Need a Mac EXIF stripper

[Jimbo-C]

Does anyone know of a good mac program that will strip the EXIF info from a photo?

I know if you do Save for the Web in Photoshop it does it, but I need the files completely untouched except for the removal of the EXIF information.


TIA

[Comandante Batuta]

Jimbo... I think you are in the wrong forum for that. I mean, there are thousands of those places to find a good stripper. Heck, I wish I was up to date on that kind of stuff as I was when I was in college. I don't know if these strippers are Mac users but could give them a try: http://superstarstrippers.com
I am not associated with them in any form other than being acquainted with the owners.

[Otto Boners]

How about Chesty Morgan?

[Mike G]

There's probably something out there, but you can Google it as well as I can.

The only thing that comes to mind is to copy the photo to the clipboard in Photoshop, create a new blank document that is the same dimension as the photo (the default will be the size of the image in the clipboard) and copy the original image into it and then flatten and save. It would be easy to create an action for this and batch process a number of them. You could do it with one image manually while you use the record feature of the action palette to create the action.

**Disclaimer: this is not a step-by-step "how to".

[Jimbo-C]

I'll google it, but I figured someone here would have know this off the top of their head.

I can't do the clipboard thing Mike. I have hundreds of photos.

[Jimbo-C]

Those must keep her feet warm in the winter now.

How about Chesty Morgan?

[Mike G]

I can't do the clipboard thing Mike. I have hundreds of photos.

That's why I mentioned creating an action of it and batch processing a bunch at a time. You only have to do it once by hand if you record what you're doing in an action. Then you just go under File > Automate > Batch... and pick your action. It will automatically open all the images in a folder you designate, perform the action, save them to a different folder you designate, and go on to the next file.

[Comandante Batuta]

I can't do the clipboard thing Mike. I have hundreds of photos.

That's why I mentioned creating an action of it and batch processing a bunch at a time. You only have to do it once by hand if you record what you're doing in an action. Then you just go under File > Automate > Batch... and pick your action. It will automatically open all the images in a folder you designate, perform the action, save them to a different folder you designate, and go on to the next file.

Mike, kindly give Jimbo the step by step sequence. Maybe he will condescend and do it.

[Jimbo-C]

You guys have to realize what is simple to you is anything but simple to others. You many quote me on that.

[Pops]

Jimbo... I think you are in the wrong forum for that.

He's just trying to help Matt grow the AS membership.

[Mike G]

OK, here's a step by step (I assume no responsibilities for lost or damaged work!). I have PS CS2 in front of me at the moment so this is what I'm using.

Before you start create 2 folders: One with some copies of the images you want to strip, and another empty folder which is where you will put your stripped images.

1. Open an image
2. Go to the Actions tab and click the little right-facing triangle in the upper right and select "New Action..."
3. In the dialog box that comes up, give your action a name, and then hit "Record".
4. Go to the image you opened in step #1 and hit Cmd-A, then Cmd-C, then Cmd -N (for new file), then hit the return button when the image dialog box comes up.
5. Cmd-V to paste the image into the new window
6. Go to the layers palette and click the little triangle in the upper right and select "Flatten Image"
7. Go to the Actions palette and click the little triangle in the upper right and select "Stop Recording".
8. Close both the images you have open and don't save the new one you created because you don't need it.

Now you have your action. Now, instead of using the batch processor I mentioned before, we're going to use the "Scripts" menu.

1. Go to File>Scripts>Image Processor
2. In step 1 of the resultant dialog box pick "Select Folder" and navigate to the folder of the originals
3. In step 2 do the same for the destination folder (empty folder you created earlier)
4. In step 3 pick the file type you want to save the new images to
5. In step 4 pick the action you created earlier
6. Probably do check the box for "Include ICC profile"
7. Click "Run" in the upper right

That's it. The one thing is, when the script runs, it doesn't close the original image automatically so I'd only process 20 or 30 at a time rather than hundreds. Maybe someone knows of a way to get the original image to close automatically.

[Jimbo-C]

Thanks Mike. I will attempt it this weekend. You have insurance, right?

[Keef]

Jimbo, I KNOW you don't want to actually LEARN anything here ( ), but this is how I'd do it. More of a pain in the ass initially than Mike's method, but once you're done setting it up, it's just drag and drop. In addition, it is non-destructive to your images, unlike re-saving as a jpeg.

1. Download ExifTool – yes, this is a command line application, run from the Terminal. Relax, this is not the way you'll be using it. Once your download is completed, install it, it's just a simple, standard, double-click installer. As with any installer, you'll have to type your admin password.
   
   
2. Next, go here, and download Tierprogramm. Just click on the picture to download the latest version.
   
   
   
   
3. Unzip the file, and launch the Tierprogramm app by double-clicking on it:
   
   
   
   
4. The ONLY thing you're going to do now is set a few preferences. Go to the file menu, and select Preferences:
   
   
   
   
5. Under the "Behaviour" tab, select "Skip Welcome Message", "Disable really execute question" and "Quit after processing" – just like the picture below:
   
   
   
   
6. Don't make any changes to the the "General", "Read", and "Write" tabs. Just leave 'em be.
   
   
7. Under the "Delete" tab, select "Delete all EXIF informations", just like this:
   
   
   
8. Click the "Save" button in the bottom right-hand corner of the window, and from the hit Command-Q to quit the Tierprogramm app.

If you've done this correctly, you'll never have to worry about anything more complicated than drag and drop.

Test:

1. Select a bunch of jpegs in the Finder (unfortunately, you can't drag and drop a folder).
   
   
2. Drag the jpegs onto the Tierprogramm icon. If you get any dialog boxes, just click "okay" – sometimes I get a "growl" notifier, just ignore it.
   
   
3. Your EXIF data has now been removed.

You can double check to make sure your EXIF data is gone by using the free EXIF Viewer 2.6. Simply drag and drop photos onto the app icon to see their EXIF data.

If set up correctly, that should do ya. Drag and drop, and non-destructive to the images.

[Keef]

BEFORE Tierprogramm:



AFTER Tierprogramm:

[Mike G]

I'd do what Keef suggests unless you just want to learn about PS actions. On the plus side for actions and the scripts menu in PS, you can automate any number of repetitive tasks to your images beside stripping exif data.

[Jimbo-C]

I need beer.

Thanks Keef.

"Jimbo, I KNOW you don't want to actually LEARN anything here"


You know me too well

[Keef]

Here's a Photoshop script:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/i ... id=1043755

You can throw it into an action as well, but again – you'd be saving over each image again, reducing its quality.

[Mike G]

You can throw it into an action as well, but again – you'd be saving over each image again, reducing its quality.

With the image processor, you can save the image out as an uncompressed psd or tiff instead of a jpg. But, as you mention, if you need the final to be jpg, then you just need to be able strip the exif withour resaving the image.

[Keef]

You can throw it into an action as well, but again – you'd be saving over each image again, reducing its quality.

With the image processor, you can save the image out as an uncompressed psd or tiff instead of a jpg. But, as you mention, if you need the final to be jpg, then you just need to be able strip the exif withour resaving the image.

True, dat.

[Jimbo-C]

Help...

I open Tierprogram and a window pops up... Applications... and it say "Where is GrowlHelperApp.app?" I have no idea what that is? I did a search and I nothing shows up.