# Capture Time in Metadata



## Richard Davies (Jan 8, 2018)

I am trying to work out how to add capture time to my metadata preset. At the moment its either blank or some random 2015 date? I know how to add on one individual image but is there an easier way when I import?


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jan 8, 2018)

There are a number of places that the date of image capture appear, one is capture time.  It can be edited but I do not think it can be added to a preset.  You can add the Date Created (in IPTC, no tthe same thing, but often interpreted as capture date if capture date is absent sometimes in preference to capture time) to a preset, I think, you can also sync metadata with it (i.e. set one image, it copies to the others).   

Note you can just edit the capture time (including of many images at one time), so instead of adding on import, you could import, select all, and adjust.

One difference is that if you change capture time (literally that field) can be written back into the raw file itself, whereas the rest are just metadata catalog entries.  There's a preference that allows that (catalog settings, metadata, last panel).  If you don't want the actual raw files changed disallow it there, or use the IPTC field.


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## Richard Davies (Jan 8, 2018)

Ferguson said:


> There are a number of places that the date of image capture appear, one is capture time.  It can be edited but I do not think it can be added to a preset.  You can add the Date Created (in IPTC, no tthe same thing, but often interpreted as capture date if capture date is absent sometimes in preference to capture time) to a preset, I think, you can also sync metadata with it (i.e. set one image, it copies to the others).
> 
> Note you can just edit the capture time (including of many images at one time), so instead of adding on import, you could import, select all, and adjust.
> 
> One difference is that if you change capture time (literally that field) can be written back into the raw file itself, whereas the rest are just metadata catalog entries.  There's a preference that allows that (catalog settings, metadata, last panel).  If you don't want the actual raw files changed disallow it there, or use the IPTC field.




Thanks for the info. What I'm looking at is the capture date being added to date created. I just imported two albums and it was on one but not the other???


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## Linwood Ferguson (Jan 9, 2018)

Richard Davies said:


> Thanks for the info. What I'm looking at is the capture date being added to date created. I just imported two albums and it was on one but not the other???


I'm not sure what you said there, sorry. 

There is ambiguity in the OS File creation date, and the actual EXIF create date.  Some tools (Photo Mechanic) will set the file create date to the date from the EXIF, some do not.  

Here's an example of a file dumped with EXIFTOOL (which I recommend as useful for exploring metadata): 


```
T:\Photos\Linwood\2017\20171208>exiftool.exe -a -u -g1 DD5_5047_91904.nef | find /I "Date"
---- System ----
File Modification Date/Time     : 2018:01:08 19:31:36-05:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2017:12:08 21:46:43-05:00
File Creation Date/Time         : 2017:12:08 20:58:40-05:00
---- IFD0 ----
Modify Date                     : 2017:12:08 20:58:40
Date/Time Original              : 2017:12:08 20:58:40
---- XMP-xmp ----
Create Date                     : 2017:12:08 20:58:40.55
---- ExifIFD  ----
Date/Time Original              : 2017:12:08 20:59:01
Create Date                     : 2017:12:08 20:58:40
```

(Note I edited the above to remove non-date fields, including date related fields like time zone and subsecond).

This is an image taken at 20:58:40 which I changed to 20:59:01.  You can see where the latter appears (note you have to "save metadata" before it actually updates that field, otherwise it is just in the catalog), but there are a lot of other fields, including the first three which are OS level file fields.

Programs that use something like "Date Taken" can choose which of these to use if they are missing or inconsistent.  And some programs create inconsistent data.  Add to that the redundancy (e.g. above with IFD0 segment and Exif segment both having Date/Time original and different). 

If you have files with inconsistent data, there are a couple approaches you can take.  You can affect some, but not all, with Lightroom metadata changes.  You can use a tool like EXIFTOOL to affect others, or copy one field to another offline. 

I'm sorry I can't help more explicitly, if this does not get you going, how about a very explicit example (a dump of the data as above would be helpful, as you can't just say "date created", sadly, and know which is which).


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## Wernfried (Jan 9, 2018)

Ferguson said:


> Here's an example of a file dumped with EXIFTOOL (which I recommend as useful for exploring metadata):
> 
> 
> ```
> ...




You can also use the build-in shortcut "Time:All":


```
c:\Temp>exiftool -s -g0:1 -Time:All IMGL7191.CR2
---- File:System ----
FileModifyDate                  : 2017:12:31 13:07:55+01:00
FileAccessDate                  : 2018:01:08 13:19:39+01:00
FileCreateDate                  : 2018:01:08 13:19:39+01:00
---- EXIF:IFD0 ----
ModifyDate                      : 2017:12:31 13:07:54
---- EXIF:ExifIFD ----
DateTimeOriginal                : 2017:12:31 13:07:54
CreateDate                      : 2017:12:31 13:07:54
SubSecTime                      : 00
SubSecTimeOriginal              : 00
SubSecTimeDigitized             : 00
---- MakerNotes:Canon ----
TimeZone                        : +01:00
TimeZoneCity                    : Paris
DaylightSavings                 : Off
---- EXIF:GPS ----
GPSTimeStamp                    : 12:05:43.691
GPSDateStamp                    : 2017:12:31
---- Composite ----
GPSDateTime                     : 2017:12:31 12:05:43.691Z
SubSecCreateDate                : 2017:12:31 13:07:54.00
SubSecDateTimeOriginal          : 2017:12:31 13:07:54.00
SubSecModifyDate                : 2017:12:31 13:07:54.00
```


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