What is EXIF Data? Complete Guide to Photo Metadata

EXIF data typically contains: the camera or phone make and model, lens model, date and time the photo was taken, GPS latitude and longitude (smartphones), shutter speed (exposure time), aperture (f-number), ISO sensitivity, focal length, flash on/off, white balance, metering mode, image dimensions, colour space (sRGB / Adobe RGB), and sometimes artist name or copyright string.

JPEG/JPG files fully support EXIF and virtually every camera and smartphone writes it there. TIFF files also support EXIF. PNG files support a basic metadata format (tEXt chunks) but most cameras don't write standard EXIF to PNG. WebP uses XMP metadata rather than EXIF. HEIC (iPhone) supports extensive metadata including GPS.

Yes. EXIF data can be manually edited using tools like ExifTool, Adobe Bridge, or Lightroom. There is no cryptographic verification — EXIF is plain text embedded in the file. This means EXIF dates, camera models, and GPS coordinates can all be modified. EXIF alone is not sufficient proof of when or where a photo was taken in a legal context.

All three are types of image metadata. EXIF is camera-generated technical data (settings, GPS). IPTC is editorial metadata — keywords, captions, copyright, creator name — designed for photo agencies and publishers. XMP is Adobe's extensible metadata format that can contain both EXIF-style and IPTC-style data, plus custom fields. They can all coexist in the same JPEG file.

Screenshots taken on a computer (Mac, Windows, phone) are typically PNG files. PNG files don't carry standard EXIF metadata in the way JPEGs do. A PNG screenshot won't have a camera model, GPS coordinates, or exposure settings — because it wasn't taken by a camera. You may see basic file information (dimensions, colour profile) but not EXIF camera data.