Image Metadata · Watchflows Docs

At a glance

Takes: An image path on the payload
Emits: An exif object, four flat copies, success and hasExif
Good for: Renaming photos by capture date, sorting by camera, filtering by location

Set it up

Point Image at the upstream file — {{filePath}} from a Photo Added trigger, say. The EXIF lands in a nested exif object you reach with dot paths, and the photo's own keys stay on the payload so a later node can still act on it.

The inspector for Image Metadata: one field, the image to read.

Configure

Field	Default	What it does
Image	`{{filePath}}`	The image to read.

Output

Every key is available downstream as {{key}}. Keys the image doesn't carry are left out entirely, and a missing {{exif.*}} renders as an empty string.

Key	Type	Value
`success`	Boolean	`false` when the image was missing, unreadable, or not an image
`hasExif`	Boolean	`true` when a camera wrote real EXIF beyond pixel dimensions — a screenshot is typically `false`
`error`	String	On failure only — what went wrong
`exif.dateTaken`	String	Capture date, ISO-8601: `2023-06-15T14:30:22`
`exif.dateTakenCompact`	String	Capture date as a filename-safe stamp: `20230615-143022`
`exif.cameraMake`	String	Manufacturer — `Apple`
`exif.cameraModel`	String	Model — `iPhone 15 Pro`
`exif.lensModel`	String	Lens, when the camera recorded one
`exif.iso`	Number	ISO sensitivity
`exif.aperture`	Number	f-number — `2.8`
`exif.focalLength`	Number	Millimetres — `24`
`exif.shutterSpeed`	String	Photographer-style exposure — `1/250`
`exif.pixelWidth` · `exif.pixelHeight`	Number	Dimensions in pixels
`exif.orientation`	Number	EXIF orientation, 1–8
`exif.gpsLatitude` · `exif.gpsLongitude`	Number	Signed decimal degrees; south and west are negative

The four most-templated values — dateTaken, dateTakenCompact, cameraModel, lensModel — are also copied to the top level, so {{dateTakenCompact}} works without the dot path.

Example: read a photo's capture date

Input picks a photo. Image Metadata reads its EXIF. Template builds a caption from {{exif.dateTakenCompact}} and {{exif.cameraModel}}, and Log records it.

Four nodes: pick a photo, read its EXIF, build a caption, log it.

Paste this into the Flow Builder to get the same flow:

Let me pick a photo with an Input trigger, read its EXIF metadata, build a caption from the capture date and camera model, and log it.

Good to know

A failure is a payload, not a stopped run. A missing or non-image file comes back as success: false with an error, so branch on it with a Condition.

Dates are the photo's own wall clock. EXIF stores a zone-less local time, and it is parsed and formatted in UTC so the same string round-trips on every Mac. It is not converted to your time zone.

GPS arrives already signed. EXIF stores unsigned degrees plus an N/S/E/W letter; the letter is folded into the sign here, so {{exif.gpsLatitude}} is ready for a comparison.