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Participating Frequently
December 10, 2022
Question

Edit Capture Time not working

  • December 10, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 803 views

I have a large number of old photographs that were recently digitized.  I want to change the capture date to the date on which a photograph was taken (i.e. change 8/22/2022 to 6/15/1970).  I know how to use "Edit Capture Time" to change the date for one photo, but I recently learned that it does not work the same with multiple photographs.  More specifically, it preserves the time gap established when the photographs were originally taken.  To refer to my example, I might have 10 photos from 6/15/1970, but when I select all of them and use Edit Capture time, the first photo might be reset for 6/15/1970, but the second photo might be 6/16 or 6/18 depending on when the imagine was originally digitized.

 

I've been looking around in the Support Community and I cannot find a feature within Lightroom that will enable me to change the capture date to an identical date with groups of photographs.  Am I missing something?  Does anybody have any ideas?

 

Thanks.

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2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 10, 2022

Another option on macOS is a utility application such as A Better Finder Attributes (paid software).

 

 

If you think you’ll need to correct attributes only for files inside Lightroom Classic, the Capture Time to EXIF plug-in would be simpler, more direct, and more affordable. I use A Better Finder Attributes so that I can correct a wide range of file attributes for any file type, and for applications other than Lightroom Classic. But mostly I use it to put the correct capture date/time into EXIF metadata, since the Edit Capture Time command in Lightroom Classic doesn’t do that for images from a scanner.

 

If you decide to use an external utility to correct metadata for files that are already in a Lightroom Classic catalog, remember that after making corrections you need to select those files in Lightroom Classic and choose Metadata > Read Metadata from Files.

Participating Frequently
December 10, 2022

Thanks.  I think my work will be limited to Lightroom, so I went with Capture Time to EXIF.  But I'll make a note about A Better Finder Attributes.  I may need that in the future.  Thanks for this helpful information.

johnrellis
Legend
December 10, 2022

Hard to believe, but LR doesn't have that ability built-in.  Use the Capture Time To EXIF plugin instead.

Participating Frequently
December 10, 2022

Thanks.  This is exactly the information I needed.  I'm good to go.