In a digital world where we take more photos than ever before, metadata is what makes it possible to keep track of our ever-growing image archives. Whether you are a photographer, a marketer, or simply have thousands of mobile photos, metadata is the backbone of image organization.
Metadata simply means “data about data.” For images, it refers to the information hidden behind the actual image, such as the time it was taken, where in the world you were, which camera settings were used, and who owns the rights.
And even if you have never looked at the metadata in your photos, you are using it all the time: when you search for an image in the cloud, sort by date, or let an app recognize places and people.
This article takes a closer look at this fascinating topic that is crucial for how we use and organize digital images.
Types of metadata
Many attempts have been made to categorize metadata into types and categories. Many of these attempts are variations of the classification by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), a non-commercial organization that develops technical standards for information management. NISO operates with the following types of metadata: Descriptive, Administrative, Structural, and Markup Languages.
| Overview of types of metadata (Source: National Information Standards Organization) | |
| Descriptive metadata | For finding and understanding data. E.g. Title, author, description |
| Administrative metadata: – Technical metadata – Preservation metadata – Rights metadata | For administrating a data source. – For decoding and rendering files. E.g. file type, creation date – Long-term management of files. E.g. Checksum – Intellectual property rights. E.g. Creative commons |
| Structural metadata | Describes relationships between parts of the data. E.g. Page numbers |
| Markup languages | Integrates metadata with content and marks structural or semantic functions in the content. E.g. HTML |
Descriptive metadata
Descriptive metadata are typically used to find and identify data and include information such as title, description, and keywords.
Administrative metadata
Administrative metadata contain information that helps manage a data source and consist of three subcategories:
1. Technical metadata
This includes automatically generated information such as file type or the time a file was created. This is information necessary to decode and display a file. For example, a computer needs to know the file type of a file to open it with the correct software.
2. Preservation metadata
Preservation metadata contains information to preserve and ensure a resource over time. This often includes a checksum or hash—unique “codes” calculated based on the file’s binary data using specific algorithms. These codes function as a digital fingerprint for the file, allowing you to verify that it has not been corrupted, altered during storage, or tampered with during transmission.
3. Rights metadata
Rights metadata explain which intellectual property rights apply to a resource, such as Creative Commons licenses or Copyright.
Structural metadata
Structural metadata describe how parts of an object are organized in relation to each other – or how they are structured. An example most people are familiar with is page numbers in a book. Here, the page numbers are metadata that indicate how the pages are structured in relation to one another.
Markup languages
The last type of metadata, markup languages, is a bit different from the others. Traditionally, metadata can be described as information about content that is found outside of the content itself. For example, you won’t find the filename of an image file within the image itself.
Markup languages, on the other hand, mix metadata and content together. If we use a book as an example again, you can imagine a word printed in bold or italicized to indicate that it has a special meaning in the text. This is using a markup language to tag content with metadata.
Standardization of image metadata
For metadata to work across systems, there are standards that define how the information should be structured. Many different standards have been created for various applications. For photography, EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is one of the most widely used standards.
EXIF provides details about camera settings, such as camera model, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and GPS coordinates. This automatic metadata makes it easier for photographers to recreate the conditions under which a photo was taken.
In addition to automatically generated metadata, EXIF allows for manually generated metadata that the user can add, either in the camera settings or in programs like Adobe Lightroom. This includes data such as title, description, hashtags, credit, and copyright.
How metadata gives you control over your images
Metadata makes it possible to find exactly the image you need. Whether you are looking for images from a specific project, a given location, or only those taken with a particular camera, metadata helps you navigate through the vast collection of images.
For professional photographers, metadata is a tool for analyzing lighting conditions and camera settings. For marketing departments, metadata means being able to search for, for example, all images with a logo in a winter landscape or filter by theme and usage rights.
For companies and organizations that work with large image archives, effective use of metadata is a necessity. Such organizations often have hundreds of thousands of images to be used for countless purposes. Without metadata, it would be a lost cause to try to navigate the vast collection of images on the organization’s hard drives and cloud storages.
The future, challenges, and opportunities
With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, metadata has gained an even more important role in the development of new technologies. AI systems rely on metadata to train models, optimize algorithms, and deliver more accurate results. Metadata is used to identify patterns and relationships in large datasets, enabling AI to understand complex connections.
The development of the semantic web is another forward-looking application of metadata. Here, metadata is used to make information on the internet more meaningful for machines, enabling them to understand context and perform complex tasks on our behalf. Imagine a future where your digital assistant can plan a vacation by booking flights, finding hotels, and suggesting activities based on your preferences—all made possible by metadata that connects data from various sources.
At the same time, metadata also raises significant challenges, especially regarding privacy and data security. Metadata can contain sensitive information, such as geographic location, browsing history, and personal preferences, which can be used to track or identify individuals. This has led to increased focus on how metadata is stored, processed, and shared to protect users’ rights and prevent misuse.
But metadata primarily represents opportunities! It is the glue that holds modern digital ecosystems together and the key to effective image organization. Metadata’s role in bridging the gap between information and insight makes it an indispensable resource in an increasingly complex digital world.
In Imageshop we have a proactive relationship to metadate, and you can read about how we help our customers take advantage of metadata in this blog post.
