Someone suggested I change the name in the EXIF data embedded in photos I uploaded to Flickr. How do I do that?
David England, Greater Manchester
Brian Says… EOS cameras have an option to add the photographer name and a copyright notice to each picture taken by the camera. You can change this text from the camera menus. The two fields – Author and Copyright – are standard EXIF/IPTC metadata entries and are read by most common software, as well as some online photo sharing sites.
I do suggest that you check these fields, especially if you purchase a used camera, as your photos could have the previous owner’s information embedded in them.
In addition to the copyright notice, every EOS also has a special owner’s name entry that can only be set or reset using EOS Utility. This is not commonly displayed by most software, and is not cleared, even when the camera is reset to factory default settings using the Clear All Camera Settings option. If you purchase a second-hand camera then I would check this field also by connecting the camera to EOS Utility.
The EOS 5D Mark IV and EOS-1D X Mark II also have an extended set of 39 standard metadata fields that might be set in a camera. The content of these fields must be set from EOS Utility. Once the values are set you need to turn on Add IPTC Info in the camera’s custom functions.
Whenever you acquire a camera from a previous owner it is always a good idea to reset the camera to factory default settings. Clear All Camera Settings is a good start, but you should also clear all the custom functions, the copyright information, custom shooting modes, IPTC info, owner’s name and Wi-fi settings.