Capture time and folder organization question

hi there,
i just imported a a ton of photos to lightroom this past weekend. a number of photos are dated incorrectly. i changed the dates with "edit capture time." now, i want the files to be resorted into appropriate dated folders. does lightroom do this or do i have to manually move the images from a folder labeled with the old date to a folder labeled with the new date?
also, when i organize by capture time, the photos in library are still not in chronological order by capture time. i am using lightroom 2 on mac.
thanks!

There'll be one top folder, but LR wants to organize by date as you import, which is just right for most, and I am not suggesting eschewing this. Just on a mass of older images, etc., I personally wouldn't bother sorting them by date/folder unless you have a compelling reason, such as one's boss saying "that's how WE do it here...."
I am a bit of a renegade, perhaps, in that I never use camera generated names/numbers*, and usually name the images after I've culled and edited, and (shudder) change the name of the folder from date to event or location. There are brilliant folk who'll say this is wrong, but it works for me. Nicely!
* If you're backing up at the same time as Import, you're pretty much stuck with the camera numbers, afaik.

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How can I bulk sort by capture time and bulk rename files off multiple cameras?

I have found many renaming utilities, including bridge, but I have not run across any that allows bulk / batch capture time sort and rename?
I can sort by capture time in Lightroom 3, but when I export it puts the files back in original order....maybe I am doing something wrong....that would not surprise me.
I just tried sorting by Capture Time in LR3 and then exporting and renaming.... renamed but not in the capture time sort order....
so I am open to any suggestions... I shoot 2 cameras 99% of the time so I do not need to change lenses.
Thanx in advance.

How can I bulk rename music files in reverse order from artist - song name to songname - artist.
I actually dont need to rename the actual files.
Its just i have a huge txt list of 100,000 music names that are listed as so.
I wonder if we haven't misunderstood what you were asking for. Could it be that you have not a huge file, but just a huge list of names in many small files. If that's the case, you should rather use the following script instead of the previous one.
Since this script does not rename the files, make a backup of your files before running it.
set theFolder to choose folder -- the folder containing your text files
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repeat with thisName in theNames
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repeat with thisFile in theTextFiles
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display dialog "Done!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1
Message was edited by: Pierre L.

Photo sync from pc to iPhone to keep folder organization question

I would appreciate some assistance on HOW to sync my photos from my pc to the iPhone while KEEPING them in their nicely organized folders?
When I tried the first time, I had it sync "my photos" folder which contains 79 folders, which include sub folders themselves. What it got was all 3000 photos came across to the iPhone all in 1 folder. No sub folders at all.
I re sync'd and deleted every photo from the iPhone to try again. On my second attempt, after reading all the archived questions and answers here, I tried going into specific photo folders and syncing to the iPhone. I tried doing one by one, but when I checked the iPhone after two folders, it only takes the last one, deleting the first one.
So, with all this said, HOW do you get multiple folders of photos copied to the iPhone?
thanks,
Richard

Thanks strakegl1800, You helped me.
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3. Also, it is good that the original folder called "Camera Roll" is also still there, but I would like to know where it shows up on my PC.
Can you help ?

File import questions and folder display questions

I am running LR3 on Win 7 x64. I have a few questions.
I have a hard drive assigned to drive letter "B:\" Why doesn't the file imported see this drive in the list of drives? I have to use the "other drives" and browse every time that I want to add files from this disk. Other drives, including networked drives are fine.
When importing from a main folder and including subfolders, is there a way to filter files in any manner? I never want to import web galleries that I have made in bridge, for example. These files have very small JPG files, thumbnails and web images. Is there a way to exclude them form consideration whilst importing? Is there a way to reveal and show the thumbnails with the folder structure? I don't want to have to browse to every folder individually when I am trying to import all useful images from an entire disk. If LR would at least show the folder structure of the subfolders when you select photos from a top level folder, this would help. How can I do this?
In the library view of folders, how I filter on all files in one disk? I can select a folder under the disk and see just that folder, but LR will not allow me to select the entire disk. Is there a way to do this?
How can I display the entire folder structure in the laibrary panel? Some folders are not showing their top level folders that they are inside of. How do I reveal this information?
In the library module, how can I filter on file dimensions? I thought that I had seen this, but I can no longer find this. Sorting by file dimensions would also be an option to accomplish what I am trying to do. I need to delete all thumbnail images and tiny images from the catalog. Is there an easy way to do this?

