Hi Joseph,
I'm currently adding hundreds of scanned heritage photos to Aperture 3, which of course all have the wrong date. Before I progress too far, I'm wondering what's the fastest, easiest way to change the date of these photos? Most will be dated with only the decade or year, not exact dates. I want this to be as painless as possible. I'm hoping there's an easy batch change method. TIA!
Debbie,
Yeah, the EXIF date is a metadata standard. Standards make the world go round (and not square… trapezoidal… haha)
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Debbie,
Look at the menu Metadata > Adjust Date and Time… and you’ll find what you need.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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I already saw that and was using it, but then I also saw that a date field could be added to an upload preset, and then when you go to Metadata>Batch Change, there’s a date field in the box that opens up. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that or the Adjust Date and Time. Thanks!
~Debbie
Debbie,
I’m not sure I follow. You said a date field could be added to an “upload preset”, but there is no such thing. What presets do you mean?
Also, in the Batch Change you can change the time zone, but the only way to change the date of a file, which is considered EXIF data (data typically generated by the camera at the moment of capture), is to use the Adjust Date and Time option. Notice when you use that, it gives you the option to change the date of the file in the Finder as well. I’d definitely do this so if you ever need to reimport them, or use them in any other app, the date will be changed permanently.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Sorry, Joseph, as usual I’m not making sense. LOL! I know what I mean but can’t explain it in a way that makes sense to you. But that’s okay, I’ll use your method, which is what I suspected was the way to go all along. Thanks again!
Btw, I’m so happy to see the new Video available. I haven’t even attempted keywords yet, but they’re next on the list so this is perfect timing. I already purchased it and loaded it on my iPad. :)
~Debbie
There’s one problem I’m encountering with the Adjust Date and Time that I’m guessing there’s really nothing I can do, but thought I’d run it by you anyway. Most of my scanned photos are from my parents, so they’re 1920s-1960s. Almost all of them I don’t know the specific date, just the year or even just the decade. In Adjust Date and Time the only option is to put a specific date of month/day/year plus the time. I don’t know the specific date for most of these, and I hate having to make something up, so do you have any other suggestions for changing the date? It’s kinda frustrating. Thanks.
~Debbie
Debbie,
A datestamp has to have all that info; it can’t just have a year. The tool actually shifts time, it doesn’t add new time. So if your images were scanned all at the same time, they’ll have a minute or two gap in their timestamp. So, select all the ones that are for, say, 1963, or if you’re doing it by decade, just all the 1960’s shots, then shift them all to something like January 01, 1960, 00:00 (midnight).
Make sense?
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Yep, it makes sense, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. LOL! I just wanted to date them as 1960s, or c1960, or 1963, etc, not have to add a specific date that isn’t correct. But, I get now that I can’t, so thanks again. :)
~Debbie
Debbie:
This thread is nearly a year old, but I wanted to post my solution in case you or anyone else comes across this thread in the future.
I too am scanning in my old family photographs, and also ran into the issue of setting the date field when I didn’t know the exact date. Often I only know the year, or even the decade. Instead of wrestling with the date field, I created a new custom field. Since this is a text field, I can populate it with whatever I want - “1940s”, etc.
I leave the built-in date field as-is, indicating the date when I scanned the photo.
Tim