Lots of exif-problems

janniklindquist

Hi,

I recently got myself a SmugMug account - and, basically, I enjoy it tremendously. However, I now suddenly realize that my image organizer - FotoAlbum - appear to, somehow, corrupt EXIF information so that it is not properly displayed at SmugMug. Photos which have been transfered from my card via FotoAlbum will show corrupted exif when uploaed to SmugMug - even though the same images show exif fine when viewed in various software etc.

The following two links will demonstrate this. The first link is to an image transfered from my memory card with FotoAlbum:

Corrupted

The second link is to the same image transfered from the memory card using BreezeBrowser Pro:

Correct

Can anyone tell me what is going on? And how I can fix the hundreds of images I have already uploaded?

Andy

Hi, I'm not familiar with FotoAlbum - but if it saves exif in a non-standard way, we'll have trouble reading it.

I wish I had a better immediate answer for you

I'll keep digging.

janniklindquist

Andy wrote:

Hi, I'm not familiar with FotoAlbum - but if it saves exif in a non-standard way, we'll have trouble reading it.

I wish I had a better immediate answer for you

I'll keep digging.

Thanks, Andy. As I said I have never had problems with FotoAlbum before. The images in question show exif fine when uploaded to, say, PBase or Flickr or when viewed in various photo software. When I upload to SmugMug, however, much of the exif will show as rubbish or not at all. This is particular annoying with dates, as all the images in question are missing the "Date taken"-field when uploaded to SmugMug - and some of them are even missing "Date modified". I am extremely puzzled by this (and also quite worried!).

Alexander

Hi there,

I have the exact same problem in my trial gallery:
http://a-l-e-x-a-n-d-e-r.smugmug.com/gallery/4652457_tQ4Cp

Alsmost no EXIF information is correct. I uploaded the full-size pictures with all values intact (using the Java uploader). Any ideas what I can do? Does the database have to do a refresh of some sorts?


Thanks
Bye
Alexander

Alexander

Additional information:

Metadata from images that come directly from the camera (Canon 30D or IXUS 800IS), or from images with EXIF properties edited in ACDSee, are all displayed correctly.

Images in the mentioned gallery are "GPS-enhanced" with RoboGeo. ACDSee (10 and Pro 2) display the EXIF properties fine, so I didn't expect a problem from that...

Andy

Alexander wrote:

Hi there,

I see no photos in that link, can you show us some photos with the issue?

Alexander

Andy,

I deleted those to try new uploads, but so far without success. I reloaded three sample pictures.

Thanks for your help!

Andy

Alexander wrote:

Andy,

I deleted those to try new uploads, but so far without success. I reloaded three sample pictures.

Thanks for your help!

I'm sorry to say, that if the exif isn't written properly by fotoalbum, it'll be bogus on SmugMug
Try uploading some photos directly from your camera, and see.

like this one:
http://a-l-e-x-a-n-d-e-r.smugmug.com/gallery/4652457_tQ4Cp#276159544

Alexander

Hi,

yes I was kind of expecting that answer. I even found a workaround: Using the Batch-Set-Information function, I rewrite the EXIF info with ACDSee. I consider "opening and re-saving" to be a lossy process, especiall when you're dealing with JPGs...

(Lossy... whats the proper English term meaning the opposite of "lossless"?)


Though the funny thing you might (maybe even should?) want to explore from a technical point of view is, that a lot of other EXIF readers still can handle the files written by RoboGeo.

Sorry, I'm a developer myself. We're always the worst customers...


Bye
Alexander