How To Change Info Data Mac File

Here's How to Edit Photo Metadata on Mac (Easy)

What is image metadata

All digital cameras capture photos in the form of information, only they also record a lot of boosted data near this data. This information about the pictures is called metadata. Depending on the camera, it can be anywhere from a dozen up to v,000 pieces of information. It includes camera details (such every bit make, model, focal length, exposure etc.), photo details (engagement, location, format etc.), and other data (copyright, usage terms etc.) Much of this is automatically stamped by the camera, while some (due east.g. clarification, keywords etc.) tin can be added by the photographer. Nosotros won't go into the formats and standards for metadata, just you tin read about it hither or search on the Internet for "IPTC and EXIF metadata" to acquire more.

How is metadata useful?

Metadata is extremely useful when you need to search through and organize a large number of photos. Programs such as Photos rely on metadata to display photos by year, or in helping you discover photos taken at a certain place.

Metadata fields are defined for every believable bit of information anyone might want to capture nigh a photo, just those most useful to regular folks are: Date & Time Taken, Title (Filename and format), Location, Description and Keywords.

Why would I edit metadata?

Photos taken with your iPhone or other digital cameras already have a lot of metadata. However, there are many reasons why you might desire to add or meliorate some details, for case:

1) To add a explanation or championship describing the photo (or a batch of photos), e.m. "Terri's starting time birthday party", for aiding subsequent organization and search.

2) To change the default file proper name, which might be IMG_0140.jpg or worse, to something more than meaningful, eastward.g. "Terri's First BD001.jpg."

Apple Photos for Mac — Gallery view — Default file names assigned by digital camera aren't exactly informative

3) If location services on your iPhone were disabled when you took the photo, simply you now want to add location data.

four) When you lot have 35,000 photos in your digital library, y'all probably should add descriptive keywords to help find a specific moving picture when needed.

five) If the appointment and time setting on your camera was incorrect, e.g. you took lots of photos on your New Zealand vacation, merely dorsum in U.K., the time stamps on all photos were eleven hours behind.

6) Yous scanned a bunch of 1993 "Baby's first yr" photos, but the metadata "Date Taken" field for all of them shows the 2018 scanning date.

How to view & edit metadata?

Like other digital cameras, iPhone and iPad cameras as well record metadata. You tin can see some of it with the iOS and macOS versions of Apple tree Photos. You tin besides edit the most of import bits of IPTC metadata. If you have taken photos with your DSLR or other digital cameras and imported them into Photos, some of their metadata can too be edited.

There are a few unlike ways to view and edit metadata on your Mac. Do it with Photos app, Non Preview or Finder. How/why explained below:

Photos app: Open Photos app on Mac. Right click the thumbnail of whatever photo (or, if the photo is open, right click it)and select Get Info.

'Get Info' window in Apple Photos for Mac app — Photos: Get Info window

A window opens, showing the file name and format (east.1000. IMG_2271.jpg), camera information, and profile photos of people that Photos recognizes.

You can edit title, description, keywords and location (Not date). Photos saves these in the metadata or separately in its database. Type any of these details in Photos' search bar to easily discover the photo subsequently.

Once yous have added metadata with Photos app, you tin export the photo with or without added metadata. To export with your edits, click File > Export, and in the message box that opens, cheque the desired boxes in Info section. To export without edits, uncheck the said boxes, then export.

Preview: To view more detailed metadata of a photo on your Mac or in a cloud service such equally Dropbox, Google Photos etc., open information technology in Preview.

Photo Metadata Inspector in Apple Preview — Preview: Metadata Inspector

Now click Tools > Show Inspector in the top toolbar (or the "i" push button). This opens a window containing four tabs. The first tab has summary information. Clicking the second (i) tab reveals more than tabs: Full general, IPTC, EXIF, JFIF and TIFF. Click these to encounter all the metadata. With Preview app, you lot can add or edit keywords, merely non the title, description or location details. Notwithstanding, as a metadata viewer it is quite good.

Finder: If you export a moving-picture show from Photos to desktop with drag-and-drop or File > Export Unmodified, then view its metadata in Finder by right-clicking and selecting Become Info, y'all'll run across the bodily Date Created and Engagement Modified. Only if yous exercise 'File > Export i Photo', it'll show both Engagement Created and Appointment Modified every bit 'Today', not the EXIF/IPTC date. Mercifully, other metadata and edits, i.e. file proper name, title, clarification and keywords are displayed correctly.

Finder may evidence wrong info in Date Created/Modified

Avant-garde metadata editing

Lightroom: one week free, and then $118.99/year

For advanced users, Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, and Adobe Bridge offer extensive metadata management capabilities.

SnipTag: Free (Restrictive), One time ($21.99)

For lay users, SnipTag for Mac is a good, inexpensive option for managing filenames, dates, locations, description, caption, keywords and 20 other IPTC metadata tags, using keyboard or voice dictation.

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Metadata in scanned photos:

Photos scanned with a scanner volition obviously not have any camera information, GPS coordinates etc. If scanning with a digital camera or an iPhone app, the GPS data will be of the place where yous scanned — not where you took the photo. And in all scanned photos, date created volition be the date you scanned — not when you lot took the photos (On iPhone and iPad, Motion-picture show Scanner Aureate app does let yous edit metadata engagement taken, description and location.)
Photos for Mac isn't ideal for batch-editing 'Engagement Taken' on scanned photos. This is considering Photos takes the beginning photo in the batch, compares the date and time in the metadata (which is the scanning date) with the engagement and time that you input manually, and it applies the same offset to all other photos in the batch. This is fine for Case 5 (New Zealand trip) above, but not for Case vi (babe'southward beginning yr). For the latter example, you'll either need to ameliorate the dates one photo at a time, or utilize some other app.
Photos for Mac lets you add keywords to a batch of photos. Select multiple photos (Command + click) > right click > Go Info > blazon in your keywords. These tin can be the names of people in the photos, place, year, or anything else that applies to all those photos.

Good readsouthward for Mac, iPhone and iPad Users:

Inside and Out of Apple'southward Photos for Mac

Accept a peek at the innards of Mac Photos. See where your photos are actually stored. And what's in the databases that power everything you practise in Photos.