I'm scanning lots of old pictures and they don't have any dates or any exif data. When I eventually get these to Google Photos the Last Modified is used as the Date Picture Taken but Last Modified is usually when the scanning company scanned them. I wanted a really simple UI for bulk updating all Exif dates and found a few things but didn't find something that fit my needs exactly.
So I created my own for Windows 10:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tdVhwV21TzQ28FDkQ2vDj-a5_QYzbd1K/view?usp=sharing
It's pretty limited but gets the job done for me. Would there be interest in having me upload the source somewhere for further community contribution?
Has anyone attempted to download/use? Just curious if it worked and/or was helpful to anyone.
(And yes, I do realize I'm a brand new member enticing people to install some random program that may or may not be malicious. Not sure how to prove it is what I say it is. DM me I suppose.)
If you provide a better description and some screen captures it may help other users to decide whether this would be useful for them. And if you do this, I could provide a link from the ExifTool home page.
- Phil
Here's a better description of the ExifTool Date Updater program:
TLDR Summary: This program updates the Date Picture Taken exif data of multiple photos at a time in an easy user interface.
Scenario: When old pictures or negatives are scanned, they don't usually receive any exif data. The file modified date of the file is usually the date time of the scan. For example, scanning a picture from 1984 today would have a modified date of March 5th, 2018. When a file like that is uploaded to Google Photos, among other programs I assume, that program uses the only date time data it can find and considers it the "Picture Taken" date. Next thing I know, when viewing pictures by date taken, all the snowy pictures I took today in Minnesota using my iPhone are intermingled with the Summer 1984 pictures I scanned today. This may not be a problem with one or two pictures, but when you have a scanning company scan 500+ pictures, the missing exif dates can make the photos nearly un-browsable in a program like Google Photos.
General purpose of the ExifTool Date Updater program: At its core, the program I created allows you to select multiple photos at once and apply the same date time to them. The date time is applied to all current Exif and file date time holders: System:FileModifyDate, System:FileCreateDate, IFD0:ModifyDate, IFD1:ModifyDate, ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal, ExifIFD:CreateDate. The program uses ExifTool created by Phil Harvey (thanks!) in the background to get and set all of these values.
Disclaimers/Notes: This started as a project for my own use. I found other well written UIs and command line scripts but none did bulk updates in a UI. Maybe it does exist but I couldn't find it. My program is currently limited to JPG/JPEG only and it only changes the 6 date time items mentioned above, no other Exif data. I'm sharing as a thanks to ExifTool and Phil Harvey and I'm open to placing the source somewhere like github if community members want to make further improvements or take it in different directions. Before taking that step I'm sharing the install file to gauge interest.
I'll post a quick guide and screenshots in an upcoming post.