# Please help - Exporting with capture date/time metadata



## mark10ri (Apr 15, 2012)

Please help! My partner and I work weddings and we would like to edit our own work for eachother and then merge.  However, when we export the new files have a "created" and "modified" date of the day we exported, not the original wedding date.  Can some one help me fix this?  I would be forever grateful!!!  Thank you in advance!

Mark


----------



## erro (Apr 15, 2012)

You are probably looking at the "file" time stamps, and since an export is creating a new file it will have the timestamp of the time you did the export.

However, the timestamp in EXIF should be correct, assuming you don't strip of the metadata inthe export.


----------



## Brad Snyder (Apr 15, 2012)

...and the issue being that photo software 'understands' the capture date, and that OS browser (Explorer/Finder) in general, does not.

I think if you tell us a little more about your exact process, between partners, we can come up with a solution. E.g., to Lr "guru's" there's no clear reason for you to be exporting and using Windows Explorer at some intermediate stage. The reasons for that are part of what we'll need to understand and help.


----------



## Tomer (Apr 17, 2012)

*I may suggest a better explanation for the need...*



Brad Snyder said:


> ...and the issue being that photo software 'understands' the capture date, and that OS browser (Explorer/Finder) in general, does not.
> 
> I think if you tell us a little more about your exact process, between partners, we can come up with a solution. E.g., to Lr "guru's" there's no clear reason for you to be exporting and using Windows Explorer at some intermediate stage. The reasons for that are part of what we'll need to understand and help.



Hi,

Before working with LR, I used to work with other editing tools which also carried batch abilities. One of the good things there was the option to "preserve last-modified date" during batch convertion (which is exactly like Export as we're creating a new file).
The thing is that I used to catalogue my pics/files based on the date/time on which I took the picture. When exporting via LR, the export process (as you've stated) give the new file the export timestamp so eventually in the OS level, the date/time has been changed. That prevents me from identifying the date on which I took the picture (during my filing which is done out of LR).
Trying to manipulate the name of the file to make it easier is not helping..

Any chance we can configure LR to preserve the last modified date while exporting (so the file timestamp won't change ?) 

Thanks,

Tomer

PS. as example for a SW which does what I need check ACDSee (since it's early releases and till today)..


----------



## Jim Wilde (Apr 17, 2012)

Hi Tomer, welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure I fully understand what you are saying, though I suspect you yourself aren't fully understanding the file export process. When you export a file from Lightroom (and assuming you choose not to minimise the metadata), the Win 7 operating system when writing the file will show a *file* *creation date* equal to the date/time that the export was performed. This is logical, it is after all a newly created file. At the same time, also because it is a brand new file, the *date modified* will be the same as the *date created*. However, because you have not minimised the metadata, the *date the picture was taken* is also preserved and can be displayed in the Explorer file properties box, or in a dedicated exif viewer, or even in the simple Explorer file management view (not by default, but you can customise the display to show a vast array of file metadata).

An example....I have just exported a picture originally taken last year, and set my Explorer view to include Date Created, Date Modified, Date Taken. Here's the result:




Does that answer your need? If not I'm still not understanding what you mean by "preserve the last modified date while exporting (so the file timestamp won't change)". Can you clarify....


----------



## clee01l (Apr 17, 2012)

TNG said:


> An example....I have just exported a picture originally taken last year, and set my Explorer view to include Date Created, Date Modified, Date Taken. Here's the result:
> 
> View attachment 2147
> 
> Does that answer your need? If not I'm still not understanding what you mean by "preserve the last modified date while exporting (so the file timestamp won't change)". Can you clarify....


The file creation date and the last modified date are each OS time stamps and AFAIK, applied by the OS API when a file is written new or changed.  While LR or other applications might spoof this date it is not valid to do so and it might be illegal in some juried photo shows
Using the Explorer view that Jim has provided, you can even sort on any column displayed including Date Taken.

It should also be noted that LR is first and foremost an image manager.  Everything you need to manage your images is available in LR and there is no need or reason to use Explorer/Finder or any other file manager to manage images that you have entrusted to LR and the LR catalog.


