Add Make and four-digit year from DateTimeOriginal to keywords

[timitalia]

Hi all

In addition to the Make tag, I would like to add the four-digit year from DateTimeOriginal to the keywords recursively for all images underneath a path.

My assumption is that is best to choose DateTimeOriginal, as every image file should have it?

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exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<Make" "-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" ~/path/to/folder

My approach with the DateFmt does not work => "0 image files updated"

An example of how my use case would work in one command, adding the Make Tag and the four-digit year as keywords to all images underneath a path would be much appreciated

Thank you in advance,
Tim

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Tim,

Your command looks good.  (Except that you should use single quotes if you are on Mac or Linux.)

What do you get for this command?:

exiftool -make -datetimeoriginal ~/path/to/folder

Are the image files in this folder?  Or in folders in this folder?  If the latter, you need to add -r to your command.

- Phil

[timitalia]

Hi Phil,

for my PoC the images are directly in this folder ~/path/to/folder. Once the command works I want to use it with -r, thanks for the hint.

gives me:

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Make                            : Apple
Date/Time Original              : 2022:01:03 21:33:50
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/IMG_9694.JPG
Make                            : Snowcorp
Date/Time Original              : 2019:09:07 12:09:50
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/DSCF3831.JPG
Make                            : FUJIFILM
Date/Time Original              : 2016:08:07 10:58:50
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/IMG_6952.JPG
Make                            : NIKON CORPORATION
Date/Time Original              : 2015:02:08 18:05:49
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/IMG_2334.JPG
Make                            : Apple
Date/Time Original              : 2018:03:02 20:09:13
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/D5H_1039.JPG
Make                            : NIKON CORPORATION
Date/Time Original              : 2017:04:11 01:12:44
======== /Users/me/path/to/folder/DSC_0038-2.JPG
Make                            : NIKON CORPORATION
Date/Time Original              : 2012:05:12 14:17:07


[timitalia]

Hi Phil, I've got it!

Indeed I see now that my command indeed works and that was all I wanted.
Sorry for the confusion, I was inaccurate in reporting this issue.

Originally I came from this command, to check how it generally works to add multiple tags to keywords:

Code Select Expand

exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @ "-Keywords+<Make" "-Keywords+<DateTimeOriginal" ~/path/to/folder

Then I tried out to extract the year of DateTimeOriginal, isolated, without adding the Make tag to the keywords, just for testing:

Code Select Expand

exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<{$DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" ~/path/to/folder

And this line above resulted in the behavior => 0 image files updated

Strangely the "-Keywords+<Make" alone works (all files get updated):

Code Select Expand

exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<Make" ~/path/to/folder

Although my use case is satisfied, I would be interested why "-Keywords+<{$DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" alone does not work.

Cheers, Tim

[StarGeek]

You have the braces set wrong.
${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}
not
{$DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}

[timitalia]

Thank you StarGeek!

but still with braces set right:

Code Select Expand

exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" ~/path/to/folder
I get => 0 image files updated ( whereas together with "-Keywords+<Make" it updates correctly)

But "-Keywords+<Make" alone:

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exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<Make" ~/path/to/folder

works / updates files.

[timitalia]

And a small additional question:

How do I combine deleting (or adding) a normal string keyword (i.e. not Make, Model, or other Exif Tag) in the same command?

What I mean is combining

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exiftool -r -keywords-=someCustomKeyword ~/path/to/folder

with

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exiftool -r -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<Make" "-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" ~/path/to/folder

Is that possible?

[StarGeek]

Code Select Expand

C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    1 image files updated


C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -keywords -DateTimeOriginal y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC]          Keywords                        : 2023
[ExifIFD]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2023:01:19 08:13:54
I suspect the problem is

Hi Tim,

Your command looks good.  (Except that you should use single quotes if you are on Mac or Linux.)

[StarGeek]

How do I combine deleting (or adding) a normal string keyword (i.e. not Make, Model, or other Exif Tag) in the same command?

Just add it in, though I think you want += to add a keyword.  -= removes a keyword.  It can go anywhere except between a two part option, i.e. not between -AddTagsFromFile and @

Code Select Expand

C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -keywords+=someCustomKeyword -AddTagsFromFile @  "-Keywords+<Make" "-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt('%Y')}" y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -keywords y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC]          Keywords                        : someCustomKeyword, My Camera, 2023
FAQ #17 deals with list type tags such as Keywords.

[timitalia]

Thank you Phil and StarGeek, all is sorted out now.

I realized it was indeed the single/double quote issue and had nothing to do with whether it is run with or without "-Keywords+<Make"

So this works now as expected:

Code Select Expand

exiftool -P -overwrite_original -AddTagsFromFile @ '-Keywords+<${DateTimeOriginal#;DateFmt("%Y")}' ~/path/to/folder
 

Learned a lot, thank you!
As always: what a great tool!