# Exiftool GUI help please.



## Valvebounce (Sep 3, 2016)

Hi Folks. 
I am trying to find the focal lengths I most commonly use, having tried Exposure Plot and found it only supports jpeg format, as I'm working on raw files I'm now trying to use Exiftool GUI so far so good except the preset focal length tool maxes out at 300mm, as I often use an EF 70-200 f2.8II with 2xIII and a Σ150-500 I'm missing out on some data. 
So, the question is does anyone know a way to increase the 300mm limit to enable the 500mm lens to be taken in to account. Alternately something else that can show me this, please don't say Lightroom, (or other paid application) I can't buy in to that. 
I already found a script to put in Exiftool which was supposed to do this but it just closed Exiftool, there ends my ability to work in command prompt! :'(

Thanks for your expertise and time. 

Cheers, Graham.


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## kaihp (Sep 3, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Folks.
> I am trying to find the focal lengths I most commonly use, having tried Exposure Plot and found it only supports jpeg format, as I'm working on raw files I'm now trying to use Exiftool GUI so far so good except the preset focal length tool maxes out at 300mm, as I often use an EF 70-200 f2.8II with 2xIII and a Σ150-500 I'm missing out on some data.
> So, the question is does anyone know a way to increase the 300mm limit to enable the 500mm lens to be taken in to account. Alternately something else that can show me this, please don't say Lightroom, (or other paid application) I can't buy in to that.
> I already found a script to put in Exiftool which was supposed to do this but it just closed Exiftool, there ends my ability to work in command prompt! :'(
> ...



Graham,

If you say "exiftool -focallengh -csv [directoryname] > file.csv" you'll get a CSV-formatted file you can open in Excel (or LibreOffice or whatever). It'll contain a single line per image telling which image and what focal length it was shot at.

If you want more data (like shutter and f-stop), just add them to the command line. For example,
"exiftool -focallength -exposuretime -fnumber -csv [directoryname] > file.csv"

Since version 10.23, it can also decode most-to-all AF Config settings.

Let me know if you need more help


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## Valvebounce (Sep 3, 2016)

Hi Kai. 
Thank you, I will try this shortly, I might be able to copy and paste this in to the Exiftool command box. I will let you know how I go. 

Cheers, Graham.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 3, 2016)

It's easy in LR to get statistics like this, even if you are not a LR user, you can install it for a limited time to try. You have a ton of ways to filter information.

One bug in the software does not count use of TC's when looking at overall data, but it does calculate it correctly when you filter by lens and click on a lens plus TC combo, so I have 23 images at 1200 mm.

Another gotcha is when you use stacked TC's, it does not recognize that, so it will detect only the TC attached directly to the camera and not a additional TC stacked. I do not believe any metadata records that.


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## TeT (Sep 3, 2016)

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

I use this one (I think) if you private message me I can email you, the EXE file that I use. Anyways... it reads my 70 300 + extenders both JPG & CR2


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## Valvebounce (Sep 4, 2016)

Hi TeT. 
This is the Exiftool I am trying to use, I get nothing opening the Exiftool exe which gives me a command prompt box with Exiftool in, copying the text that Kai gave me, tried directoryname with or without the [], even down to a single folder with CR2 files, all that happens is the command box closes. 
If I open command prompt and paste in Kai's line I get "Exiftool is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. "
I do however get an empty 0kb csv file saved in my documents file! 
I really have no clue with stuff that doesn't install to Windows program directory! :-[
I can tell you my programming tutor told me I was computer illiterate when I was starting my engineering qualifications, mainly why I went mechanical rather than electronic engineering! 

Cheers, Graham. 




TeT said:


> http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
> 
> I use this one (I think) if you private message me I can email you, the EXE file that I use. Anyways... it reads my 70 300 + extenders both JPG & CR2


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## privatebydesign (Sep 4, 2016)

Do you use Lightroom?


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## kaihp (Sep 4, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi TeT.
> This is the Exiftool I am trying to use, I get nothing opening the Exiftool exe which gives me a command prompt box with Exiftool in, copying the text that Kai gave me, tried directoryname with or without the [], even down to a single folder with CR2 files, all that happens is the command box closes.
> If I open command prompt and paste in Kai's line I get "Exiftool is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. "
> I do however get an empty 0kb csv file saved in my documents file!
> ...



Graham, which ExifTool GUI are you using? - I'm using exiftool as a command-line tool (on Linux), so it might be that you have to write something like "exiftool.exe -focallength" or even first change directory to where the exiftool is installed - something like "cd c:\Program Files (x86)\ExifTool" and then "exiftool.exe -focallength c:\path\to\pictures > c:\path\to\pictures\focallength.csv"


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## Valvebounce (Sep 4, 2016)

Hi Kai. 
I'm using the GUI linked to from the Exiftool page, don't remember the name, but it also is not an installed program, it open when you click it and opens Exiftool tool if they are in the same folder. I tried using the info you gave me in a command prompt box, did a bit of googlenostics and tried adding the path to the software, adding exe, I've downloaded perl as it seems thi helps from what I read but now I'm stumped and away from the PCs for the day, sitting in a field at a country show showing cars and watching people. 

Cheers, Graham. 



kaihp said:


> Valvebounce said:
> 
> 
> > Hi TeT.
> ...


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## kaihp (Sep 4, 2016)

Graham,

No worries for you being away from the computer. So have I 
I downloaded the exiftool and ran it to see what's up.

Ooookay. It is because the author of exiftool is trying to be nice and clever, which for you turns out to be dumb and stupid*.

Do this:
1) Find the place you downloaded and extracted the tool.
2) Rename the exe file from "exiftool(-k).exe" to "exiftool.exe"
3) _Now_ you can open a command shell (Windows-R and type "cmd"), change to the right directory, and run the exiftool command.

