Getting "Date taken" of the photo instead of "Modified date" with PHP exif_read_data

Question

I get the creation date from the photo using the exif_read_data PHP function (see code below). Dates obtained from photos that have not been changed return "Date taken." Those that have been changed - "Date changed." Is there a way to get the date when the photo was taken, ignoring the "Date modified" field?

$exif_data = exif_read_data ($filename); if (!empty($exif_data['DateTime'])) { $exif_date = $exif_data['DateTime']; } 

Thanks.

Edit: I think $ exif_data ['DateTime'] uses the first available date field. Since the unchanged images had the same meaning for “Date Modified” and “Date Taken”, in my case it always retrieved “Date Modified”.

Answer 1

Ok, I know this is a little late since this question was posted a year ago, but I am posting this answer because I had the same question and my husband showed me a trick or two on how to get the answer, therefore I am sharing this. Write a php script to print the exif_read_data array and you will find all kinds of interesting information. This (below) was printed on the command line on stdout using print_r (). If you scroll down, you will see two very interesting keys: [DateTime] => 2011: 06: 21 17:50:57 and [DateTimeOriginal] => 2011: 06: 04 08:56:22

I hope this helps you get what you need.

 Array
 (
     [FileName] => Pirate (F) .JPG
     [FileDateTime] => 1405733742
     [FileSize] => 4017033
     [FileType] => 2
     [MimeType] => image / jpeg
     [SectionsFound] => ANY_TAG, IFD0, THUMBNAIL, COMMENT, EXIF
     [COMPUTED] => Array
         (
             [html] => width = "2592" height = "3888"
             [Height] => 3888
             [Width] => 2592
             [IsColor] => 1
             [ByteOrderMotorola] => 1
             [ApertureFNumber] => f / 16.0
             [Thumbnail.FileType] => 2
             [Thumbnail.MimeType] => image / jpeg
         )

     [Make] => Canon
     [Model] => Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS
     [Orientation] => 1
     [XResolution] => 4718592/65536
     [YResolution] => 4718592/65536
     [ResolutionUnit] => 2
     [Software] => QuickTime 7.6.9
     [DateTime] => 2011: 06: 21 17:50:57
     [HostComputer] => Mac OS X 10.5.8
     [YCbCrPositioning] => 1
     [Exif_IFD_Pointer] => 260
     [THUMBNAIL] => Array
         (
             [Compression] => 6
             [XResolution] => 4718592/65536
             [YResolution] => 4718592/65536
             [ResolutionUnit] => 2
             [JPEGInterchangeFormat] => 628
             [JPEGInterchangeFormatLength] => 4867
             [YCbCrPositioning] => 1
         )

     [COMMENT] => Array
         (
             [0] => AppleMark

         )

     [ExposureTime] => 1/200
     [FNumber] => 16/1
     [ExposureProgram] => 2
     [ISOSpeedRatings] => 400
     [ExifVersion] => 0220
     [DateTimeOriginal] => 2011: 06: 04 08:56:22
     [DateTimeDigitized] => 2011: 06: 04 08:56:22
     [ShutterSpeedValue] => 499712/65536
     [ApertureValue] => 524288/65536
     [ExposureBiasValue] => 0/1
     [MeteringMode] => 5
     [Flash] => 9
     [FocalLength] => 18/1
     [ColorSpace] => 1
 )

Answer 2

The solution is simpler than I thought. I meant the wrong tag. To get the date of use, use:

$ exif_data ['Fractions of seconds of the original time'];

Answer 3

 echo "test1.jpg:<br />\n"; $exif = exif_read_data('tests/test1.jpg', 'IFD0'); echo $exif===false ? "No header data found.<br />\n" : "Image contains headers<br />\n"; $exif = exif_read_data('tests/test2.jpg', 0, true); echo "test2.jpg:<br />\n"; foreach ($exif as $key => $section) { foreach ($section as $name => $val) { echo "$key.$name: $val<br />\n"; } } 

displays

 test1.jpg: No header data found. test2.jpg: FILE.FileName: test2.jpg FILE.FileDateTime: 1017666176 FILE.FileSize: 1240 FILE.FileType: 2 FILE.SectionsFound: ANY_TAG, IFD0, THUMBNAIL, COMMENT COMPUTED.html: width="1" height="1" COMPUTED.Height: 1 COMPUTED.Width: 1 COMPUTED.IsColor: 1 COMPUTED.ByteOrderMotorola: 1 COMPUTED.UserComment: Exif test image. COMPUTED.UserCommentEncoding: ASCII COMPUTED.Copyright: Photo (c) M.Boerger, Edited by M.Boerger. COMPUTED.Copyright.Photographer: Photo (c) M.Boerger COMPUTED.Copyright.Editor: Edited by M.Boerger. IFD0.Copyright: Photo (c) M.Boerger IFD0.UserComment: ASCII THUMBNAIL.JPEGInterchangeFormat: 134 THUMBNAIL.JPEGInterchangeFormatLength: 523 COMMENT.0: Comment #1. COMMENT.1: Comment #2. COMMENT.2: Comment #3end THUMBNAIL.JPEGInterchangeFormat: 134 THUMBNAIL.Thumbnail.Height: 1 THUMBNAIL.Thumbnail.Height: 1 

source http://php.net/manual/en/function.exif-read-data.php

Answer 4

In the image file directory (IFD), there is DateTime information in which the data structure in EXIF is repeated . To get the shooting date and present the object as the source php DateTime , you should get it from the right IFD section:

 <?php $filename = "/path/to/your/image.jpg"; $exifData = exif_read_data( $filename, 'IFD0'); $takenDate = NULL; if( $exifData !== FALSE ) { if( array_key_exists('DateTime', $exifData ) ) { $takenDate = new DateTime( $exifData['DateTime'] ); } else { // No DateTime field available } } else { // No exif data available } 

After that, you can simply check the exif DateTime data:

 is_null( $takenDate ); 

Answer 5

Not sure where you got the information, but exif information depends on the image or the captured device. Even if its modified exif may be alternating

Example

 array (size=7) 'FileName' => string 'img.jpg' (length=7) 'FileDateTime' => int 1332747844 'FileSize' => int 22569 'FileType' => int 2 'MimeType' => string 'image/jpeg' (length=10) 'SectionsFound' => string 'IFD0' (length=4) 'COMPUTED' => array (size=5) 'html' => string 'width="338" height="506"' (length=24) 'Height' => int 506 'Width' => int 338 'IsColor' => int 1 'ByteOrderMotorola' => int 0 

This is valid exif information, but does not include

• Datetime
• Datetaken
• Datemodified
• Fractions of seconds of the original time
• Fractions of seconds of time

You really need to rethink your strategy and work with FileDateTime , this is the only information that is always present