Metadata and Digital Photography

Abstract

Metadata is usually described as data about data. More accurately defined, metadata is data that contains information about other data-so-called primary data or a resource for future retrieval needs. Metadata relates to primary data by describing and referencing it. This description provides information that is not apparent from the primary data itself. It makes the primary data meaningful and useful. For example, the metadata associated with digital photography is usually not pictorial data embedded in the image file. It could provide information about its creator, about its copyright protection, about the equipment used during the shot, about its contents, about its file format, etc. A picture stored in a computer system can contain metadata about the file in the filename, the file path, a database entry, or a header tag, as well as other metadata.