No, because you don't import a whole disk, you only import images. And the toplevel disk bar you see there is the disk where the top level folder is stored, not the entire disk.
Let me make this clear. When I want to view an entire disk, I am only wanting to select images that I have already imported, not the entire disk including images that I have NOT imported.
I am not sure if you dont understand what I am saying or what. If you have folders of images inside a top level folder, you can easily select the top folder to see all subfolders that you have imported. Why can't I select the disk as the top level folder to see all of the images that I have imported on that disk?
I have a cattelog that has images from 8 different disks. I use removable drive bays so all 8 disks are not available at any given time. I just want the ability to select all images that I have imported on a disk, just like you can do at the folder level. I am at a loss as to why this is a problem.
My point about bridge was that LR is a far superior program for organizing images due to its database. But LR is lacking in some features that could have easily been put into it. If bridge can do the type of filtering that it does without a good database engine, then certainly LR could and should do it. In no way do I want to use Bridge to manage cattelogs with 150,000 images. That would be insane. I have no issue with the fact that you have to import your images first to use LR. It has to be this way to work with the database. My issue is that the filtering is not nearly as comprehensive as bridge.
I dont need help with my workflow. Back when I shot many of the images that I am importing now into LR, there was no lightroom. My workflow was much different back then than it is now. My comments were that I assumed that LR could do things that it cannot, not that I needed help with my current workflow. Much of the issues that I have now with LR are due to the old workflow and trying to import only the raw images.

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Insert the 1st install disk and boot up while holding down the C key. Then when you get to the second screen for installation look in the menu bar under Utilities and run disk utility. Verify your drive and repair it if it needs it. You have something corrupted or your hard drive may have crashed.

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How is your iPhone's display different?
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Time and Pitch Machine questions

Hello,
I am a recent (and so far very happy) convert to mac and it's audio environment. I knew there would be some "re/un-learning" to do and I have come across this:
1. I need to slow down a section of an audio track (saxophone) to match a piano accompaniment. The student played a bit too fast in one spot. Instead of re-recording, I assumed I could, in post, fix the problem. I read and followed the manual's instructions (95% sure on this) on selecting the section, opening T&P machine, choosing parameters, etc., and then:
When I pre-listen to the section, there is NO change/alteration in the speed. Even if I go extreme (just to see if it is working) I get nothing. Does anyone have any insight? I don't want to write this to disc until I know it is correct.
2. One more thing: I come from a PC world of Sony Vegas and Sonar, where you can use an "envelope" line to "draw" in various changes (like playback speed) over an audio file. Reaper also does this. I really like this feature, but I have not (yet) found it in Logic 8. Is it there?
Thanks,
Scott

Digitalfuzz1 wrote:
1. I need to slow down a section of an audio track (saxophone) to match a piano accompaniment. The student played a bit too fast in one spot. Instead of re-recording, I assumed I could, in post, fix the problem. I read and followed the manual's instructions (95% sure on this) on selecting the section, opening T&P machine, choosing parameters, etc., and then:
When I pre-listen to the section, there is NO change/alteration in the speed. Even if I go extreme (just to see if it is working) I get nothing. Does anyone have any insight? I don't want to write this to disc until I know it is correct.
A simple method I use is to make a backup/duplicate of the section that needs to be changed. Save it as a new audio file and import it to the Audio Bin.
Using the duplicate, carry out your tempo/pitch change and click Done ( or whatever the button says ). That way, if you don't like the result, you won't have damaged your original file. In fact, all destructive edits should be done on a copy of the original audio file.

How to reorganize folders and photos based on image capture time

I made the mistake of not carefully importing pictures from iPhoto and now have a bit of a mess. My photos show up in the iPhoto Library folder with the year/month/day (when viewing the Lightroom navigator) but then they seem in almost random order. Lightroom doesn't show them under any year/month/date. Is there any way to get Navigator to organize them like it organizes my new imports ? (YYYY/MM/DD etc). I may or may not have lost much of my iPhoto metadata. I was hoping Lightroom could just go through all the pictures (mostly JPG's) and just use the capture time to build it's database.
I have one additional issue which is when I moved machines, Lightroom seems to have bad meta-data for many of my pictures. It's possible that i just put these photos in the wrong physical directory but again, I was hoping I could get Lightroom to just scan the image capture time and put the pictures back where they belong.
Ben

do other kinds of files ever show up in that folder or just those pdf files?
If the latter then it should be pretty simple. make a workflow consisting of a single action "print finder items" (or "print images") and save the workflow as a plugin for folder actions. then attach this folder action to the folder in question. to do that control-click on that folder in finder and go to more->attach a folder action.

