# Removing EXIF copyright data



## R G Firth (Jun 21, 2019)

Is there any easy way to remove copyright data from all LR images that have been taken by me when at home?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 21, 2019)

Select all the images, remove the copyright data from the most selected one, then synchronize metadata and select the copyright field(s) only.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 22, 2019)

Johan Elzenga said:


> Select all the images, remove the copyright data from the most selected one, then synchronize metadata and select the copyright field(s) only.


Or just select them in Grid view and any metadata changes will be applied to all selected without needing to synchronize.


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## R G Firth (Jun 22, 2019)

Johan Elzenga said:


> Select all the images, remove the copyright data from the most selected one, then synchronize metadata and select the copyright field(s) only.


Many thanks for your help John.  It's simple when you know how.
Richard


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jul 2, 2019)

This may be obvious but since I do not know your needs -- if you have stored copyright data in the raw image in-camera, the above only removes it from images exported from lightroom, not the raw image itself.  If your need is to actually remove it from the raw image, you need a different tool.  If your original image is a jpg, I think you can "write metadata" after doing the above and it will remove it from the jpg, though I have never tried it.

This is all moot if you do not store copyright in-camera but do so on import into lightroom -- that (for raw) only writes it into the catalog and/or xmp. But camera-written copyrights are harder to completely remove.


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## R G Firth (Jul 3, 2019)

Ferguson said:


> This may be obvious but since I do not know your needs -- if you have stored copyright data in the raw image in-camera, the above only removes it from images exported from lightroom, not the raw image itself.  If your need is to actually remove it from the raw image, you need a different tool.  If your original image is a jpg, I think you can "write metadata" after doing the above and it will remove it from the jpg, though I have never tried it.
> 
> This is all moot if you do not store copyright in-camera but do so on import into lightroom -- that (for raw) only writes it into the catalog and/or xmp. But camera-written copyrights are harder to completely remove.


Many thanks for your remarks.
I don't use the in-camera method of setting up copyright data.  I have always added the latter when importing images into LR, or when bringing them into LR from iView Media Pro.  I won't be able to use the latter in the very near future because Apple are killing 32-bit apps.  I have often preferred in the past to do my initial sorting & keywording in iVMP because I find the latter to be much easier to use for my own very cumbersome way of storing images (often taken by different members of the family) in the correct numbered filename order.
The original question about removing copyright data emanated from an article by an experienced  photographer who recommended that it was inadvisable to store address data for any digital images taken when at home.
Thank you very much for your help.

Richard Firth


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jul 3, 2019)

R G Firth said:


> I don't use the in-camera method of setting up copyright data..... I have often preferred in the past to do my initial sorting & keywording in iVMP because I find the latter to be much easier to use....The original question about removing copyright data emanated from an article by an experienced  photographer who recommended that it was inadvisable to store address data for any digital images taken when at home.


I use Photo Mechanic for initial culling nad review for similar reasons, though I do let the camera store the copyright so it will be in the raw file itself.

To the latter, the copyright data is stored separately from GPS data, which is also separate from address data.  It's possible to control (and erase) such information more precisely, for example if you change the metadata pane on the library page to "location" you can see all the location related fields.

Copyright data for most hobbyists is not critical, few will ever feel a need to go after someone for using our photos.  But I think it is generally a good idea to retain a digital copyright in images just in case, because it (a) takes up very little room and can be added more or less automagically, and (b) you never know and may one day want to show that particular image file was yours.  Who knows, your great, great, great grandchild one day may be sorting through digital images and find it helpful to know who took it.

Back to the "in camera" issue though -- it is also worth noting that some cameras automatically store GPS data, if a GPS is included.   While LR will remove that from the derived images (exports, published) it is baked into the raw image and can be removed only by turning that feature off in-camera, or by third party tools that can affect raw image data.  Lightroom can automatically turn GPS data into locataion data as well (e.g. city names) and then store the extra location data in the derived image without you even realizing it (but you can see it and take it out as above).


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