Add Metadata to Scanned files

[NasKar]

I'm scanning old 35 mm slide and need to add metadata to them.
Date of the original slide for example Jun 1965
Scanner Epson Perfection 2400 Photo
Carousel 35

The scans are in separate directories base on the carousel # with a File0001.tif name

What command do I use to add that metadata?
Should I add a command to increment to date by a second for each slide? What is that command?
Slides with the same date need to be in their own directory when running the exiftool command?
I plan on adding keywords and captions in Lightroom later.
Thanks

[StarGeek]

For the scanner, you should first check to see if the scanner info hasn't already been added to the file, as a lot of scanner software will already do that.  Run the command in FAQ #3 on one of your files and look through the output. For example some Epson samples I have this in them

Code Select Expand

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -make -model EpsonPerfection1660.jpg EpsonPerfection2480.jpg EpsonPerfection4990.jpg EpsonPerfectionV100.jpg
======== L:/!moved/!NoOnlineBackup/Exiftool_Metadata_Repository/!original/Epson/EpsonPerfection1660.jpg
[IFD0]          Make                            : Epson
[IFD0]          Model                          : Perfection1660
======== L:/!moved/!NoOnlineBackup/Exiftool_Metadata_Repository/!original/Epson/EpsonPerfection2480.jpg
[IFD0]          Make                            : Epson
[IFD0]          Model                          : Perfection2480
======== L:/!moved/!NoOnlineBackup/Exiftool_Metadata_Repository/!original/Epson/EpsonPerfection4990.jpg
[IFD0]          Make                            : Epson
[IFD0]          Model                          : Perfection4990
======== L:/!moved/!NoOnlineBackup/Exiftool_Metadata_Repository/!original/Epson/EpsonPerfectionV100.jpg
[IFD0]          Make                            : Epson
[IFD0]          Model                          : PerfectionV100
    4 image files read
If it's not there, the most appropriate place to place the scanner info, as shown above, is in the Make/Model tags.

When it comes to the date, things become a bit more complex. The correct place to put the date the image was originally taken would be the DateTimeOriginal tag. But a lot of programs don't like it when it's only a partial date/time.  The most common solution I've see is to set the parts of the date/time that is know for sure, and then set the other parts to the minimum value.  So in the case of "Jun 1965", you would use
exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1965:06:01 00:00:00" /path/to/files/

This would especially need to be required since you plan on incrementing the time stamp on each file.

As for "Carousel 35", there isn't a defined place, as this wouldn't be part of any standard.  The easiest would be to write it to the Description, but that would pop up in the caption you plan on writing in Lightroom.

To have the files time stamps increment is a two step procedure.  First, you set the base time as per above.  Then, after that is done, you would increment the time stamps with this command
exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal+<0:0:$FileSequence" /path/to/files/