Getting Info on Your Photos (Called Metadata)

The Metadata palette gives you access to information that's embedded into your photo by your digital camera at the moment you take the shot. By default, nested with the Metadata palette is the Keywords palette, which enables you to search for specific images by assigning keywords (that may sound complicated, but it's actually pretty simple). We'll start here with a simple look at how to access the embedded background information on your photos using the Metadata palette.

(The next chapter has more in-depth info on using and editing metadata.)

Embedded Info on Your Photo

When you take a photo with today's digital cameras, at the moment you take the shot, the camera automatically embeds loads of information about what just took placethings like the make and model of the camera, the time the photo was taken, the exposure setting, the f-stop, shutter speed, etc. (This info is called EXIF data.) Once you bring the digital photo into Photoshop, more information is embedded into the photo (stuff like the file name, when it was last edited, the file format it was saved in, its physical dimensions, color mode, etc.). All this embedded info comes under the heading "metadata," and that's why it appears in the Metadata palette. At the top of the palette, under the heading File Properties, is the info Photoshop embeds into your file. The next category down is IPTC Core metadata, which is where you can embed your own customized info (stuff like copyright, credits, etc.) into the photo (this is covered in detail in the next chapter). The Camera Data (EXIF) category displays data embedded by your camera. If you find yourself using most of this information, you might be a...(hint: rhymes with "seek").