Can an ICC profile date be used to determine when a photo was taken?
Asked 8/1/2018
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A photo file shows an ICC profile version of 2.0 and an ICC date/time of 2009. Does that mean the camera or device must be from 2009 or later, or that the photo itself must have been taken after 2009?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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No, it does not necessarily mean that. It is basically impossible to determine the provenance of a photo just from the photo's EXIF data. The ICC DateTime could have been manipulated by just about anything that handled the image file:
- The DateTime was probably written by the recording device (camera).
- It could have been modified by any software that handled the transport of the file, such as the camera manufacturer's proprietary photo viewing and management software when copying to a computer, or when uploading to a cloud service.
- It could have been modified by any software used to manipulate or edit the image.
Also, ICC version 2 is much older than 2009, considering that according to the ICC itself, version 4 was published in 2001.
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
No. An ICC profile date is not reliable proof of when a photo was taken or how old the camera is.
The ICC date/time refers to the embedded color profile metadata, and that metadata may be written or changed by many things besides the camera: the camera itself, transfer/import software, cloud services, image editors, or other processing tools. Because of that, it does not establish provenance.
Also, ICC version 2 does not imply a 2009-era device. ICC v2 is much older than that; ICC v4 was already published in 2001. So seeing an ICC profile marked as version 2 with a 2009 date is not unusual.
In short, the ICC profile date does not mean the device cannot predate 2009, and it does not prove the image was taken after 2009.
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