Metadata

[Tormented]

When a captured image, either from smartphone or a camera, then saved to a computer and edited within Photoshop, using many layers, colour mask, overlays, textures, etc;
infact, using every possible effect availabe to edit, change or manipulate the image, will metadata be added automatically ?
Metadata which can reveal all the effects, layers, edits and changes etc, when the image is saved as a JPEG/TIFF/PNG or any other image format ?

 

[CyberNexxus]

Is metadata added automatically? No. Basically if you're asking if you can save your layers and your workflow - essentially all the contents of a PSD file - in a JPG or some other format then the answer once again is no. There is a way to do it with limitations.

If you want to see the contents of a PSD file in a jpeg or another format then the easiest thing to do would be this:
[1] Open Photoshop and the file you want. Fullscreen it.
[2] Hit Print Screen to do a screen capture. Keep Photoshop open.
[3] Open a new document to the desired resolution / dimensions.
[4] Hit Ctrl+V to paste the screen capture in the new document. Resize it if necessary.
[5] Save it as whatever format you want.

All you're really doing is a screen capture and then saving it.

Limitation #1 - It will only capture what is visible. If you have layer groups that are collapsed containing a crap ton of layers then you're going to have to expand the groups. If you're layer styles are collapsed then you will have to expand them as well. However, it will only show the expanded layers, styles and edits that are currently visible in the layer palette. All layers off-screen in the palette won't be captured.

Limitation #2 - Even with Photoshop in fullscreen it's still going to capture everything on your taskbar. If you have a web browser open to Porn Hub or "Free Webcam Girls!" minimized to your taskbar... Yea, it's going to capture that too. Just be aware of that.

 

[Tormented]

CyberNexxus....
Thanks for such a very thorough and knowledgable response, however, I'm still a little confused
The Metadata of a captured image, such as file size/device/time/date/location etc is all automatically embedded into an image when captured, even by the most basic of digital cameras and smartphones (I guess unless device settings prevent this) and such data remain with the captured image.
However, when that image is saved to the computer and opened in its dedicated format in Photoshop, whether jpeg/pnp or whatever, the original Metadata will still be attached & embedded into that image.
If that image is then copied or saved as a Photoshop document, edited, manipulated, including the adding of many layers, mask overlays, text etc and then saved as an image file (jpeg or whatever) are all the edits/alteration & manipulations added to the original Metadata and saved into the image?
Which, when opened from within an email, downloaded & saved from a website or saved onto a memory stick and opened later, are the additional Photoshop edits and manipulation listed within the Metadata; thus, revealing that the image has been doctored ?

 

[CyberNexxus]

Oh, I see where you're going with this now. I really didn't know the end goal at first, but now I do.

I have to say I'm quite intrigued but such an unusual request, however, your answer is no (as far as I can tell).

To illustrate the answer I created a .jpg for one of my current projects and then looked at the metadata (aka the EXIF data) the normal way most people would view it. If someone was looking at the Exif data for an image from an email or a flash drive right clicking on the file then going to Properties--->Details is how they would pull up the info on a windows device.

There are different ways to view the data on a Mac and there are other freeware programs to view Exif data, but they will all tell you the same thing as the details tab.

Note none of the Photoshop alterations were listed in the metadata for these screen captures:



The jpegs were taken from one of my projects which was modified with a lot of layers, styles, etc. Then I decided to look at the Exif data once again, this time with Photoshop:


Photoshop gives you more options and you can pull the raw data from the image, but it's all an XMP. A person would need Photoshop, or some image manipulation software, just to be able to pull up the XMP raw data and unless you're worried about them being a script kiddie who can read and translate XMP then you're in the clear.

I didn't bother to try to translate the XMP, but just by looking at it Photoshop doesn't insert any manipulations into the Exif data as far as I can tell and wouldn't make sense if it did. It would be unnecessary junk space inside the image (my PSD files tend to be 25MB or larger) which would make the file size larger for the jpeg output format and you wouldn't get good compression when saving it.

Of course any graphic designer, photographer, or anyone with a trained eye can spot most manipulations for a doctored photo. So there is that.

 

[Tormented]

CyberNexxus......
Thank you for devoting so much time to my question and providing such a thorough reply.
I really appreciate your reply, thanks.