This present invention provides a system and method for transforming a main image of a digital image, such as one stored in the Exchangeable Image File ("EXIF") format, updating the metadata, including the thumbnail image, to correspond to the transformed main image. The transformed main image and updated metadata are stored together in a file using the EXIF format so that the transformed main image may be viewed using a digital camera or viewer software compatible with a properly formatted EXIF file.