ExifTool Forum

[Originally posted by macosx on 2005-06-07 09:42:06-07]

Is there information for beginners like myself who are trying to get started with Apple's Terminal and Perl and ExifTool all at the same time. I am really only interested in one feature at the moment and that is extracting JPEGs from CANON RAW image files. I have tried to follow the directions but I have been unsucessful and it's getting quite painful. I would appreciate tutoring as my real work is photography and not computer programming.

-John

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2005-06-07 13:03:40-07]

It is really simple.  Here are the steps:

1) Using your favourite browser (ie. Safari), download the latest version of exiftool from https://exiftool.org/ to your desktop.

2) Open a terminal window (by running "Terminal" from the /Applications/Utilities folder).

3) In the terminal window, type the following:


(Note:  Replace "5.25" with the version number you actually downloaded.)

4) Assuming your Canon RAW file is on the desktop and named "Canon.CRW", type the following to extract the JPEG image:


Or if your Camera produced .CR2 format RAW files, you need to extract the PreviewImage instead:


You should now have a file called "Canon_JFR.JPG" on your desktop.  This is the JPEG extracted from the CRW or CR2 file.

5) If you want to transfer the EXIF information from the original RAW file to the extracted JPEG, type the following:


(or use Canon.CR2 if the file was CR2 format)

That's about it.  If you want, you can follow the instructions in the README file to do a standard installation.  Then you won't have to specify the exiftool directory on the command line.  Note that some MacOS systems don't have the required Perl header files to do the "perl Makefile.PL" step.  Instead, you can just copy "exiftool" and the "lib" directory to anywhere in your PATH (type "printenv PATH" in the terminal window to show your PATH directories).

Let me know if you have any troubles.

[Originally posted by dayo on 2005-09-22 23:30:19-07]

Hello.

I am pretty much in the same situation as the original poster in that as a recent Mac adopter, I don't know very much about terminal etc so your response is very welcome.

Some additional questions.

1. In the example you gave (Point 4) was is the step if the file not on the desktop.  How to you specify the path to it.

2. The main reason I am interested in this tool is that I want to create Exif data for TIFF files from a scanner.  Is this possible?

 

3. If it is, can I write into the exposure fields such as shutter speed, Aperture etc.  I have scans using a Minolta Scan Dual III and have all the exposure data for each shot as I used a Minolta Dynax 7 that allows me to output text files with this data.

4. I have checked and know that the file properties section of my scanned files do not have fields for aperture etc.  Is it possible to create these fields in a TIFF files that doesn't have one? Perhaps transfer from one image that has then to these ones?

5. I noticed that some other post had something about lenses from the Minolta Dynax 7D.  I am a hybrid shooter as in addition to the Dynax 7, I own a Minolta Dynax 7D and a Dimage A2.  Are the raw files from these units supported?

Sorry for the number of queries and thanks for your assistance.

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2005-09-23 00:59:51-07]

I'll answer your questions as best I can:

1) You can prefix any filename by the path where it is located.  Directory names are separated by '/'.  A complication is that on the Mac it is common to have spaces and sometimes other funny characters in directory and file names.  This complicates things a bit on the command line because if this happens you have to either put quotes around the whole name or put a '\' before each space character.

So for instance, if the image was in my "/Users/phil/Pictures" directory, and assuming exiftool is in the current directory, I could type the following to extract the preview into a directory called "Previews" in the root directory of my boot disk:


Hints: The '~' character used above is a short form for your home directory name, which is '/Users/phil' in my case.  Also, it makes typing a lot faster if you know about "tab completion": It is usually not necessary to type an entire directory name -- once you have typed a few characters, press the 'tab' key and the rest of the name will be completed unless there is another directory beginning with the same sequence of characters.

2) Yes, you can add EXIF information to any TIFF file (as well as a number of other file types).

3) You can write all the information you mention, plus a lot more.

4) You can either create this information from scratch, or copy it from another image.  Whichever is easiest for you.

