1. A method of transforming a digital image in accordance with a parameter for transformation, the method comprising: accessing an EXIF stream of data containing the digital image, the EXIF stream having a main image, simple metadata, and complex metadata, wherein the complex metadata comprises a thumbnail image corresponding to the main image; decoding the EXIF stream by extracting the main image and metadata including the thumbnail image from the EXIF stream; if the thumbnail image is not in JPEG compressed format, converting the thumbnail image to the JPEG compressed format; performing transformation on the JPEG compressed thumbnail image in accordance with the parameter; updating the simple metadata to reflect the changes of the main image as transformed; and storing, in an EXIF encoded file, the transformed main image, the updated simple metadata, and complex metadata including the transformed thumbnail image.