Library module Edit capture time for large batch of photos

[johnjohnlin]

Lightroom Version Number

13.5

Operating System

1. macOS 14 Sonoma

Hi all

I'm looking to edit the capture time for a large batch of photos. Basically, the camera was set to the wrong time and date for the entire 10 day trip. Before I change the time and date for all of the photos, I want to be sure I understand what I'm doing!

First, when I change a batch of photos under "Adjust to a specified date and time" in the Edit Capture Time window, will the time/date for all photos shift by the same interval? It's not just a change in time zones. The date and time were just wrong.

Second, when I specify the time/date adjustment, does it matter which photo of the entire batch I highlight to change? I know the correct time of one photo that is right in the middle of the entire batch of photos. If I change to the correct time for that photo (that is highlighted from within the big batch), will it adjust all of the photos by the same interval?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Johan Elzenga]

All photos will be corrected by the same amount of time, so you can just select all photos, then select any photo as the active photo, and change the time. That should answer both questions, I think.

 

[johnjohnlin]

Perfect, thanks!

 

[johnjohnlin]

I made the change and it has been reflected in a new ordering of photos in All Photographs

Does Lightroom automatically move the photos into Lightroom folders that are currently organized by date?

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Does Lightroom automatically move the photos into Lightroom folders that are currently organized by date?

No, that's one thing it doesn't do when you change dates. But it is not difficult to create a new 'Date' folder and (automatically) move the photos into that folder-
My experience has been with scanning old film images. My approach has been two methods- Change the image dates BEFORE importing to LrC - with a third-party app. Time consuming!
or my preferred method-
Change the Capture Date in Lr-Classic and relocate SELECTED images as follows-
1) Select a parent folder to [Right-Click] and [Create Folder Inside "Selected Parent Folder"]

2) Name the new Folder AND Check [Include selected photos]- All selected photos will move automatically when folder is created!

Done.

 

[Califdan]

@johnjohnlin I'm not sure @Rob_Cullen answered your particular situation.

I think you are currently letting Lrc sort images into dated folders based on a template you selected. Then when you imported the images from this trip they had wrong date and as such were placed in incorrect dated folders. You have now changed the dates on this images but they remain in the wrong folders. Is that correct?

I don't know if you have one folder per day or one per month or one per years but whatever you use, there are a couple ways to fix this.

One method (assuming that you don't have other images in the same fodlers) is to just rename the folders using the Fodlers Panel in LrC to their correct values

A second method is to select all the folders containing these image and sort the grid by date. Then select a series of images that belong in, say, the 2024-07-31 folder (but are in some other folder) and then use the method posted earlier to move them to a new folder for the correct date.

A 3rd (more automated) method is this - assuming you have not edited the images. First save the metadata to disk for all the affected images. Then Remove ("REMOVE" not delete) them from LrC. Now just reimport them from their incorrect fodlers and let Lrc placed them in their proper folders based on the new dates

 

[johnjohnlin]

Thanks. That's the situation that I had in mind.

I actually don't necessarily prefer that they be automatically sorted by date into folders for each day. Is there a way to turn that setting off?

Also, how do I delete an empty folder in Lightroom? Do I "remove" the folder from Lightroom and then go into the Finder and delete the empty folder there?

 

[Califdan]

I actually don't necessarily prefer that they be automatically sorted by date into folders for each day. Is there a way to turn that setting off?

In the import dialog, you can select "Into one folder" rather than "by date". This then let's you name the folder by hand. This is the method I use where I have one folder per shoot, trip, or event. I put these folders under a 'year' parent for convenience.

Also, how do I delete an empty folder in Lightroom? Do I "remove" the folder from Lightroom and then go into the Finder and delete the empty folder there?

Yes

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Regarding the original question, we did write blog on this:

The time on my camera was incorrect—how do I change the capture time?​

The question has been answered comprehensively, but I mention for others that may read through.