Where are Sony in-camera star ratings stored in image metadata?
Asked 9/9/2024
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Sony cameras such as the A7R IV can assign 1–5 star ratings in-camera. I’d like to use those ratings in software that doesn’t directly support Sony’s implementation. Where are the ratings actually stored in the file metadata—EXIF, MakerNotes, or elsewhere—and is there a practical way to make other software recognize them?
Originally by Russell McMahon. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Russell McMahon
1y ago
2 Answers
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There is a Rating tag that can be found in the EXIF group, but it is not part of the EXIF specification, and is marked by exiftool as a tag to avoid writing. This tag originated with MicrosoftPhoto and unlikely to be read by any programs other than Microsoft ones.
It is probably more likely that a Sony camera will be writing to the Sony specific Rating tag, which can be found in the Sony MakerNotes.
Very few programs will read MakerNotes tags. Camera companies don't share the specs on how they are formatted, and the formatting is constantly changing.
Your best bet is to copy the rating to the more standardized location, XMP:Rating. You can do this in batch using this exiftool command
exiftool "-XMP:Rating<Rating" /path/to/files/
This command creates backup files. Add -overwrite_original to suppress the creation of backup files. Add -r to recurse into subdirectories.
Originally by StarGeek. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
StarGeek
1y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Sony’s in-camera star ratings are most likely stored in a Sony-specific Rating tag inside the MakerNotes, not in standard EXIF. There is also a generic EXIF-group Rating tag known to tools like ExifTool, but it isn’t part of the official EXIF standard and is mainly associated with Microsoft software, so compatibility is limited.
In practice, very few programs read MakerNotes reliably because they’re manufacturer-specific and often undocumented. If you want broader software support, the practical solution is to copy the Sony rating into the more widely recognized XMP:Rating field.
With ExifTool, you can batch-copy the rating like this:
exiftool "-XMP:Rating<Rating" /path/to/files/
ExifTool creates backup files by default. If you don’t want backups, use its overwrite option carefully.
So: the rating is likely in Sony MakerNotes, but for interoperability, convert or copy it to XMP:Rating.
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