Deleting Exif information

[spruce18b]

Will uploading speed for an image be increased if all the Exif information is deleted from it?

Please tell me how to delete all the Exif information for an entire directory of images, or for a selection of those images. Will the -gps:all= tag delete the GPS information for one image or for all images in a directory?  Thanks.

[Phil Harvey]

You can run exiftool on any number of images and/or directories.  Use -exif:all= to delete all EXIF, or -all= to delete all metadata.

I can't quantitatively answer your question about speed because it depends on the file size and the amount of metadata, but for some images the savings can be substantial.

- Phil

[spruce18b]

Sorry for a simple question: What is the difference between EXIF and metadata?

[Phil Harvey]

EXIF is a specific format for storing metadata, and is the format used by digital cameras.  Other common formats used by software are IPTC-IIM (an old standard), and XMP (the more modern replacement).

The MWG recommendations discuss the relationship between these 3 common metadata formats for some commonly used information (see illustration below)

- Phil