How would one go about to remove as much metadata as possible from raw files, while still keeping these vital parts? I tried exiftool.exe -all= -makernotes orig.cr2 -o dest.cr2 but it still did not open in Photoshop. I discovered this when trying to open CR2 files in Photoshop after removing the metadata. So it is a good idea not to edit the Make and Model tags in the first place. Also beware that the maker notes information may be damaged if an image is edited when the maker notes are not properly recognized. Luckily, there are lots of methods to remove EXIF from your photos, selectively and entirely. Deleting or changing either of these tags may prevent these utilities from recognizing or properly interpreting the maker notes. How to Remove EXIF Data From Your Photos EXIF can be an invasion of privacy in a couple of different ways. The Make and Model tags are used by some image utilities (including ExifTool) to determine the format of the maker note information. Note: You should NOT do this to RAW images (except DNG) since proprietary RAW image formats often contain information in the makernotes that is necessary for converting the image. Delete all meta information from an image.

Exif remover