If abastias doesn't mind me butting in.. I would see EXIF/IPTC as a tick box in the settings that at the most basic level, would lift just the title and description from EXIF data and display them in place of the current title and description. The date would probably be the next item to add.
For an example of functionality, here's a plug-in for the popular PHP Gallery module that does EXIF/IPTC:
http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery2:Modules:exif
- Automatically reads the date/time for newly added photos and sets this field in the gallery item
- Can be configured to read the EXIF orientation field and automatically rotate newly uploaded photos accordingly
- Can be configured to read particular EXIF/IPTC fields and use these to populate item title, summary, description or keywords for newly uploaded photos
The first step might be to try and duplicate the current title and description display in Simple Gallery, but using EXIF/IPTC. Then, if that works, one could think about how best to make use of which remaining fields.
As a photographer, I would for example be keen to see selected camera data be viewable in a tootlip when either the image or a special EXIF icon is hovered on. Ultimately, the most powerful system would be to expose the EXIF/IPTC data through tokens so that people could use whatever bits they want in their templates.
The development page for that gallery has some very useful information about their state of EXIF integration: http://codex.gallery2.org/Gallery2:Modules:exif:Development
Rob |