Sorting Files From Different Cameras

NG
Posted By
Nick_Galante
Oct 19, 2005
Views
254
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Aloha,

I am a wedding photographer and sometimes use two different cameras. How can I add files from both cameras to a folder and have them sorted by time of exposure?

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Daryl_Pritchard
Oct 19, 2005
Nick,

Perhaps I’m missing something here, as it sounds like what you’re wanting to do is pretty simple: If you place the files from both cameras into the same folder and then simply sort by date (ascending or descending), wouldn’t that do the trick? Perhaps cameras and file transfer software vary in behavior, but I think the timestamp on the file is that at the time the file was created (photo taken) rather than when it was transferred from the camera to the computer.

Regards,

Daryl
AC
Art Campbell
Oct 19, 2005
OK, I’m not sure this will work because you didn’t include any camera/file info, and it is dependant on the camera generating and the original file handling EXIF metadata properly.
But with Nikon NEFs from a D1x, you can do this in Bridge. (You could probably write a PS script to do it in PS, but that’s beyond my expertise):

In Bridge, open one of the source file folders.
Select the files. I’d specify the new, common folder as the destination. In Batch Rename, in the New Filenames Area, select "Date Time" and "Date Created."
Click the + icon to add more info.
In the second line, select "Metadata" and "Exposure Time." Click Rename and step back…

When you open the new folder, the renamed files should show up sorted by time of exposure. If you felt lucky and were only dealing with images shot on one day, you could probably skip the first "Date Time" step, but …

Art
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 19, 2005
I second that. Only caveat can be that files are named the same. (same camera models?)

I use Breeze Downloader Pro to do a managed file transfer from card reader to pc.

DP inserts camera number (based on Cam’s serial) into file name so that image number 1000 from camera 1 won’t ever collide with the same from camera 2.

Rob
AC
Art Campbell
Oct 19, 2005
Daryl,

In Windows, the "file creation" date/time is the time the operating system created the file, not the time the image was taken.

If you look at a file’s metadata you’ll see entries for file properties that include the OS info AND, assuming the EXIF info is handled carefully, an additional entry for "Date Time Original."

So what I think Nick is asking for is a method to sort on that embedded EXIF data. Which I don’t think you can do unless it’s morfed into usable form, such as being incorporated into a new file name.

Art
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Oct 19, 2005
Art,

Thanks…I wasn’t sure about the file timestamp since I’m not at home where I could try out some transfers from my camera. For what I can recall of my images, anytime I sort them by date, I do obtain the order in which the photos were taken, which seems would yield the same result as sorting based upon Date Time Original. However, as I’m dealing only with one camera, perhaps the "gotcha" here is that I may be overlooking the file timestamp on the computer is created at the time of transfer from the camera, which would obviously put things out of sequence if first you transferred all files from Camera 1 and then Camera 2.

Daryl
TM
T_Mike_Hyndman
Oct 19, 2005
Nick,
check the following link, they do a little utility that interogates the exif meta data on the image and converts it into a file name. http://www.storcksoftware.com/setnametotime
HTH
TMH
AC
Art Campbell
Oct 19, 2005
Daryl,

Without looking at your setup… I know the utility that I use to transfer files from my camera’s cards moves the files in sequential order by file name. But the file names are a series of numbers.

So file xxx111 is going to be moved to the hard drive before, and have an earlier creation time, than file xxx222. Which would mean that the sort by date would work, but just as happenstance… With the single camera set up you use.

Nick’s kicker is the second camera and his need to get all the images in time order, no matter which camera was the source for easy wedding album browsing. ;- )

Art
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Oct 19, 2005
Art,

I found some files on this PC that I’d taken with my D70, and sure enough you are correct in what you’ve said. Now, as the consequence of Mike’s pointing out that link for the SetNameToTime utility, I’m $15 poorer…it seemed easily worth the price and I can now use to to improve the cataloging of all my old digital images from my Casio, Olympus, and Nikon cameras.

Mike, thanks for the link! Handy tool.

Daryl
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Oct 20, 2005
After learning of SetNameToTime, I shared this info in another forum where I was told of Breeze Downloader as offering a similar capability. That does appear true based upon the information provided at <http://www.breezesys.com/Downloader/features.htm>, with Breeze Downloader also offering a number of features in addition that may make it a more worthwhile application at $30. I’m not sure if the latter can handle continuous sequences from all camera models, but it does cite using sub-second parameters to distinguish images when shooting fast sequences where the images might otherwise appear to have the same time tag. SetNameToTime accommodates this by apparently just using an index counter when renaming the files, incrementing the index if the name of the file about to be renamed already exists.

Daryl

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