Getting "Taken Date" of a photo instead of "Modified Date" with PHP exif_read_data

Question

I'm retrieving the creation date from a photo with exif_read_data PHP function (see the code below.) The dates retrieved from photos that haven't been modified return "Date Taken". Those that have been modified - "Date Modified". Is there a way to get the date a photo was taken, ignoring the "Date Modified" field?

$exif_data = exif_read_data ($filename);
if (!empty($exif_data['DateTime'])) {
    $exif_date = $exif_data['DateTime'];
}

Thank you.

Edit: I think $exif_data['DateTime'] uses the first available date field. Since unmodified images had the same value for "Date Modified" and "Date Taken" it was always retrieving "Date Modified" in my case.

Answer 1

Okay, I know this is a bit late as this question was posted a year ago, but I am posting this answer because I had the same question and my husband showed me a trick or two about how to get the answer, so I am sharing it. Write a php script to print out the exif_read_data array and you will find all sorts of interesting information. This (below) was printed on command line to stdout using print_r(). If you scroll down you will see two very interesting keys: [DateTime] => 2011:06:21 17:50:57 and [DateTimeOriginal] => 2011:06:04 08:56:22

I hope these will help you get what you need.

Array
(
    [FileName] => Pirate(F).JPG
    [FileDateTime] => 1405733742
    [FileSize] => 4017033
    [FileType] => 2
    [MimeType] => image/jpeg
    [SectionsFound] => ANY_TAG, IFD0, THUMBNAIL, COMMENT, EXIF
    [COMPUTED] => Array
        (
            [html] => width="2592" height="3888"
            [Height] => 3888
            [Width] => 2592
            [IsColor] => 1
            [ByteOrderMotorola] => 1
            [ApertureFNumber] => f/16.0
            [Thumbnail.FileType] => 2
            [Thumbnail.MimeType] => image/jpeg
        )

    [Make] => Canon
    [Model] => Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS
    [Orientation] => 1
    [XResolution] => 4718592/65536
    [YResolution] => 4718592/65536
    [ResolutionUnit] => 2
    [Software] => QuickTime 7.6.9
    [DateTime] => 2011:06:21 17:50:57
    [HostComputer] => Mac OS X 10.5.8
    [YCbCrPositioning] => 1
    [Exif_IFD_Pointer] => 260
    [THUMBNAIL] => Array
        (
            [Compression] => 6
            [XResolution] => 4718592/65536
            [YResolution] => 4718592/65536
            [ResolutionUnit] => 2
            [JPEGInterchangeFormat] => 628
            [JPEGInterchangeFormatLength] => 4867
            [YCbCrPositioning] => 1
        )

    [COMMENT] => Array
        (
            [0] => AppleMark

        )

    [ExposureTime] => 1/200
    [FNumber] => 16/1
    [ExposureProgram] => 2
    [ISOSpeedRatings] => 400
    [ExifVersion] => 0220
    [DateTimeOriginal] => 2011:06:04 08:56:22
    [DateTimeDigitized] => 2011:06:04 08:56:22
    [ShutterSpeedValue] => 499712/65536
    [ApertureValue] => 524288/65536
    [ExposureBiasValue] => 0/1
    [MeteringMode] => 5
    [Flash] => 9
    [FocalLength] => 18/1
    [ColorSpace] => 1
)

Answer 2

The solution is easier then I thought. I was referring to a wrong tag. To get date taken use:

$exif_data['DateTimeOriginal'];