How to show exif quickly on Mac

blackstar

Senior Member
Hi,

Not sure if post this question at the right place, please direct me if wrong place. Q: once photo files are transferred to a Mac machine, what is the quickest way to show EXIF info? I found that I can right-click the photo file and select "get info" to show "just some" exif like below:
Screenshot 2020-07-17 10.31.28.png

There lack iso, aperture, etc. only "exposure program" is shown as a number. I wonder if I am doing it in the right way? Or it is the limitation of mac system? Any help, thanks.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Looks like aperture is f/8, shutter 1/250", focal length 20mm. Don't see any ISO. An alternate image viewer would probably display the info differently.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
There's a free app in the App store for Mac... It's called "Raw Right Away"... Install it on your Mac...

From there, you just use the Mac Finder, select a NEF or any other image file, and hit the space bar... The image is shown (the embedded jpg), a screen of EXIF data, and a screen of Histograms...

It's one of those programs that once you use on a Mac, makes it impossible to go to a system without it...:) "I garonteeee"
 

blackstar

Senior Member
Hi Fred,

The RRA app does not work for me!
:frown-new:




When selecting image file in Finder, hitting spacebar only brings up a preview showing the whole image without thumbnails and other exif data. Have emailed RRA for solution or refund.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
You need to tick a bunch of boxes in the preferences screen...

When you get the Preview, scroll down for the other screens
 
Last edited:

blackstar

Senior Member
Thanks, Fred.

There is nowhere to scroll in Preview as what I got:
Screenshot 2020-07-17 18.35.06.jpg

Any idea?
RRA.com responded to my email and stated that "... the most common reason is that Apple's Launch Services database has not updated. The fix is to reboot your computer." It's not the right time for me to reboot cause it takes a long long time to do so. Maybe I'll do it later and find out if it works. But I kind of doubt about the real issue here: it seems my mac doesn't show nef file in Preview app and so not in RRA either. Not even in Finder. I can only get to see in Darktable.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Yeah...that isn’t right... can you post a screen shot of RRA’s preference screen...let me see what all you’ve got checked compared to mine
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I set my preferences the same as yours and mine works fine. I suspect, you might need to re-boot your computer to see if that's the problem...
 

blackstar

Senior Member
Hi Fred,

I think my old mac (OSX 10.11.6, early 09) had some underline malfunctioning which went beyond Apple's support: 1. Preview app not showing RAW files (Does yours do?), 2. In Finder, it looks like not showing right EXIF data (no iso) when right click on image file (see my first post, how is your system doing this differently?), 3. Safari down (this probably not related). BTW, I have done several reboots (due to other reasons) recently, the abovementioned problems never resolved.

Thank you Fred, please check with your system and confirm the problems above are on my system alone.
 

blackstar

Senior Member
Ok, problem (partially) solved - for the part of viewing Exif from jpg in Preview app (Mac): open image file in Preview > Tools > Show Inspector > i (more info) > Exif

Still puzzled by unable to view RAW file in Preview app.
 

naruse

Senior Member
If you are comfortable using command line tools then ExifTool by Phil Harvey is without equal. It's free and supports the metadata (not just EXIF data but maker notes as well). It also supports a broad range of file formats including NEF. Just to check data it is simple to use but starts to get a little more complicated if you want to start editing the data. I've tried a number of free products and none come anywhere close to ExifTool which I've now been using for years.
 
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