Is there some way that we can help new users to add EXIF data to their photo?

Question

Often you have a user uploading a photo with a question, but then no metadata is included (as that's stripped by imgur). Other users have then to ask what settings were used, creating a back-and-forth until (hopefully) the right EXIF data is found by the question asker.

Sites exist (e.g.: https://exifinfo.org/ ) that can automatically extract EXIF data from a photo. Is there some way that we can alter the photo upload dialog such that it passes an uploaded photo through an EXIF service first, then pastes relevant EXIF fields in the question before uploading the actual image to imgur?

Or is this too much work for the problem it's trying to solve?

Answer 1

Edit: I opened a feature request at Meta-SE for this feature: Site-specific need for image uploader to paste EXIF exposure information into post along with image URL

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You have a great idea. However, the issues that immediately come to mind are:

1. This would almost certainly require a change to the common Stack Exchange code's image upload feature, and probably triggered based on the Stack subdomain (i.e., photo.stackexchange.com vs. other Stacks). It's something that the other Stacks probably would want off by default, but we would want on by default.

2. External EXIF service vs. self-hosted (Stack Exchange network): I'm sure Stack Exchange's legal team would want a service agreement, specifying terms regarding privacy, data retention, service level assurance, etc. It seems to me that it's probably better to rely on a self-hosted EXIF solution (i.e., server-side script, CGI, whatever). It's logically similar to server-side ImageMagick various uses.

Answer 2

(Note: this was my original answer, based on misreading the question. I had deleted it when MichaelC noted I wasn't addressing your question, but I later undeleted it in order to preserve the info about Imgur's EXIF policy, in case that comes up in discussion later.)

Based on this answer to a Meta Stack Exchange question (at least as of 2015), nothing will probably change:

Here is a reply from imgur userecho question Where is the EXIF data? :

This is one of the features of the service. exif data is removed because the images are shared publicly and the developer does not want hidden information to leak accidentally by users who might have no idea what exif information is stored in the photos. I do not think there is any setting available on imgur platform that retains the data if you so desire.

Here is reply from Alan Schaaf (Founder of imgur):

Sorry, but exif data is striped on purpose to keep the anonymity of the uploader. This will not change.