Affinity Photo 2 EXIF Software field not being updated

[Greyfox]

Most of the other photo editing software I have identifies its use in the EXIF Software field when a change is made to a JPG image, however that doesn't appear to be the case for Affinity photo.

Is there a reason for this?

[Greyfox]

In addition to no response so far to my query (and it was now so far down in the forum pages that it wasn't likely to get a response),  further searches I made show this subject was raised in February 2018back in 2018 (

and that thread didn't get a response from Serif either.  So is this a lost cause?

[v_kyr]

7 minutes ago, Greyfox said:

Is there a reason for this?

...and that thread didn't get a response from Serif either.  So is this a lost cause?

Hard to tell, since best answered by the Affinity devs then. - I'm guessing here, that probably some change/update event is missing for the EXIF data, or doesn't throw in such JPG update cases.

[Greyfox]

Thanks for response @v_kyr.  That EXIF tag can be used to determine if an photo is an original ex camera, or if it has been edited, by what software. It is also a means of identifying what software created an image, or at least it is with most other photo editing software. I don't understand why Serif chooses to ignore it.

[v_kyr]

26 minutes ago, Greyfox said:

That EXIF tag can be used to determine if an photo is an original ex camera, or if it has been edited ...

See therefor related ...

• How can I tell if someone modified the EXIF data in a photograph?
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about ExifTool

[Pšenda]

53 minutes ago, Greyfox said:

and that thread didn't get a response from Serif either. 

Given that Serif does not comment on requirements in principle, there is nothing to be surprised about.

 

6 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about ExifTool

I personally use ExifToolGUI which makes using ExifTool and managing EXIF in images significantly easier.

[v_kyr]

14 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

I personally use ExifToolGUI which makes using ExifTool and managing EXIF in images significantly easier.

Well that's sadly a Win only frontend to ExifTool. - Even there are some MacOS  alternatives, which all are based/do rely on ExifTool, I honestly would prefer to use Phil Harvey's own build GUI frontend then for/under MacOS too!

[Greyfox]

@Pšenda 

I too have been an ExifTool user for some years.

31 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Given that Serif does not comment on requirements in principle, there is nothing to be surprised about.

Sorry I don't understand what "requirements in principle" means. The use of that field is common practice in many applications, Photoshop, Gimp, ACDSee, Luminar 4, Microsoft,  to name just a few. Is the fact that it isn't being updated in Affinity Photo a bug (in that it should be updating but for some reason isn't)?  Is it by design for some reason? Or perhaps it is an oversight. Are you suggestion that Serif don't answer Support queries if they appear to be "a requirement in principle", what ever that actually means. - That has not been my experience with them in the past.

It is a field I use in searches in my Asset Management system. It can be used with other software, and I would like to be able to use it with Affinity.
 

 

[Ron P.]

57 minutes ago, Greyfox said:

Thanks for response @v_kyr.  That EXIF tag can be used to determine if an photo is an original ex camera, or if it has been edited, by what software. It is also a means of identifying what software created an image, or at least it is with most other photo editing software. I don't understand why Serif chooses to ignore it.

Serif does tag images processed with their software, Affinity, along with the specific version of that software, in the Exif, Raw Data. It's found at the bottom of that data. The screenshot is showing the Raw Data, from an image I shot, and processed in AP, and exported to JPEG. I researched images I shot from 7-10 yrs ago, looking at that field in those files, and it too had the software I used to process them. It's not found in the EXIF table you first see, in fact I think most software does not publish that info there.

[Pšenda]

6 minutes ago, Greyfox said:

Sorry I don't understand what that means.

It's quite simple - you're surprised that Serif doesn't react/respond to "requests" for features, which it doesn't do in principle - it simply doesn't respond to feature requests and doesn't promise anything.

The fact that he has not yet implemented the mentioned function is a different matter, and it has nothing to do with "not responding" to requests.

[Pšenda]

54 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Raw Data

I just exported in APhoto to JPEG, and this is what its Metadata looks like.

[Ron P.]

Yours has no History section, which is where that data is entered. The photo from my screenshot, I did not choose to save history with my image/document. So AP done that on it's own.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Ron P. said:

Yours has no History section, which is where that data is entered. The photo from my screenshot, I did not choose to save history with my image/document. So AP done that on it's own.

I get the History metadata item if in the Export panel I enable "Embed Metadata." If I do that, I get a raw data item like <xmpMM:softwareAgent>Affinity Designer (Sep 22 2019)</xmpMM:softwareAgent," in this instance for a file I last modified in AD 1 on that date.

[- S -]

10 hours ago, Greyfox said:

…further searches I made show this subject was raised in February 2018 …So is this a lost cause?

Even earlier than that, I mentioned it in January 2017 (a few weeks after it was released on Windows) in the below post about the "Date Taken" field.

 

 

The problem is, although Affinity Photo adds the software name to the file metadata, it adds it to the following metadata tag.

[XMP-xmpMM] HistorySoftwareAgent

While there is nothing wrong with adding it to XMP Media Management metadata, it's not much use if other software (DAM, Windows File Explorer, etc.) is looking for that metadata in the below metadata tag instead and therefore doesn't read it.

[IFD0] Software

Screenshot:

 

[Greyfox]

@R C-R @Ron P.

Thanks for your input.

I am aware of Affinity's use of the xmpMM:SoftwareAgent tag but unfortunately that tag isn't recognized by my asset management software. The more commonly used EXIF IFD Software TAG 305 is. and Tag 305 is supposed to be updated when the image has been rotated, trimmed or retouched.

 

[Greyfox]

3 minutes ago, - S - said:

While there is nothing wrong with adding it to XMP Media Management metadata, it's not much use if other software (DAM, Windows File Explorer, etc.) is looking for that metadata in the below metadata tag instead and therefore doesn't read it.

That is exactly my problem.  What I don't know is why Affinity is not updating TAG 135. Is it not working as it should, is it an oversight or is it by intention.
Only Serif Developers would know.