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Is there a way to find out if a picture (once taken) was taken in Manual vs. Auto mode? My daughter is in a photography class and we both have taken images with the same camera. I sometimes put it back into auto mode and she isn't sure about a few of the photos now.
Her instructor says they have to be turned in only in Manual mode, so is there a way that I can determine which images were captured in Manual mode?
For an image taken with a digital camera this information is stored and very easily accessible. What mode the camera was in such as Auto, Manual, Program, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority and more information can be found using the EXIF data that is stored along with the image. It is all included in the image file such as a .JPEG file in what we call metadata.
What exactly is stored in the EXIF data is outlined well already here:
The easiest way to view the EXIF data is actually an online tool: Jeffrey's Exif Viewer
Downloadable software is also available in many forms to view EXIF data if you are going to be doing it more often, such as EXIF Tool, or essentially any quality photo editing software.
Most digital cameras include the shooting mode, the metering mode, and even the focus mode in the EXIF information. The EXIF information can be viewed with most photo processing applications such as Adobe Lightroom or the software that came with the camera. Not all applications will display every field of the EXIF data, so you may need to try more than one. If you need a free application that can open a variety of file formats and displays a fairly comprehensive list of EXIF information, give Irfanview a try.
Here's a screen grab from the EXIF information for a photo I recently took with a Canon 7D as viewed using Canon's Digital Photo Professional that is included with Canon DSLRs.
Below is the same information from the same photo when displayed using Irfanview. Notice that the focus information is in the 'Maker Note' section, which is a place for manufacturers to include non-standardized information in the EXIF info. This means it can and does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer how or even if the information is included. Adobe products tend to ignore most parts of the 'Maker Note' section of the EXIF data. Observe that Irfanview properly identified the focus mode as AI Focus, but failed to properly describe other fields in the 'Maker Note' section such as the sharpness setting indicated by Canon's code '-32769' or the ISO value indicated by a '32767' code. In the standardized section of the EXIF not visible in this screen grab, the ISO used is properly identified as ISO 2500.
Besides usually being its own item in the EXIF, as others have pointed out, some cameras have stepless shutter speeds or apertures when using the non-manual modes. This can result in shutter speeds or apertures that are not selectable in manual mode which also gives it away.