5) ExifTool should work on MRW images from any Minolta camera.  I have tested it personally with raw files from the 7D and A2.

I hope this helps.

[Originally posted by dayo on 2005-09-23 10:03:06-07]

Thanks a million for the quick reply.  I'll give it a bash. I'll go get a book and educate myself on using Terminal.

Funny that I am quite competent with the DOS Prompt in Windows and often write complex batch files but if I thought I could migrate my knowledge intuitively to Terminal, I couldn't have been more mistaken.  I'll correct this oversight.

Looking at some of the other posts with references to excel etc.  I suppose it is possible to write a series of tags to be loaded into an external file and have the program loop through a series of files and update them.  However, I need to learn the basics first.

Thanks again, the hints were particularly useful

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-19 17:47:19-08]

I realize this is an old post but I'm just starting to install and use exiftool.  How do I copy the "exiftool" and the "lib" directory to my PATH?

Pedro

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-19 18:44:44-08]

I realize this is an old post but I'm just starting to install and use exiftool.  How do I copy the "exiftool" and the "lib" directory to my PATH?

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-19 18:51:49-08]

There are a few ways, and the exact steps depend on the shell you are using.
(The default shell is tcsh for OS X 10.3 and earlier, but it changed to bash for
OS X 10.4.  Which do you use?)

Here are the steps:

1a) If you are using tcsh (the OS X 10.3 default), add the following line to the
".cshrc" file in your home directory.  (If ".cshrc" doesn't exist, use ".tcshrc"
instead, otherwise create one of these and add the line.)


1b) If you are using bash (the OS X 10.4 default), instead add the following line to the
".bashrc" file in your home directory:


2) Start a new terminal window, and in that window type:


This will create the /usr/local/bin directory and expand the exiftool files
in that directory.  (You should change the "#.##" to the actual version number
that you downloaded.  This command assumes that you have downloaded it
to your Desktop.)

After doing this, you should be able to run exiftool in a terminal window by
just typing "exiftool".  (Of course, you will have to add options and file names
on the command line to do what you want after that.)

- Phil

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-19 20:18:55-08]

I realize this is an old post but I'm just starting to install and use exiftool.  How do I copy the "exiftool" and the "lib" directory to my PATH?

Pedro

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-20 15:46:49-08]

Thanks.  I've got that part done, but when I try to run something like:

exiftool -h -refine test/JPEGS/60537-01.JPG

I get the error message

-bash: exiftool: command not found.  

Do I need to be in my local/bin directory when I run exiftool, or my home directory, or does it matter?

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-20 16:55:15-08]

If you set your PATH properly, then typing "exiftool" alone should be good.
Here is a bash terminal session showing you how things should be set up:


Try these commands and paste your terminal session if you are still
having problems.

- Phil

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-20 19:27:48-08]

I don't think things are set up correctly.  My home directory is as follows:

.ActivePerl             .rnd                    Movies
.CFUserTextEncoding     .sversionrc             Music
.DS_Store               Applications            Pictures
.Trash                  CPA Archive             Public
.Xauthority             CPA iView Cat Reader    Sites
.bash_history           Desktop                 ppm4.log
.cshrc                  Documents
.lpoptions              Library

My local/bin directory is:

Image-ExifTool-6.66     frombin                 tobin
dfont2res               ps2pdf                  ufond
fondu                   showfond

I'm just guessing but don't I need an exiftool file (folder?) in my local/bin directory somewhere??

I'm assuming that you wanted me to run the commands you sent replacing 'phil' with the name of my home directory--which is 'home'--here's my terminal session:

yubana147:~ home$ u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ printenv PATH
-bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs: No such file or directory
yubana147:~ home$ u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ printenv PATH
-bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs: No such file or directory
yubana147:~ home$ -bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ printenv PATH/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/Users/home/bin:/usr/local/bin
-bash: -bash:: command not found
yubana147:~ home$ u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/exiftool -rwxr-xr-x 1 home home 88398 Dec 15 07:36 /usr/local/bin/exiftool
-bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs: No such file or directory
yubana147:~ home$ u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ which exiftool /usr/local/bin/exiftool
-bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs: No such file or directory
yubana147:~ home$ u88:~/source/qsno_cvs home$ exiftool -ver 6.66
-bash: u88:~/source/qsno_cvs: No such file or directory
yubana147:~ home$

Thanks for all your help.

