Camera to Archive Workflow

Workflow

• Copy folder with pictures to working directory (e.g. My Documetns\My Pictures\ToFile\)
• Find difference between camera time and real time
• Correct both EXIF times in JPG files and file times for all other files. (Exifer or Exiftool)
• Rotate images (Exifer)
• Remove Unwanted pictures
• Rename files based on creation date + sequence number (e.g. 2008-01-01-0001.jpg)
• Tag images and move to folders (EXIFER)
• Move to archive directory on YM (Y:\Picutres)

Notes

How to change the EXIF dates in a file

Using exiftool

• Add 2 minutes 30 seconds: exiftool -Alldates+=0:2:30 -r .
• Set Timezone: exiftool -SubSecDateTimeOriginal="2022:12:12 12:00:00.24-08:00" -globaltimeshift -5 -r .
  Ref: https://superuser.com/questions/1757307/how-to-set-an-images-date-and-time-with-timezone-with-exiftool
  

Using Exifer

• Select files to change
• Choose menu item EXIF/IPTC:Edit... (Ctrl-E)
• Choose EXIF Data Tab
• Choose Date Tab
• Choose +/- Day and hour offset. Midnight represents no change to time.
  • Examples:
  • Camera is 10 minutes slow.
    Add 10 minutes choose "+" and "12:10:00 AM"
  • Camera is 10 minutes shy of 2 days fast, i.e. 1 day 23:50:00 fast
    then either subtract 2 days from all pictures followed by adding 10 minutes or use "- 1 day 11:50:00 PM" as the offset.

How to change the date of a file

Using Command Line

This way is necessary for files lacking EXIF data.

touch -r somefile.avi -d "-1 hour +3 minutes -5 second" somefile.avi

Using Exifer

• Select files to change
• Choose menu option: Edit:Rename Redate&Copy (Ctrl+N)
• Turn off check box for "Rename"
• Turn on check box for "Redate (by EXIF)"

Note: if combined with Rename as well the redate occurs first.

Using Exiftool

exiftool "-filemodifydate<datetimeoriginal" somefile.jpg

Changing Timezone

Think through if the photo timezone should be set to the timezone in which it was taken or in one's native timezone. I'm still working through this myself but am strongly leaning toward setting/keeping the timezone in which the photo was taken. This will allow the filename to reflect the time of day (locally) in which it was taken. If I see "2020-01-01 13:45 - Ireland - Castle Excursion - Group photo.jpg" I know it was taken mid-day versus, say an 09:45 time (converting to EST), and thinking I was there in the morning.

Using Exiftool

exiftool "-timezone=-05:00" somefile.jpg  #set TZ to EST

How to change the filename

using EXIF tags from exiftool

exiftool -r "-FileName<DateTimeOriginal" -d %Y-%m-%d_%H.%M.%S%%-c.%%e .

Using Exifer

• Select files to change
• Choose menu option: Edit:Rename Redate&Copy (Ctrl+N)
• Turn on check box for "Rename"
• Enter the format you want for the filename. e.g. yyyy-mm-dd-nnnn
• Turn off check box for "Redate (by EXIF)"

Note: if combined with Rename as well the redate occurs first.

using stat(1) command

for fn in *.avi ; do nn=$(stat --printf=%y $fn | sed -e 's/\..*//' -e 's/ /_/
' -e 's/[-:]//g') ; echo mv $fn $nn.avi ; done

Tools

• Exifer is a discontinued product but quite good. I am still evaluating other tools as recommended on his site as well as others.
• Cygwin is a source for bash, touch, and stat commands.
• Exiftool is a command line tool written in Perl but with command line versions. Any version should work but the one used writing these notes is this one.
• Recovery Tools are reviewed here.