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 -r -Alldates+=0:2:30 .

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

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.

How to change the filename 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.