Exif info in scanned photos

[Damaini]

I'm a total newbie, so please pardon my stupid questions.
I've been scanning some old pictures with an HP scanner (of course, with what else )
The problem is that is not saving any creation date inside the exif, when I tried to modify it with the GUI it doesn't let me.  The dates have "-" and it won't let me save anything.  Is there anyway to put any values to those fields so I can change them later?

[Damaini]

I half way figured it out
I used this command in a Windows 7 terminal to test
              exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1970:05:12 12:12:12" *.*
And all worked fine, I got what I needed....

But when I try the same thing in my MacBookPro it doesn't work, it doesn't do anything, I get this ">" and nothing happens. 
When I just run exiftool by itself it gives me the list of commands so it's installed.
Could someone shed a light on what I'm missing? 

BTW: I'm running OS X El Capitan and I need it to work on Mac

[Damaini]

Arrrrgh
Now it doesn't even work in Windows...it says "no file specified"

I tried changing it to this
        exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1970:05:12 12:12:12" dir
But I still get "no file specified".

What did I miss?

[Damaini]

I feel totally completely stupid....

I retyped the whole command instead of doing copy + paste from my notes and it worked.
Looks like I had a hidden character somewhere...

I GOT IT TO WORK!!!! HURRAY FOR ME!!! 


PS:  I still fell a little stupid... hope this helps someone else.   

[StarGeek]

Looks like I had a hidden character somewhere...

Your "hidden" character is the closing quote.  In your examples, you have a smart quote ", not a normal double quote ". 

I'm curious as to what you're using for your notes, as it looks like it might have autocorrected the quote for you.  I know this can happen in Office and LibreOffice.  This problem pops up occasionally and I'm interested in finding out what programs to keep an eye out for.

[Damaini]

Hello
In my case it was in my Notes in Apple, the one that syncs with your iPhone and iPad.
Hope this helps.

PS:  Still feel a little stupid     

[StarGeek]

Thanks, adding to my notes.

And certainly nothing to feel stupid about, since it wasn't you that messed up the command.

[Damaini]

HELP....
It did not work completely, some files were not changed.  How can I tell the program to add one second to each file?
I'm using this command

exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1970:05:12 12:12:12" *.*

What do I have to add?
Thanks,

[StarGeek]

More info is needed.  What type of file wasn't changed.  Was there an error message.

ow can I tell the program to add one second to each file?
I'm using this command

exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1970:05:12 12:12:12" *.*

I'm not sure I understand.  If you want to add a second, change the last 12 to 13 when you run the command.

[Damaini]

Sorry.  My bad
I'm trying to batch add the exif dates to a bunch of scanned pics.  My questions is:  Can I make ExifTool add a second each time it changes file?  I have about 3 hundred photos .
Thanks,

[StarGeek]

Ah yes, you can do that.  There's an example here somewhere...

Check this post.

Use your first command to set the base timestamp for all your images.

Then use the second command in that post, except since you want to add seconds, not minutes like that post does, you'll have to use "-datetimeoriginal+<0:0:$filesequence" instead.

[Damaini]

I tried using the command but it keeps saying there is no such file
I tried with the "", the '', and none at all.
Can't figure out what is the error

[Phil Harvey]

Were these your commands?:

1. exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1970:05:12 12:12:12" *.*

2. exiftool "-datetimeoriginal+<0:0:$filesequence" *.*

That should work if you are in the directory with the images.  Otherwise, instead of typing "*.*" in each command, drag and drop the folder containing the images onto the cmd window.

- Phil

[Damaini]

Yes I tried those commands and got the following error
Warning: Invalid tag name '0:0:'

PS:  I'm working on Mac OS X El Capitan, and executing the command in the same folder as the photos.

[StarGeek]

Make sure you're using proper quotes for you the computer you're on when there's a dollar sign in the mix.

For Mac, your second command should be:
exiftool '-datetimeoriginal+<0:0:$filesequence' *.*