2008-01-30

Flickr EXIF Search, Part 2

I’ve done a bit of experimentation and learned a few more keywords one can use to search for photos in flickr by their EXIF data. I have also gleaned the pattern that seems to have been used for coming up with the keywords. They appear to be abbreviations.

KeywordMeaningAbbreviation forUnit
xelminimum exposureEXIF exposure lower limitseconds
xehmaximum exposureEXIF exposure higher limitseconds
xflminimum focal lengthEXIF focal length lower limitmilimeters
xfhmaximum focal lengthEXIF focal length higher limitmilimeters
xalminimum apertureEXIF aperture lower limit
f-number
xahmaximum apertureEXIF aperture higher limitf-number

Perhaps there’s a way to specify an exact exposure, focal length, or aperture without having to use both the lower and higher limit keywords together. If so, I haven’t found it yet.

I also haven’t yet figured out how to specify fractional exposure times (shutter speeds of less than one second). It seems to treat all decimal values less than 1 as simply 0. The text displayed above search results is not always correct. For example, when one uses xel or xeh to search for photos taken with fractional exposure times (shutter speeds of less than 1 second), the text displayed above the search results incorrectly rounds the fractional exposure times down to 0. Similarly, when one performs a search using xfl or xfh independently, the wording displayed above the search results does not correctly reflect the way these keywords function. The words shorter and longer are interposed.

Obviously, not all of the kinks have been worked out. Maybe that’s why these keywords remain undocumented. I have started a discussion thread about this in the flickr ideas group.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

The most useful search parameter is CM= which allows you to search images by camera model. I think we should write script for flickr with all these parameters.

Unknown said...

It looks like the xfl and xfl parameters are actually searching on 35mm-film-equivalent focal length.

So passing xfl=50&xfh=50 and expecting to get all the pictures you took at 50mm on your 1.5x crop-factor camera won't work; you'd have to pass xfl=75&xfh=75 instead (75 being the 35mm-film equivalent of 50 at 1.5x crop).

After thinking about this, it makes complete sense. But it confused the hell out of me at first; I couldn't figure out why my searches were returning nothing.

Michael A. Lowry said...

Thanks for the comment. Very useful information!

merkley??? said...

do you know of any other parameters? i'm specifically looking for the parameter relating to flash fired, yes or no. i have been making guesses but nothing seems to be following the above pattern

merkley??? said...

also it seems like a few years ago i saw some other info and codes out there but i'm not having any google luck.

Dejan Zivanovic said...

Why dont you try Exif Photo Search?
Searches Flickr by EXIF data :)
http://photosearch.crazydroid.com