title: iOS 8 Photos framework. Access photo metadata
body: <p>I'm looking at replacing <code>ALAssetsLibrary</code> with <a href="https://developer.apple.com/documentation/photos" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>Photos</code> framework</a> in my app.</p>
  
  <p>I can retrieve photos, collections, and asset sources just fine (even write them back out), but don't see anywhere to access the metadata of the photos (the dictionaries such as {Exif}, {TIFF}, {GPS}, etc...).</p>
  
  <p><code>ALAssetsLibrary</code> has a way. <code>UIImagePickerController</code> has a way. <code>Photos</code> must have a way too. </p>
  
  <p>I see that <code>PHAsset</code> has a <code>location</code> property which will do for the GPS dictionary, but I'm looking to access all of the metadata which include faces, orientation, exposure, ISO, and tons more. </p>
  
  <p>Currently apple is at beta 2. Perhaps there are more APIs to come ?</p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE</strong></p>
  
  <p>There is no official way to do this using only Photos APIs.</p>
  
  <p>However you can read the metadata after you download the image data. There are a couple of methods to do this using either <code>PHImageManager</code> or <code>PHContentEditingInput</code>. </p>
  
  <p>The <code>PHContentEditingInput</code> method required less code and doesn't require you to import <code>ImageIO</code>. I've wrapped it up in a <a href="https://github.com/zakkhoyt/PHAsset-Utility" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PHAsset category</a>. </p>