----------



## bakgwei (Oct 23, 2013)

I was facing the same problem a while back. The only solution I found was to use FastStone after the export from LR. FastStone can set the file creation date (ie. the date of the export, when the file was created) to be the capture date of the picture, so that even in a Explorer you could sort your pictures by date taken.

I somebody has come up with a better way I would be very interested in knowing this!


----------



## Dinky (Jul 21, 2016)

clee01l said:


> It should also be noted that LR is first and foremost an image manager.  Everything you need to manage your images is available in LR and there is no need or reason to use Explorer/Finder or any other file manager to manage images that you have entrusted to LR and the LR catalog.



That is what you think. Since there is no direct interface from OSX applications to LR (as was/is the case with Aperture or Photos) use of photos stored in LR by other applications (like a video editor) requires images to be exported. It is then a pita if the capture dates are lost, because any sequence is blown away. So there *is* a reason and a need, if not for you, certainly for other people.


----------



## Conrad Chavez (Jul 21, 2016)

mark10ri said:


> However, when we export the new files have a "created" and "modified" date of the day we exported, not the original wedding date.


Yes, and that’s correct because exporting creates an entirely new file, so the export creation date is consistent with that. But Lightroom can also preserve the EXIF Capture Time, so that isn't lost, although it also isn't visible on the desktop.

Have you tried customizing the filename in the Export dialog box so that the wedding date is part of the filename? That way, any application that preserves the filename also preserves the date. I also use the same file renaming feature to add a sequence number to the beginning of the filename so that the presentation order I want is also preserved when sorted by Name.

For example, my exported filenames look like this, all automatically generated on export:
[sequence #]-[capture date]-[capture time]-[original filename]
001-20160319-153124-P1080163.jpg
002-20160318-194943-P1080061.jpg
003-20160318-202241-P1080069.jpg

I would do it this way even if Lightroom could set the file date to the modification date, because the OS modification date is very unreliable — a lot of things can change it. Just editing metadata can change it. The file name is much less likely to be changed by accident.

Also, relying on the filename works in all applications and websites. If you relied on the creation/modification dates and uploaded to



Dinky said:


> That is what you think. Since there is no direct interface from OSX applications to LR...



That's not totally true. What is true is that Lightroom doesn't support the direct interface of the Mac Media Browser. But Lightroom fully supports Mac drag and drop, which is also a direct interface. If I want to use a Lightroom image in Apple Keynote, I can drag it out of the Lightroom Grid view and drop it directly into a Keynote presentation window, with no export step needed.

I just tried this with iMovie too. First I choose File > Import Media in iMovie to get the standard Mac import dialog box. And I know that it is possible to drop files into there. So I drag an image from the Lightroom Grid view and drop it into the iMovie Import dialog box, and that sets the Import dialog box to that file's location in the Finder and selects the file, so all I have to do is click the Import button. And I never opened the Export dialog.

I'd even argue that dragging and dropping is often faster than having to drill through the Media Browser to find the image you want.


----------



## Gnits (Jul 21, 2016)

There are nearly more questions here than answers.....  for example.
Did you import all the images from two photographers into a single catalog.
Have you processed the images on two different machines and trying to merge them into a folder using the O/S.

Within Lr there are many many ways to solve your problem.  The easiest might be something like this.

Create a folder for the project (eg. My Project123).
Within MyProject123 create subfolders for each Photographer  ..eg AdamsPhotos and EvesPhotos
Copy the respective photos from each photographer into the respective folders.
Import both folders to Lr.
Create a collection which includes both folders.
Sort the collection in Capture time sequence.

If you are trying to merge images within the O/S (maybe on a different machine) then export the images from Lr with the files renamed using a template such as YYMMDD_HHMMSS_Filename.



You should get something like this......

You can easily sort this within your o/s. The original file name is retained.


 

The first option is far more efficient.

There are also lots of other ways solve this problem.


----------



## Dinky (Jul 23, 2016)

Conrad Chavez said:


> What is true is that Lightroom doesn't support the direct interface of the Mac Media Browser. But Lightroom fully supports Mac drag and drop, which is also a direct interface. If I want to use a Lightroom image in Apple Keynote, I can drag it out of the Lightroom Grid view and drop it directly into a Keynote presentation window, with no export step needed.



