Modify Picture Date Field

[IHipschman]

Is there a way to change some of the extended attribute fields - specifically the picture date?

Thanks

[Kilmatead]

If you're not using some form of photo-handling software (such as IrfanView, etc) which may or may not offer direct editing of such fields, you can always just use the Properties item from the context menu.

Right-click a picture file, select Properties, and click the "Details" tab field. By mousing-over many of the photo-specific properties then displayed, an editing field will appear (on those that are user-accessible).



If that's not what you're looking for, perhaps some form of (ever popular, yet essentially unnecessary) photo-handling software would be better suited for this task.

To be honest, I'm the wrong person to advise on such specialised software, never having seen a need for any of them. I'm boring that way.

[IHipschman]

Thanks Kilmatead. You're almost the right person . It's the correct field and the date worked fine, but it automatically inserts the current time of day as the time. Is there a way to update the time in that field?

Time.png

[Kilmatead]

That's curious - apparently not! Windows seems to think you would only need to edit the date, not the time. How rude of them. (Yet typical.)

Perhaps some form of specialised software is your only hope for real granularity in this case. I have no doubt other users will happily suggest their favourites.

[IHipschman]

Thanks again Kilmatead. Hopefully, as you suggest, someone will know of some piece of software that can edit this field. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

[Kilmatead]

Since I like to follow-up on things and see if I can find a solution, I spent an interesting half-an-hour perusing the web for EXIF-data editors which would allow you to modify this timestamp.

It turns out that the popular ones such as IrfanView and XNView actually cannot edit this data, they can only display it if it exists. Thus, they seem to be useless.

Next, I tried this weird little programme (recommended from other sites) called PhotoME which again does not seem to allow editing, yet displays more technical nonsense than anyone would ever care to know about. What is wrong with all these developers? Lots of "reading" mechanisms, but rather lacking when it comes to writing.

Curiously, the only free utility I could find that would actually do it is something that is out-of-development, and even the author himself tries to steer you away from using. It's called Exifer, and while it's not the friendliest thing, or the easiest to use, it does work for editing XCIF fields in a GUI, including the one you want, where all others apparently fail.

Hopefully someone will have a better suggestion (at least something still in development). I can't remember the last time I installed so many useless programmes that promise so much yet deliver nothing at all. Perhaps some evil demon has corrupted the photo-editing industry and decided that only professional-grade (expensive?) software is acceptable. Madness.

Well, I tried. I can verify that Excifer works, but perhaps not as a long-term solution. I am surprised that an industry so based upon human vanity and the self-delusion of the world presents such an unfortunate public face in the software realm. Weird. Maybe EXIF is proprietary? Or maybe no one uses it anymore? Photophiles address!

[IHipschman]

Many thanks again Kilmatead. You gave me the information I needed in letting me know that what I needed was an EXIF editor. I did a little searching and found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... ta_editors

Working from that list I tried http://www.relliksoftware.com/exifdatechanger/, which worked perfectly. Others may want a more general program, but all I needed to change was the date/time.

[Kilmatead]

Ah, perfect... apparently there must be a wider (if specialised) market for this sort of thing. Twenty quid for a timestamp-changer seems a wee steep to me, but maybe I'm just in the wrong business? Why is it that when I did the same thing for Reparse-Points all the kids on the playground just laughed at me? <Sigh>

A lesson for us all - make something pink and charge 20-spondoolies for it, and you're flyin'! (I can see Nikos nodding his head glumly under the weight of silent defeat.)

It's also interesting (read: suspicious) just how many of these things are broken and left unfixed... there are numerous free online ones which require uploading your photos, but they seem to be in a constant state of disrepair or abandoned. That EXIF demon really gets around.

[namsupo]

Some file managers have this built in. I won't say which since it perks Kilmatead's paranoia up no end

[spiffy]

You could try this 'Time Stamp Modifier for JPEG files' from here http://www.muralpix.com/jpgtime/.
Its quite old (9 years), but I've used it a couple of times successfully.

HTH

[IHipschman]

Kilmatead,

Just wanted to mention that the Rellik product I downloaded is free. They have a "professional" version, but I didn't look at that one.

[Kilmatead]

Fair enough, but that free-version only supports JPG - if you want proper lossless PNG, RAW, etc, you're out of luck. Not saying there's anything wrong with your man charging for it... but... $20? For timestamps? The world's a scary place.

At least spiffy's JPGTime offers humour :

I cannot promise I will respond to all the mails regarding this program; I am quite busy, and similarly as Charles Petzold's cat, my dog refuses to learn C++ programming.