I put the exiftool.exe in my Downloads folder, so I ended up doing:

```
cd Downloads
exiftool -focallength ..\Documents\Foto\Focal\5D3\24-70mm_f2.8L\24mm_4.5mm\_MG_4233.CR2
```

Hope that you enjoyed the country show.

*) The tool works differently when it's named "exiftool(-k).exe" than when it's named "exiftool.exe". The "(-k)" variant allows you to do drag-and-drop into the window, which is nice for single images, but is exactly what you do not want.


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## Valvebounce (Sep 4, 2016)

Hi Kai. 
Many thanks, I will try this later, visiting mum now. 
Yes thank you we did enjoy the country show, took lots of shots of the falconry, hoping for some keepers, I think my camera was struggling, (I was certainly struggling to follow it) I think most cameras would have trouble tracking a peregrine swooping in coming straight at me chasing a lure! 

Cheers, Graham. 



kaihp said:


> Graham,
> 
> No worries for you being away from the computer. So have I
> I downloaded the exiftool and ran it to see what's up.
> ...


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## Orangutan (Sep 5, 2016)

kaihp said:


> Do this:
> 1) Find the place you downloaded and extracted the tool.
> 2) Rename the exe file from "exiftool(-k).exe" to "exiftool.exe"
> 3) _Now_ you can open a command shell (Windows-R and type "cmd"), change to the right directory, and run the exiftool command.
> ...



I just did a bit of experimenting, and I'd like to offer some additional information. You may want to include the "-csv" command-line switch to output data in CSV format so you can import into a spreadsheet. Also, based on this web page

http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/45118/when-using-a-teleconverter-on-a-canon-dslr-what-happens-to-exif-data

if you use a Canon Extender, it will adjust the metadata to account for it so you should get correct values.


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## Valvebounce (Sep 5, 2016)

Hi Folks. 
I thank you all for your valiant attempts to get me through this, I did manage to get a csv file output but I could only get a reading from jpeg files, showed Exiftool cr2 files from 7DII and 40D and all I got was a files found 08 files unread 08. When I showed it jpegs it gave me files found 15 files read 15 produced a csv file with file name location etc but no focal length data. I'm 90 percent certain I haven't stripped the exif data unless it was accidental, I'm going to go back and look at that but I have shutdown the pc and reverted to my iPad to reply here. 
Another thing, I could also only get it to look in files directly containing images, I was hoping to show it the top tier and have it look in subfolders. 
Much as it goes against my feelings of right and wrong I think I may download Lightroom and use it to get to the answer I need, despite having no intention to purchase or rent it afterwards, before it is too late to act on the info. 

Cheers, Graham.


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## Valvebounce (Sep 5, 2016)

Hi Orangutan. 
Thanks for the link, interesting. Also the tip to add the csv switch though I had noticed it was missing and put it in. 

Cheers, Graham. 



Orangutan said:


> kaihp said:
> 
> 
> > Do this:
> ...


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## Orangutan (Sep 5, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Another thing, I could also only get it to look in files directly containing images, I was hoping to show it the top tier and have it look in subfolders.



If you're willing to work through a bit more command-line fu, you can get the command-prompt to recursively descend your file tree and invoke exiftool to generate output from all of your files. It'll probably cost you about 15 minutes additional experimenting.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8397674/windows-batch-file-looping-through-directories-to-process-files


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## Valvebounce (Sep 5, 2016)

Hi Orangutan. 
I have read the page you sent, and followed the link to syntax, I'm not sure I should have done that as my brain is now melted down, so confusing to the computer illiterate! I will have another try later as it would be nice to say I got it to work you got it to work by guiding me there! Seriously, it would feel like a real achievement to have this working. 

Cheers, Graham. 



Orangutan said:


> Valvebounce said:
> 
> 
> > Another thing, I could also only get it to look in files directly containing images, I was hoping to show it the top tier and have it look in subfolders.
> ...


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## Orangutan (Sep 5, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Orangutan.
> I have read the page you sent, and followed the link to syntax, I'm not sure I should have done that as my brain is now melted down, so confusing to the computer illiterate! I will have another try later as it would be nice to say I got it to work you got it to work by guiding me there! Seriously, it would feel like a real achievement to have this working.
> 
> Cheers, Graham.
> ...



Sorry, I wasn't sure of your level of computing comfort. I hope to have a few minutes to try this later today; I'll post results.


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## Orangutan (Sep 5, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Orangutan.
> I have read the page you sent, and followed the link to syntax, I'm not sure I should have done that as my brain is now melted down, so confusing to the computer illiterate! I will have another try later as it would be nice to say I got it to work you got it to work by guiding me there! Seriously, it would feel like a real achievement to have this working.
> 
> Cheers, Graham.
> ...



Turned out to be much easier than I thought, the feature is built into ExifTool. Just add the -r and -q options.

"exiftool(-k).exe" -r -q -csv -FocalLength <_root folder_> >results.csv


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## kaihp (Sep 5, 2016)

Valvebounce said:


> I could only get a reading from jpeg files, showed Exiftool cr2 files from 7DII and 40D and all I got was a files found 08 files unread 08.



Graham,

Good to hear that you're starting to get some tracktion, but it is very odd that you can't get it to read a cr2 file.
I have used it on both cr2's and jpg's without problems.

I just checked up against the files that I have, and I was able to get Focal Length data from the following EOS cameras: 1Ds, 10D, 1D2n, 50D, 7D, 1Dx, 5D3, 5Ds.

This is with version 10.10 on Linux, though (the latest Windows version you have should be v10.25 and even better). Could you try bringing up just one of the CR2's that you can't get FocalLength info from in DPP/Photoshop or whatever you use, and confirm that the EXIF information is there?

Kai


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