the EXIF to check whether the photos belong to the customer. This has been my experience, anyway.

I might also consider adding a watermark. There's a method by which it's barely visible, but if you change the colour channel, it's clear as day. I can't remember how to do it, though.

Best of luck.

[ex1z7]

Trevor : I'll check out the image comment, I never knew what that did .. Def worth a shot.

Derek : She walked up and told me. People in Ontario are pretty smart like that..

And thanks guys, for the help .. I had them signatured - but it was removed. Pretty awesome.










I kinda feel like I was violated with a rake. The pointy end.. What a shitty, shitty feeling..

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by ex1z7
Derek : She walked up and told me. People in Ontario are pretty smart like that..


Who? The person who bought them? Or the person who sold them? :guns:



I kinda feel like I was violated with a rake. The pointy end.. What a shitty, shitty feeling..

Ouch. A rake. The least romantic of all gardening tools :cry:

[ex1z7]

The person who SOLD them told me..

Wowwwww..

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by ex1z7
The person who SOLD them told me..

Wowwwww..


huh? I don't get this. why would the person who stole from you, tell you?

[ex1z7]

Originally posted by ex1z7
People in Ontario are pretty smart like that..



Not even kidding.

[KKY]

I shrink all my pictures and remove all exif data before uploading onto the web. Yes, that's correct. REMOVE.

That way, I'm the only one with the original exif tagged files as proof of ownership.

True that people can still fabricate the exif. but that's an extra step they need to take to steal your pictures.