More Image Time/Date Questions

Question

I hate to keep bringing up Time/Date/Time Zone related issues, but it seems I have another...
I have certain images for which I have changed the date and time and time zone. The metadata reflects the proper time, date and time zone, but oddly, when I filter the images based on "Capture Day of Month" I get results that cause me problems.
For example, I have an image that was shot on 1/15/2007 at 2:14 AM GMT + 7:00. This is what the Metadata tells me. When I go to Metadata -> Adjust Date and Time, it tells me that the Original was shot on 1/14/2007 at 2:14 PM. (It doesn't tell me the Time Zone of the original here).
When I do a search in this project for all images shot on the 15th day of the month, this image does not show up in my results. The metadata says 1/15, but the original says 1/14. This is an issue for filtering purposes and leaves me wondering how many images get left out of my filters when I apply them.
This could be an odd case because I might not have managed the time/date/time zone properly on import. I did try to change them to the correct time/date/time zone after the fact and thought all was good until now.
Does anyone know how I can rectify this situation? I just want to make sure that the time/date/time zone of all of my images is correct.

Answer 1

Nathan,
I just got back from some travels. I just checked again and it seems to now be working. It really is the strangest thing. Basically, I checked it both ways. I went into a project that had images from multiple days (I now want to separate my images into projects by the day they were shot on). I picked two filter scenarios: 1) "Date", where I specified, "Capture Day of Month" "is" and I typed "15" and 2) "EXIF", where I specified, "Capture Day of Month" "is" and I typed "15". It did not work when I had all of the images lumped into one project. I subsequently manually sorted my images by looking at the date of each one before moving them into their new respective projects. Now that they are in their own projects, it seems to working.
Aperture has a long way to go to make time management simple and accurate. There are a lot of things going on (where the image was shot, what the camera time was set to, which time zone the computer is in when you import the images, how the time settings on the computer are configured, etc, etc...). It really is a lot to manage. Thankfully, Aperture allows you to correct these issues, but it doesn't make the task simple nor straightforward.
Perhaps it is a camera issue and not a software issue? Maybe camera manufacturers need to make their products more like our phones, where the time is registered automatically based on your GPS location. I am not sure if GPS enabled cameras have this capability. The computer should be able to recognize this GPS stamped time and embed the data directly into the image. Science fiction? Perhaps.
There are far too many obstacles that get in the way and mistakes are easily made along the way. As mentioned, Aperture allows you to correct these "mishaps", but not with the type of ease you would hope for. Unless you shoot and upload all of your images in your own time zone and have your camera clock and computer clock synced and set correctly, you are bound to have inaccuracies along the way. This is a shame for those who try to manage this stuff down to the "T".
Sorry for my rant as I have digressed from the topic at hand.
I have begun to import my images under a system mentioned by another user in a different thread (I will have to go back to find his alias). I basically set my camera to UTC time and then upon import set the actual time to the time zone that I shot the images in. This saves me from having to reset my camera every time I change time zones and from also having to adjust it during daylight savings time.
This alone seems to have solved my issues for now and going forward. I still run into issues upon import though from time to time that are perplexing as they are frustrating. For example, I just got back from Houston, Texas. I live on the East Coast. The first issue I had is that the import dialogue box doesn't tell you the "Adjusted Date and Time" correctly (or so it seems to me). After importing the images, the date and time is correct, but this is not reflected during import, nor communicated in the import dialogue which always confuses the heck out of me.
I blame part of this on the fact that Aperture is probably seeing the original in UTC time. It is then correcting it based on the time zone that I chose (CST), only I am importing in EST. It all adds up to a bunch of confusion. Even after trying to decipher it all and by doing the math, I still don't think it adds up correctly in the import dialogue. When I make adjustments to the time, date and zone during import, the data always looks incorrect in the import dialogue. This I have tested over and over again. I would be surprised if I am the only one who notices this. I can't figure out why it happens. The good news is that the actual images do have the correct date, time and time zone after import, but this anomaly still makes it confusing during import.
The second thing I am noticing is that these images, which do show up correct, don't always import correctly when you auto-split your projects into days. For instance, if the original image (UTC time) was on the 15th, but the corrected image ends up on the 14th, that image doesn't get sorted with the other images that were shot on the 14th (even though this image was shot on the 14th in the time zone you shot it. This is obviously the time and date you want associated with the image). This again makes importing a pain in the you know what and very confusing.
A third thing I've noticed is that there is no way to check only the images for a certain day. You have to uncheck everything and then check (individually) each image from a given day. This is not a good system nor workflow. In order to avoid it, you have to import everything at once and then separate your images into projects later. This also isn't a good system for obvious reasons.
I don't mean to turn this thread into a "What's wrong with Aperture import" discussion. Most of what I am describing would probably be better served as part of a feedback request to the Aperture team. I will certainly get to that as well.
There is another confusing thing to me though based on the original part of this discussion thread. The image that I was originally describing - the one where I shot it on 01/15/07 at 2:14 AM GMT +7:00 (which shows up as originally being shot on 01/14/07 at 2:14 PM (I get this by going to "Metadata" -> "Adjust Date and Time". The thing I don't understand is why the original even says that. When I adjust images, I always apply those adjustments to the Master. How do I actually get this to reflect, as it seems that it is still being read with an original time as the incorrect time and date? Also, why - upon making a time and date adjustment - does Aperture tell you that this action cannot be undone? It seems you can make as many changes as you want, and even changed the images back to the original time and date.
Anyway, that's it for now. I hope I haven't confused you with this lengthy discourse.
Mac