Technically speaking this is correct, however you seem to forget you will then have the *unedited, original image*.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jul 23, 2016)

Dinky said:


> Technically speaking this is correct, however you seem to forget you will then have the *unedited, original image*.



I don't think so. The original image is often a raw file, so it will definitely not be the original image. Just like with Aperture, you drag and drop the jpeg preview. So just like with Aperture or the Mac Media Browser, it is the edited result.


----------



## rob211 (Jul 24, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> I don't think so. The original image is often a raw file, so it will definitely not be the original image. Just like with Aperture, you drag and drop the jpeg preview. So just like with Aperture or the Mac Media Browser, it is the edited result.



It's a COPY of the original image that gets dragged and dropped from Lr to the Mac Finder. So P1234.NEF in Lr at Pictures/2016 gets copied to say ~/Desktop/P1234.NEF. It's not a solution unless you want a copy as if you used "show in Finder" in Lr and then did a command-D copy of the file you found there.

If there's a way to get the edited image (say a crop or BW or whatever) out by drag and drop I'd love to know how to do it. (BTW if you write metadata to file and do the drag and drop on a DNG AND open that DNG in an Adobe aware application that can deal with Lr edits then yeah, it would show the edits. But only those applications.)

But for purposes of the original question, the exif date if changed by LR and written to file WOULD be accessible by most any photo application, since exif (and IPTC) is pretty universal, unlike say Lr image adjustments. And there are some Mac applications that can use the iMedia framework to browse inside an Lr catalog just like one could do with Apple's media browser in Aperture or Photos. Examples are Fotomagico (slide shows) or HoudahGeo (geolocation).


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jul 24, 2016)

H'm, you're right. That is unexpected. I would have sworn it was the preview, but it isn't. At least not anymore (perhaps this is what happened in earlier versions).


----------



## rob211 (Jul 24, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> H'm, you're right. That is unexpected. I would have sworn it was the preview, but it isn't. At least not anymore (perhaps this is what happened in earlier versions).


It's been a pain for me since I switched from Aperture, so probably back as far as Lr 3.

I've tried to hack the framework so that I could use it in other applications (it used to run as a standalone as iMedia Browser or something) and only had limited success.  At least that would allow Finder access, if not drag and drop. It's a weakness of Lr on the Mac for sure.


----------



## PhotoTIB (Aug 9, 2016)

When LR is making updates to your files by saving tags back to the EXIF metadata, it has no right to claim the file was "created" on the date it made those changes. It should only be changing the modification date. I like being able to look at my original files in the Finder and know when they were originally taken or "created". My workaround to getting this info back after LR changes it is to run the files through File Multi Tool 5. Among the many things it will allow you to do to what I'll call the Finder metadata, including setting an arbitrary creation and modification date of your choosing, it will also copy EXIF timestamp data to the file creation date. It's a simple matter of dragging the files into it's window, picking what action you want File Multi Tool to perform and letting it batch process the files. It will allow you to batch process Files, Folders and/or Subfolders and their contents. Its super fast and so far, works great for me. As far as I know, it's only available for Mac OS.


----------



## Conrad Chavez (Aug 17, 2016)

Dinky said:


> Technically speaking this is correct, however you seem to forget you will then have the *unedited, original image*.


That is true. I forgot to mention that when I edit images in Lightroom for other applications, I usually have an Export preset configured for that other application and that preset has "Add to this catalog" selected. As I work through edits, as long as I know the correct Export preset was already chosen, I just press the keyboard shortcut for Export and I know that the current image is exported into the correct non-raw format and is also now in the catalog. At that point I can just drag it over to the other application.

While it's also true that Lightroom doesn't support the direct connection with the Mac Media Browser like Aperture does, I'm not sure if that should be held against Lightroom since it doesn't look like any other photo editors can make their libraries visible in the Media Browser either, besides Apple's own Photos. It would be interesting to find out if there are others that do.


----------

