Once selected, take a picture of anything you want. It doesn’t matter what size of JPEG files you choose – even JPEG BASIC works fine. Therefore, switching to JPEG will allow you to view EXIF data straight, without having to import the image into Lightroom or Photoshop first. While the camera native RAW format preserves all of the EXIF information that is coming out of the camera, third party conversion software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can strip out some of the proprietary EXIF data, including the number of shutter actuations. If you are shooting RAW, it is best to switch to JPEG format just for getting the required information from your camera. Some camera manufacturers like Nikon and Canon also add unique shutter actuations data fields that are used for seeing the total number of exposures or “shutter actuations” cameras have.

Basically, your camera writes all exposure-related information such as date, time, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and a bunch of other important information into the header of each file.

If you do not know what EXIF is and what it is used for, check out my “ What is EXIF” article. The information on the total shutter actuations on your camera is preserved in file headers, known as “metadata” or “EXIF”. Viewing Shutter Count EXIF Data via Opanda IExif.Viewing Shutter Count EXIF Data via ExifTool.

Exiftool shutter count canon 6d