I'm trying to get all this Exif stuff out of my photographs. I'm a photographer (not a programmer) and I tried the exiftool.exe with fair results (only because I don't know what I'm doing; not the fault of the tool). So I tried your GUI tool and it does exactly what I want with one exception... I can't figure out how to get the filesize in bytes. Is there any way to do this in the ExifTool GUI?
Here's my delima: I have a large number of digitized photos dating back to 1983 (363,482 to be exact). But I currently have no automatic way of retrieving the "HEADER" (I guess that's the correct term) information and storing it in a central database (ACCESS). Up to now I've been doing it the old fashioned way (pen, ink, paper, then to the ACCESS File. All I want is an application that will build a text file for each of my files AND then build a "CSV" (I think this stands for comma something or other format) with all the data in proper row-to-column format. But the filesize has to be in bytes.
Over the past several years I have tried many applications, but they have all fallen short on my expectations. ExifTool and ExifToolGUI are the first ones I've come across that actually do what the developers state it will do. At any rate, ExifTool.exe will give me bytes if I use # (pound) in front of the filesize tag (I think that's the correct term?). Can the GUI do the same thing? I know absolutely nothing about programming, pearl, vbscripting, batching, etc. -- so be kind to me.
I'm just a simple photographer trying to get and keep my house in order...
Thank you
To see FileSize in bytes, you must check menu Options>Show tag Values as numbers. As you may noticed, FileSize value is listed only in [ALL] metadata view (or in [Custom] view, if FileSize tag is defined there).
But after reading your post, I'm afraid, that GUI can't help you much by what you are trying to achieve. The thing is, that GUI doesn't support creation of CSV files -that is, you must use ExifTool "pure", to create such file. You don't need to have any "programmer" knowledge to do that, however being familiar to work in "command prompt" (DOS-fashion) window, makes things easier.
Short example perhaps: let's say, your JPG files are in directory d:\photo\1983. In this case, you would use command:
exiftool -csv -filesize# -Exif:DateTimeOriginal -Exif:Artist d:\photo\1983\*.jpg>my1983.csv
-and resulting my1983.csv file will contain specified tag values of all jpg files which reside in 1983 folder.
Now, you didn't ask me, but anyway... I don't think you are doing all this the right way. What you need is so called DAM (Digital Asset Management) software, which does all that automatically: read/write metadata from images/database, synchronize metadata between images/database, search/display images by given criteria, etc.
Bogdan
Thank you for the DAM Lead... I checked into them and they all sound a lil bit over my head (sofware-install wise). I downloaded and installed 4 of them and 3 want me to install MySQL or MS-SQL and work from inside IE. The only one that looked promising was FocusOpen by Daydream... but, it also wanted to install web-based apps on my system...
BUT a funny thing about all 4 of these apps --- they all use EXIFTool in their software (C:\Program Files\SOFTWEAR NAME\Apps\"EXIFTool) . FocusOpen also uses FFmpeg and FLVTool2 in addition to EXIFTool. Many of the reviews I read pointed me in the direction of FocusOpen. Humm seems your free software is on par with the costly enterprise DAM stuff... and; they too; use EXIFTool.exe in the background. I don't want to post my photo library online. I just want to be able to manage it on my stand-alone-Dell computer and its WIN-7 (32-bit) operating system.
Well, at any rate, it appears that you are stuck with me; for now; Bogdan. SORRY... I downloaded/installed your new version. Can I request that you put back the the "Text and Common Text exports that you had in v3.38. I applied both exports to a test folder and was VERY PLEASED (VERY VERY VERY PLEASED) with the data that was exported... I especially liked the "text folder" it built thereby keeping my photos seperated for the technical text files; but, allowing me easy access to both.
And the CSV imported into ACCESS with ease. WOW you're amazing!!! Now all I got to do is learn "BATCH LINGO" and build a few usefull tools for myself... Can you point me in the direction of "WINDOWS BATCH building for beginners" or something similar?
Thanks, and sorry for being such a bother....
DonW
I understand what you are saying about DAM's you've tried so far. And I agree mostly: many of them are trying to be "one for all..pro-ultra" solution (cataloger, editor, printing management, internet "woah"..). However I still believe you should continue too look after the right one -and when trying it, take some time (a week or two) to learn it. If interested... if I would need to choose a DAM now, I would choose between:
-iImatch (www.photools.com) -very customizable (needs some learning, though), good support.
-MediaPro (www.phaseone.com) -easy to use.
I see no problem to implement exporting metadata in common text file again, but I believe, creating CSV file is better solution in your case.
I'm very poor in batch scripting, so I can't help you in this regard.
And finally: you're not bothering at all. It's just one thing you should be aware of: GUI is no replacement for DAM software and never will be -I'm saying this, so you wouldn't build your workflow on false hopes.
Greetings,
Bogdan