Changing date on a RAW file (Mac)

[George]

I have returned from a trip using 3 bodies and want to amalgamate them all in date order in CS4.

AS one of the bodies was borrowed from Canon, I stupidly forgot to check the date on the body and it was exactly 1 yr out, ie set to 2009 instead of 2010.

This means that the amalgamation doesn't work as these files obviously appear first and I need if poss to change all the dates in a batch process if possible.
Can this be done, and if so, how?

I am using Snow leopard on my Mac.
Thanks, George :shake::shake::bonk:

 

[Musicman]

It's certainly possible, and quite easy, in Lightroom. I just had a poke about in CS5 Bridge and unfortunately it doesn't look like you can modify the EXIF date.

If you're confident using the Terminal, you can download Phil Harvey's ExifTool for free, which should allow you to do what you're after, though.

I can confirm from personal experience that it works on 10.6 I've used it to restore EXIF data from an original file to a copy that had been saved without.

 

[George]

Rob, thanks for that and I apologise for the late reply, was out all morning.

Funnily enough I had already down;loaded that programme, but the "terminal" thingy left me bamboozled, I'm afraid, never come across it and I couldn't find where the downloaded file had gone-all part of the same problem I'm afraid.
If you think this is a solution, could I give you a call sometime to chat it over rather than on the forum, it would be a big help!

Thanks, George

 

[boardhead]

Steps to do this with exiftool:

1) Install the OS X version of ExifTool.

2) Put all the images you want fixed in a folder called "Images" in your home directory

3) Open the "Terminal" application

4) Cut and paste this command in the Terminal window:

exiftool -alldates+="1:0:0 0:0" ~/Images

5) All of the images in the "Images" folder will now have one year added to their EXIF date/time values. The original images will still exist in this folder with "_original" added to their name.

I hope this helps.

- Phil

 

[Musicman]

Reckon that would do it.

and I've a sneaky suspicion that boardhead is Phil Harvey

 

[admirable]

I thought the whole idea of a raw image was the core details couldn't be altered?

 

[George]

Steps to do this with exiftool:

1) Install the OS X version of ExifTool.

2) Put all the images you want fixed in a folder called "Images" in your home directory

3) Open the "Terminal" application

4) Cut and paste this command in the Terminal window:

exiftool -alldates+="1:0:0 0:0" ~/Images

5) All of the images in the "Images" folder will now have one year added to their EXIF date/time values. The original images will still exist in this folder with "_original" added to their name.

I hope this helps.

- Phil

Phil, thanks all worked well (when I discovered you actuated the whole business by pressing the return key) but sadly the date which has appeared is todays date!!

Thanks for all your help, guys (but Jim (admirable)) let me get sorted before we get into your question!!

Looks like I'm almost there..

George

 

[boardhead]

Phil, thanks all worked well (when I discovered you actuated the whole business by pressing the return key)

Oops. I should have mentioned that.

but sadly the date which has appeared is todays date!!

OK. You are looking at the Finder date/time then. You can set the Finder file modification date/time to the same as the EXIF date/time with this command:

exiftool "-filemodifydate<datetimeoriginal" ~/Images

Then press Return.

- Phil Harvey

[edit] I should mention that you need to do this after fixing the dates with the previous command.

 

[Musicman]

Phil, thanks all worked well (when I discovered you actuated the whole business by pressing the return key) but sadly the date which has appeared is todays date!!

Are you looking at the Modification Date in the Finder? That will be today's date, as the file was modified today. That is not the capture date of the image, though, which is what you have changed.

Open the file in Preview, then Get Info [Tools > Show Inspector] and look at the Date Time Original parameter in the EXIF tab.

edit: Ha! beaten to it (and with a nice tip too)

 

[George]

Ok, and apologies for being a thicko but I've never tried this before so the step by step instructions are just what I need...
All worked now and thanks a million, guys, esp Phil and Rob this will save me from going mad as the trip was a wildlife one to Tanzania and to try and move everything manually was a major nightmare with 75 Gigs of shots on 3 bodies.- and welcome to the forum, Phil, are you a photographer or were you just helping out?
I'm actually also interested in Jim's point re the exif info, however I suppose it's a copy you are creating and somewhere this will show up.

Thanks again, terminal is still a dark art though...

George

 

[boardhead]

Phil, are you a photographer or were you just helping out?

I arrived here to answer the exiftool question, but the reason I wrote ExifTool is related to my interest in photography. So I guess the answer is both.

- Phil

 

[George]

I arrived here to answer the exiftool question, but the reason I wrote ExifTool is related to my interest in photography. So I guess the answer is both.

- Phil

Well thanks a lot, and I'm sure if you have any questions regarding photography you'll get the same help you've given here, Phil.

I'm interested in Jim's question regarding the exif data, however, my understanding was that it couldn't be changed, and that was why I didn't expect to be able to do this.
Are you saying that in fact we can't trust this data?

George

 

[boardhead]

I'm interested in Jim's question regarding the exif data, however, my understanding was that it couldn't be changed, and that was why I didn't expect to be able to do this.
Are you saying that in fact we can't trust this data?

EXIF can be edited, even in RAW images. Even the raw data can be edited in theory, but I'm not aware of any tools that will do this. Some cameras embed data (like Canon's "original decision data", a feature of high-end EOS models) which provide a technique to tell if any of this data was edited. But with Canon you need to buy special software for this.

But if I understand your question, in general the answer is: EXIF can't be trusted.

- Phil

 

[Musicman]

Yep. Nikon certainly sell some kit for police forces, etc. who need to be able to prove that the data in a photo hasn't been tampered with on its way to court.

 

[George]

EXIF can be edited, even in RAW images. Even the raw data can be edited in theory, but I'm not aware of any tools that will do this. Some cameras embed data (like Canon's "original decision data", a feature of high-end EOS models) which provide a technique to tell if any of this data was edited. But with Canon you need to buy special software for this.

But if I understand your question, in general the answer is: EXIF can't be trusted.

- Phil

Well, thanks, both, glad on this occasion that it can be altered!!

George