General question about dates

Question

I'm starting to scan my old slides and negatives and am scratching my head about "fuzzy" dates.  Sometimes it's not clear when a photo was taken, so either a date range, such as 9-12/1970 is used, or maybe something like Early/1970.  How does one handle that situation in pse?

Answer 1

I maintain a library of historical and family photographs and I have struggled with this challenge for years.  I finally have a solution.  I use IDImager, a digital asset management application used mainly by professional photographers.  It has (parametric) editing capability and some users (like myself) are able to use it exclusively for their digital photo needs.  Others use it in combination with apps like Lightroom, Photoshop, PS Elements.
It (http://www.idimager.com) does not natively address the fuzzy (unknown or partially known) date problem, but does allow the end user to create and manage custom XMP fields which opens the door to make this problem solvable to the end user.  IDImager is written in Delphi and allows user-created scripts to run within IDImager.  Users can submit scripts to the IDImager Resource Repository to share their scripts with other users.
I have submitted a collection of scripts and custom XMP definitions to the repository called "HouseOfUlrich toolset for unknown and partial dates".  It is a collection of custom XMP fields and scripts that make it easy to tag and manage photos with "fuzzy" dates within the existing framework of IDI without a major disruption to the workflow. Meaning... it doesn't take much longer(if any) to assign a "partial" date to a photo than to assign an exact one and images are still sortable and searchable without being treated separately from photos will fully known date/times.
You can download the toolset free from: http://repository.idimager.com/cgi-bin/idi_script_repository.exe?action=scriptDetails&scri ptID=567594c9-1b90-4f94-4641-4fccb60dc8ea  and read the readme file for all the details.  But to summarize, the toolset, without modification supports
1) a boolean value to indicate the date is unknown/partial (use this unless the FULL date and time is known)
2) a boolean value to indicate the date is approximate
3) fields to store year, month, day (and these fields DO support ## - special character to indicate unknown).
4) scripts that can "convert" traditional EXIF date/time fields to the Custom XMP fields, leaving the original EXIF unchanged, of course.
IDImager allows for custom XMP to be used in rename functions, so I can employ the custom XMP fields I use to automatically create/change filenames to create naming conventions like:
[email protected] (to indicate photo taken at 11:23:23 PM on March 3, 2007)
1910-05-##@##-##-##_circa.jpg (to indicate a photo taken ABOUT May of 1910.)
192#-12-25@##-##-##.jpg (to indicate a photo taken on Dec 25 sometime in the 1920s.)
I have chosen to implement using the "approximate" value in combination with months to indicate times of year.  For example, for photos in summer of 1935, I would use Circa (approx value) 07 1935.  But both IDImager and my toolset are open-ended and would allow for users to define and use alternate XMP fields like Early,Mid,Late or Spring,Summer,Fall,Winter.  I choose the numeric values corresponding to months and the "approximate" value because they are more easily lent to other scripting and sorting functions within both IDImager and the operating system.
Something else that could be implemented, although I have chosen against, is the use of a "date range" using one field for "as early as" and another for "as late as".  I see this method as more trouble than its worth as it would not lend well to sorting, name, searching etc.  I think the ability to set year,month,day all to either known/unknown in combination with defining the entire date as approximate is better.  For rare cases where one wanted to store the fact that a photo was taken as early as/as late as....I would recommend just storing that info as a string in the description field.  For example, I have photos taken of soldier's during WWI.  If it is not possible to determine whether late or early in the war, I would tag it as Circa 1916 (or 1910s).  But could still use the description field to write "taken during WWI (probably 1914 - 1918)".
One other final note: If Adobe or some other player in the digital photo market does ever create an updated XMP or EXIF schema that support unknown or partially known dates, it will be possible, with IDImager, to migrate the information I store in custom XMP fields to the new standard fields.
hope these resources help other solve the same challenges I finally overcame.  happy tagging.
Brian