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-20 20:59:17-08]

Hi Pedro,

Thanks.  I'm sorry, it's my fault.  Expanding the distribution in the /usr/local/bin
directory created a subdirector called Image-ExifTool-6.66.  The exiftool files
have to be moved to the parent directory.  ie)


Also, there was some confusion about my terminal session.  Everything
before the '$' was just part of the prompt, not a command.  So my idea there
didn't work too well.  I wanted you to type the following:


But I think we know now that the 'ls' command wouldn't find exiftool
since it was in the Image-ExifTool-6.66 sub-directory.  Sorry about that.

- Phil

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 15:50:20-08]

Hi Phil,

I think I've got everything straight, but I can't seem to get exiftool to work.  I want to get the exif info of a file in a folder on my desktop "test/60512F-01.CR2".  When I run (from the terminal window, in the home directory)

exiftool -h -test/60512F-01.CR2

I get the following error

-bash: exiftool: command not found

Does it matter which directory I am in when I run exiftool?

Thanks.

Pedro

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 16:19:23-08]

Hi Phil,

I think I've got everything straight, but I can't seem to get exiftool to work.  I want to get the exif info of a file in a folder on my desktop "test/60512F-01.CR2".  When I run (from the terminal window, in the home directory)

exiftool -h -test/60512F-01.CR2

I get the following error

-bash: exiftool: command not found

Does it matter which directory I am in when I run exiftool?

Thanks.

Pedro

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 16:25:49-08]

Hi Phil,

I think I've got everything straight, but I can't seem to get exiftool to work.  I want to get the exif info of a file in a folder on my desktop "test/60512F-01.CR2".  When I run (from the terminal window, in the home directory)

exiftool -h -test/60512F-01.CR2

I get the following error

-bash: exiftool: command not found

Does it matter which directory I am in when I run exiftool?

Thanks.

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 17:21:24-08]

Hi Pedro,

You need to either type the exiftool directory each time, ie)


or add the exiftool directory to your PATH.  Since you are using bash, it can
be done like this:


where "USERNAME" is your user name.  (Just cut and paste the above line as a command
in your terminal window, substituting USERNAME appropriately.)  Then you must open
a new Terminal window for the new PATH to take effect.

Note that both of these examples assume that
exiftool is in a directory called "Image-ExifTool-6.66".  If it is somewhere else
just change this to the proper directory name.

(Also, in these examples I have used "~", which is a shorthand for your home directory
"/Users/USERNAME" that can be used in commands and filenames.)

- Phil

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 20:02:04-08]

Phil,

Now I'm a bit confused and I'm not sure where my exiftool is located.  My home directory looks like this:

.                       .lpoptions              Documents
..                      .rnd                    Library
.ActivePerl             .sversionrc             Movies
.CFUserTextEncoding     Applications            Music
.DS_Store               CPA Archive             Pictures
.Trash                  CPA iView Cat Reader    Public
.Xauthority             Canon_60152F-01.CR2     Sites
.bash_history           Canon_60512f-01.CR2     exiftool
.cshrc                  Desktop                 ppm4.log

ExifTool-6.66 is located in my /usr/local/bin:

yubana147:~ home$ cd /usr/local/bin
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ ls -a
.                       fondu                   tobin
..                      frombin                 ufond
Image-ExifTool-6.66     ps2pdf
dfont2res               showfond

Does this look correct?

I added the exiftool directory to my PATH as per your instructions.  Should I now be able to run exiftool from my home directory by just typing commands?  Or do I need to type

exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2

Thanks for your patience.

