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dealer390
Participant
May 17, 2019
Answered

Is there a "This Day In History" filter in Lightroom?

  • May 17, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 2721 views

Does anyone know of an easy way to filter a Lightroom library to show only the pictures taken on a particular day and month, but of any year?  I've got 18k personal pictures and I'm working on a "This Day in History" themed project.  So far, the best I can do is use Metadata filter to show individual dates, so I'm searching for every year from 1999 to 2018, for say, May 16.  Then tomorrow I'll search every year for May 17, etc.  Since that's rather tedious, I appreciate your help.

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Correct answer John Waller

Couple of options given here if you read through the discussion.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/smart-collection-on-this-day.28865/

3 replies

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 17, 2019

This kind of search can be easier within a systematic capture-date-based folder structure or naming system.

In my own case, I follow a strict and unadorned folder system of YYYY / MM / DD - enlivened by keywords and collections and other metadata which report what each individual photo is about, and other such management to do with its particular purposes and statuses.

A given photo's source file might, in my setup, be at "D: \ files \ library \ 2016 \ 05 \ 04 \ filename.ext"

So if I wanted to find everything taken on the 4th day of the month (any month, any year), that can easily be included in Smart Collection criteria since "04" is the direct folder name for all those images.

If I wanted to find everything taken in May (any year), I now need to refer to the next level up - so I run a Rob Cole plugin which adds parent folder, and grandparent folder, to the available criteria.

I might add a second criterion alongside, say that it should be taken ALL: on day 04 (folder), in month 05 (parent folder) - giving all Star Wars Day photos regardless of year.

An entirely separate method is to include date text in standard format, within file names or within folder names.

For example: the above photo might precede camera filename with capture date - "2016-05-04 Imgp02054.ext".

If such a system is carefully chosen you can search on (say) "-05-04" for the same result (I find these separating dashes helpful since with "20160504", a search on "0504" would also pick up images taken during April 2005: and, "0504" may occur within an image sequence number otherwise).

Unfortunately a "wildcard search" does not work here - if you put in "????0504" literal-minded LR looks for filenames which start with four question marks. That's one downside, from permitting whatever characters people like, in naming!

My own strict filing structure, and/or this addition of capture date into naming, can be executed automatically and end-to-end by LR without any user intervention, at time of physical import (Copy from camera card). This saves the user time, and needless tedium.

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    dbwell
    Participant
    November 20, 2020

    Thanks. This works really well as I have my photographs stored as well in a yyyy-mm-dd folder system. Per your suggestion I made a Smart Collection with a filter that says, for all photos taken on, say, November 20 of any year:

    Folder 'ends with' '-11-20'.

    Works like a charm in a single line filter.

    ...

    And as a check, I have a Smart Collection which uses a filtering system based on a stack of filters for each year going back to the beginning of my digital catalog (c.2000). This was my original crude way of setting up a 'day of the year' filter. Each filter line in the stack says:

    Capture Date is 2020-mm-dd

    Capture Date is 2019-mm-dd

    Capture Date is 2018-mm-dd

    .

    .

    Capture Date is 2000-mm-dd.

    This older filter system works o.k. for a 'this day in history' filter' but I have to manually change the -dd value for each new date search. And once a month I have to change the -mm value

     

    ..

     

    Using the new filter based on your suggestion (a much easier filter) to my old way of filtering for a specific calendar date each year, I can look at the search totals and see if the resulting counts are the same. They should be. If not, I can dig deeper and see where the difference lies and correct my LR catalog if necessary (occasionally I place photos in the wrong date file).

     

    Thanks again. Terrific advice.

    John Waller
    Community Expert
    John WallerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    May 17, 2019

    Couple of options given here if you read through the discussion.

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/smart-collection-on-this-day.28865/

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    dealer390Author
    Participant
    May 17, 2019

    John,

    Thanks, I didn't find that blog when I went searching.  I'll try the smart collection method after work.

    Tony_See
    Tony_See
    Inspiring
    May 17, 2019

    I would say you want this done inside Lightroom of course, and I'm sure there's third party plugins that will get you over the line, but I've attached a screen shot from Find Any File that I use with Mac OS.

    Its very successful . . . maybe that could get you started. This example is set find Nikon NEF files although any file type can be used.

    D
    dealer390Author
    Participant
    May 17, 2019

    Tony, thanks for this solution; I like the simplicity.  Fortunately most of my pictures were digitally created the same day as they were actually created (there's a handful whose capture date had to be edited for various reasons).  Thanks.

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