portrait pictures loose their exif tags when geo-tagging with GEOSETTER

[hpsess]

relates to EXIFTOOL 8.20 and 8.21  using GEOSETTER 3.3.48 (build 1828)  on Windows Vista

Some (most portrait) pictures loose their exif tags when geo-tagging with GEOSETTER (which uses EXIFTOOL).
I have not noticed this happen with standard landscape format (4:3), but with almost (!) all portrait and panoramic pictures.

First noticed using EXIFTOOL 8.20, but I don't know which was the last version without this behaviour.

I include two examples (reduced size) before and after tagging; picture no. ...84 strangely worked without problems in original size !

[Phil Harvey]

What software are you using to view the metadata, and what tags do you think are missing?  The tagged images have lost no metadata, and have only gained a large number of IPTC, XMP and GPS tags.

It sounds like for some reason your software is ignoring some tags when others are added.

Try using ExifToolGUI to view the tags to see what is really there.  We should be able to figure out what is causing problems for your other software.

- Phil

[hpsess]

thanks for the fast response.
You're right.
I used EXIFER (latest available version 2.1.5, an old but - up to now - reliable horse) to look at the tags first, and this program does not see the tags and the exif-thumbnail after geo-tagging. Updating the thumbnails in EXIFER actually deletes the exif-tags - and so I did not see them in other tools neither.

So it seems I have to blame EXIFER to kill the tags - but why should EXIFER not see the tags ? And why only in portrait pictures ?

I add a picture after updating it by EXIFER.  Most camera-related tags are missing.
My main concern is the tag "Date/Time Original", since I use this for sorting.

[Phil Harvey]

Yes, it seems like EXIFER's problem.

I could guess at the reason, but the facts don't substantiate my hypothesis.  If this problem indeed started with exiftool 8.20, is it possible that the problem files were written with an ExifVersion of "0230"?  If so, maybe EXIFER ignores EXIF if it doesn't support this version.  With ExifTool 8.20 I updated to the EXIF 2.3 specification, so ExifTool will write an ExifVersion number of "0230" if it creates the EXIF from scratch.

However, as I said the facts don't support my hypothesis because ExifVersion is "0221" in all the samples you posted.  (I also don't understand why the XMP in the latest sample was written by ExifTool 8.15 since you said this problem started with version 8.20.)

But I think you should pose this question to the EXIFER authors to see what they say.

- Phil

[hpsess]

Phil,
I traced back in my photo files: first time I produced this problem was in February 16 (I had updated EXIFTOOL regularly with GEOSETTER), last time everything went well with EXIFER was January 7, 2010. So it must have come in with EXIFTOOL version 8.10 or earlier.
(The XMP-Tags are written by another batch process, which uses a different copy of EXIFTOOL on my hard disk - not updated that often; I should fix that).

My solution for know is: I don't touch the geo-tagged files any more with EXIFER ... too bad that EXIFER is no longer maintained.

Thanks for your time to find out ! 
Peter

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Peter,

OK, so it isn't the EXIF version that is the problem.

With a bit of work I think you could probably figure out what is causing the problem:

1) Find one file that causes problems for EXIFER, and one file that doesn't.

2) Use ExifTool to copy tags from the good file to the bad until EXIFER doesn't have a problem:

2a) Copy all tags to begin with to be sure this will work:

      exiftool -tagsfromfile good.jpg -all:all bad.jpg

2b) Assuming EXIFER doesn't have a problem with with the resulting image, then revert to the original bad.jpg and try again, this time copying only -exif:all, then -iptc:all etc until you find the group that was causing the problem.  Then iterate copying manually half of the tags in this group until you find the exact tag(s) that cause the problem.

It's a bit of work, and you may decide it is not worth your time, but this is a brute force technique that usually works to track down a problem like this.

- Phil