Editing Capture time

Ok Chaps... I am new to LR... but have recently found a load of old family photos - dating back to late 1800's and am going to start scanning them to share with the family....I can change the capture time using LR... (well done for reading the manual) BUT... I am a bit disappointed that there doesn't appear to a utility in LR that re-indexes / organizes the photos into the appropriate year/month folder. I have found that the only way to do this is to export - delete and re-import
So there's the scenario.... here's the question (s)
Is there a util that can do this inside LR
If not
do you guys know of any utils that I can use to change the capture time so that it imports directly into the appropriate folder...
and another thing....
Any one seen duplicate year and months appear on the folder structure when importing photo's again a bit frustrating
seeing things like
2009 10 (images)
2009 480

Steve, I've been through this with hundreds of our family photos, also dating back to the 1800's. If I know the exact date of a photo, then I set capture time accordingly.
What you are likely to find, however, is that you'll have a number of photos that you can barely date to the correct year, let alone a specific month or day. In those cases, setting a capture time and having a folder structure based on capture year is awkward at best.
So like John, I use a couple of folders that are convenient only to my scanning & processing workflow. I then use a file naming convention that allows me to sort & view photos in what I believe to be the correct order, based on clues in the photos and other information. Examples are:
If I know the exact date of an image to be February 10, 1891, then the image filename is 18910210_nnnn, where 'nnnn' is any sequence number/letters/descriptor convenient at the time that I scan. In this case, I will also set the capture date for the photo. For all other examples below, the capture date is left blank.
If I know for certain that an image date is February 1891, but I don't know the day, then the filename is 18910200_nnnn.
If I know for certain that an image date is 1891, but I don't know the month and day, then the filename is 18910000_nnnn.
If I *think* an image dates to February 1891, then the filename is 18910200ca_nnnn, where 'ca' is common notation for "circa."
If I *think* an image dates only to 1891, then the filename is 18910000ca_nnnn.
If I have absolutely no idea as to the year of a photo, then I set the filename to 99990000ca_nnn. In this case, I fill in other metadata the best that I can with the hope of dating the photo later.
With the above convention, I can then view my photos in what I believe to be the correct order, in LR or Windows, with firm and circa dates intermingled with each other. This is very helpful, because when you see circa photos next to firmly dated photos, for a given subject, then you can refine the circa dates (and alter the filenames accordingly). The 9999 photos show up at the bottom of the list, so I can readily go to them for further research. Naturally, I enter a lot of other metadata (keywords, descriptions, locations) so I can search and order my photos in numerous other ways besides dates. As you learn more about LR, you'll find collections to be useful too.
I hope this helps, and good luck with the family archive. It's been a blast for me to this for my family, and to publish a book (Blurb) to so other members of our family can get a decent copy of the photos too.
Gary

Find photos with matching capture times?

I've been using Lightroom as a way to develop RAW images for sometime but I have only recently started to use it as an organizer in a serious way. I've transferred 25000+ photos from various Photoshop Elements catalogs into one Lightroom (2.6) catalog.
Due to the way I imported from Elements, I have a number a versions of the same photo - for example: DSC4041.JPG and DSC4041_edited.JPG.
I would like to focus my attention on photos that have the same capture time and do some tidying up of the new catalog. While I can sort by capture time which would put these "duplicates" together, 25000 photos is a bit many to glance through.
I cannot discover a way to filter the photos to show just the near duplicates. I can use the Stack by capture time to create stacks of photos with the same capture time but then I cannot discover a way to persuade Lightroom to show me only stacked photos?
Any suggestions?

Thanks for this suggestion. My folder heirarchy is already organized by date so I could do what you suggest - but it still basically involves looking at each day and effectively glancing (however briefly) at too many shots.
I've decided instead that I will hunt down duplicates or near duplicates in the file system itself - remove what should go and then ask Lightroom to resync the folder heirarchy which should remove the duplictes. I always write metadata changes directly to the photos and I have backups of the catalogs and the photos should my approach create problems.

Capture time as default in LR catalog

Currently added order is the default - always when opening a catalog or LR, added order is selected.
I would prefer capture time as default sorting order and not having to select it each time.
Is there something I have missed?
Micha

This is is strange.
I close Lightroom, after closing I looked thru the Prefernces file, and it says clearly default sort order Capture Time. (maybe because it closed when having changed recently used folder sort order to Capture Time)
My import process is as follows:
I copy files into a manually created new folder. (in Windows Explorer)
After this, I import the files at their current location into LR.
When staring to browse thru the files, the sort order is "Added Order"
I change the sort order to "Capture time"
After this procedure, the folder is "always" Capture Time sorted just as I want.
But why is the Preferences file default Capture time and still all new imported folders are Added order?