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 22:33:00-08]

Hi Pedro,

If you have the directory "/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66" in your
PATH, then you're good to go with command lines that begin with
just "exiftool".  So typing


should do the job.  FYI: You can verify your PATH by typing


but it sounds like you should be good to go.

- Phil

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 23:57:58-08]

Here are a couple more command-line tricks that may be useful to you:

In OS X, you can use the "open FILE" command at the command line,
and it will do the same thing as if you had double-clicked on the file.
For example, typing this:


Creates an output HTML file called "out.html" from information in the
specified image, then opens "out.html" in your default browser (probably
Safari).

Another tip is that you can use the TAB key to avoid a lot of typing.  This
tip applies to any system, including OS X, Unix and Windows.  The TAB
will complete any unambiguous partial command or file name, so usually
it is only necessary to type the first few characters of each word. For instance,
in the above example, what I would actually type is more like this:


where "[TAB]" represents a press of the TAB key.

I sort of take all this stuff for granted now, but I thought it might be useful
to mention because you may not know about these tricks yet.

- Phil

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2007-01-03 16:47:32-08]

Thanks Phil.

Unfortunately I still can't get ExifTool to work.  I think that it's either in the wrong place and/or I did not add it to my PATH correctly.

My PATH is:

yubana147:~ home$ printenv PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

In my home directory--the initial directory which I am in when I open a terminal session contains the following:

yubana147:~ home$ ls -a
.                       .lpoptions              Library
..                      .rnd                    Movies
.ActivePerl             .sversionrc             Music
.CFUserTextEncoding     Applications            Pictures
.DS_Store               CPA Archive             Public
.Trash                  CPA iView Cat Reader    Sites
.Xauthority             Canon_60152F-01.CR2     exiftool
.bash_history           Canon_60512f-01.CR2     ppm4.log
.bashrc                 Desktop
.cshrc                  Documents

I'm not sure what the exiftool file in my home directory is for?  If I change to my /usr/local/bin there is a folder called Image-ExifTool-6.66:

yubana147:~ home$ cd /usr/local/bin
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ ls -a
.                       fondu                   tobin
..                      frombin                 ufond
Image-ExifTool-6.66     ps2pdf
dfont2res               showfond
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$

The Image-ExifTool-6.66 folder contains the following:

 yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ cd /usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66
yubana147:/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66 home$ ls -a
.                               exiftool
..                              html
Changes                         iptc2xmp.args
ExifTool_config                 lib
MANIFEST                        perl-Image-ExifTool.spec
META.yml                        t
Makefile.PL                     xmp2iptc.args
README

What is my ExifTool directory?  (To clarify, my USERNAME is the login name I use to login to my computer, right?)

yubana147:~ home$ exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2
-bash: exiftool: command not found
 
I tried adding the exiftool directory to my path using the directory
/Users/Peter/Desktop/Image-ExifTool-6.66

And that did not work.  I also tried using the directory
/Users/Peter/sbin/Image-ExifTool-6.66

But that didn't work either.

Can you tell what the problem is?

Thanks again for all your help and patience.

Pedro

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2007-01-03 17:14:37-08]

Hi Pedro,

Here are some answers for your questions:

1) The exiftool file in your home directory is extraneous and can be deleted.

2) Your USERNAME is the name you log in with, but my example was assuming
that you had ExifTool in your Desktop directory (/Users/USERNAME/Desktop).
But instead, your ExifTool directory is actually /usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66

To set your PATH to include this directory, cut and paste the following in a Terminal
window:


then open a new terminal window.  Your PATH (given by "printenv PATH") should then
be:


So the last entry in your path is "/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66".  This is the
directory that contains "exiftool" and it's libraries.  If this works, then you should be
able to run exiftool by just typing "exiftool".

If you have any more questions, please email me (philharvey66 at gmail.com).
I don't think it would be useful for others to continue this discussion in the forum.

Thanks.

- Phil