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I have a PNG image which I am trying to trace to its originating city.

I was told that someone was able to do this by extracting an IP from the PNG's metadata, but I am skeptical of this. It doesn't make sense to me that an image editor would bother to include the IP address of the computer at the time it was saved, or that the PNG specification would even have a place reserved for this information.

Assume the picture is hosted on TinyPic. Do any of you know a way to find the information I am looking for?

EDIT: The image had some edits made to it, and I am trying to find the source of that edition of the image. I am interested in information that the image editing software may have crammed in there, or any ways of finding the source of the image that may not be related to PNG (I have emailed TinyPic and asked for it, for example).

Thank you to those who have suggested answers already.

Matt
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Ivy
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3 Answers3

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Some cameras may embed geolocation information in the photos they take, but not many.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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  • This information that could be useful to others (I'd give +1 if I had 15 reputation). Unfortunately, the image was edited after it was taken. I was present at the time the picture was taken, so I know where the original photo came from, but we are trying to track down the source of the edits. – Ivy Dec 15 '10 at 15:25
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I think what your looking for is getting the geotags associated with a PNG. That will be a lat/long where the picture was taken. Most cellphones insert his information, and some cameras. While you might be able to get the IP address from the metadata it's not particularly accurate. At best a general region or city if you're lucky. For why that is see this answer:

How does geographic lookup by IP work?

You can check the extensions and specs to the standard here to find geo and if your IP address idea exists:

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

Community
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chubbsondubs
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  • Yeah I know we wouldn't be able to get any location more specific than the area of the ISP, but that's close enough. I'll read through the PNG spec and see if that leads me anywhere. – Ivy Dec 15 '10 at 15:30
  • The other person will not produce the method they used, so I call BS. I looked through the spec and found nothing that could be used to this end. – Ivy Dec 20 '10 at 22:45
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You could use this library/tool to look at the meta-data: http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ You're probably interested in the bits on geotagging.

eater
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