Lr no longer sorting images by capture time

Good afternoon,
I've been using Adobe Lightroom 2 with Photoshop CS4 without any problems.
However, recently I've been having problems with the order in which LR is storing my images.
I work in Raw and always start from LR. From there I open my image in Photoshop before making any adjustments and then saving as a 16bit PSd or Tiff.
On the first save the psd/tiff file is stored as normal in LR - i.e next to the original raw and virtual copy. But now, when I return to make any alterations in Photoshop the re-saved psd file is moved to the very beginning of the Lightroom library. The box around the image is blacked out and against it it has a message '2 of 0' and the phrase 'photo is part of a stack'.
I don't understand why it's doing this and I don't use stacks purposely. I just want my images all on display, next to each other for ease of use.
All my photos are sorted by capture time and even though the files in question are of the correct time it still doesn't stop Lightroom from placing it at the top, well away from where it ought to be.
It's not a massive issue but it is quite annoying when you have thousands of images in your catalogue, and it's never done it before. I've restored LR to the default settings but it hasn't made any difference.
Please can anyone help.

Thank you very much.
I tried as suggested
> Stacking> Auto Stack By Capture Time
and that moved the psd file back into line.
I've tried opening up a few of the psd files into Photoshop and re-saving and so far so good! They're still alongside the original raw files.
The strange thing is that the sort order is/was set to capture date so I don't know why it moved it in the first place.
Thank you again. Much appreciated.

How to Change Capture YEAR with Edit Capture Time – Mac OS 10.6

Hello,
I have very frustrating problem with Lightroom 2 (latest version). I have read that it is possible to fully edit the capture time and, crucially, year of a set of photos. Unfortunately, unlike all the FAQs I've read, I have no option to change the year:
FAQ screenshot:
My dialogue box:
There is no year option I can see, only month, day of month and time.
Please help me.
EGP.

I got the correct answer. Included here for posterity.
Well, it's not the file. The file's showing the right settings on mine.
If you look in the Metadata panel, do the dates appear correct there?
And, really odd question of the day... if you go into system preferences > language and text > formats, have you customised any of the formats? I just have a really vague recollection that it had an effect once upon a time.
Yahaw!!! That's the answer!
I had a custom time set up on my computer. When I was on Leopard you had to edit the date formats to allow the clock that shows in the top right of the menu bar to use the format "weekday/dayofmonth/month/time". That must have been it
Thanks a bunch!!

Capture time is not saved into JPG file! (LR 2.0)

Hi,
I have this JPG file with no EXIF data whatsoever but I know it's capture time so I went to Metadata » Edit Capture Time and changed the capture time. Now, on Lightroom in the Library module, I can see the capture time there and then I save the metadata with Metadata » Save Metadata to File. However, when I check the file on Windows Explorer, the capture time (or date taken as named by Windows) is not specified at all.
Why isn't the "Save Metadata do File" working correctly?

@William Porter
I don't have that box checked but it shouldn't matter because I'm not talking about exporting new files to update the metadata. I'm talking about updating the files metadata within the files that are already added to the library.
@Richard Earney
That option was already checked from the beginning but it's not helping. That's exactly why I don't understand why this is not working.
Maybe a bug on LR 2.0 Final?

Lightroom: Capture time for videos imported from iphoto is not showing in metadata

Hi, I imported all my photos and videos from iphoto to Lightroom recently using the iphoto import plugin. I think all my photos were imported but I noticed that all my videos have no capture time, so they became grouped together in my collections. But I think I can still see their capture time in the "grey text" in each photo. Why did this happen and how do I resolve this issue? I really want my capture times to be in the video metadata and also want to see my videos in the right chronological order with my videos. Strangely, videos imported into Lightroom directly from my camera SD card do not have this issue, only the ones imported from iphoto do. Thanks!

LR does not properly handle video metadata in general, and in particular it often botches capture time. Sometimes this works: Select one video, do Metadata > Edit Capture Time, and then click Change All (without actually changing Corrected Time). If that sets the capture time to the correct time, then you can select all the problem videos, do Metadata > Edit Capture Time, and click Change All. If you have a small number of videos, you can manually correct the capture time using Edit Capture Time.
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Capture time and folder organization question

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