Why can't I use Library module to import with exif dates?

[jdabney]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, borne out of exasperation.

I am importing all my photos into Lightroom 1.4, from various sources taken over the last five years. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong as most, but not all of the pics are being thrown into 2''1 year folders? The photos were taken on an Olympus digital and the exif data is all correct. Most were actually taken 2''3-2''5. It's as if Lightroom simply ignores the exif data or can't read it!

Am I doing something wrong? Any help gratefully received!

Thanks

 

[Brad Snyder]

jdabney, Welcome to LR Forums.

Just to verify, are you using the 1.4.1 release of LR? Because the actual 1.4 release had numerous bugs. ( You can check that in the startup credits splash, or in Help > About)

No, you shouldn't have to do anything special to get that to work properly.
When you say the exif is data is correct, how are you verifying that?

I was going to post a thread for you to read for some background info, but actually there are two or three you might need to see. Go to the toolbar at the top of the forum, and click search. In the search term, enter < exiftool > (without the arrows). Have a read through the first 3 or 4 threads that pop-up.

There's probably some sort of incompatability going on that we'll try to get to the bottom of. I have an 6-7+ year old Oly point and shoot that imports fine into date structured folders.

 

[jdabney]

Many thanks for the suggestion, trouble is I just can't ge exiftool to install properly!

 

[Brad Snyder]

For casual users (as opposed to developers) make sure you're downloading the 'Executable' versions either for Windows or Mac. These are the second and third items respectively on the Exiftool home page.

The first download is intended for more sophisticated users who intend to do a lot of scripting or other automation. Not to say that you aren't, but if not, this is the wrong package.

 

[jdabney]

Once again grateful for your input. May I just expand on firstly the date application problem with Lightroom on import. The photos I am importing are taken in 2''3-2''5 with an Olympus C4'4'. The old Camera Raw recognised the date taken, but Lightroom is simply dumping them all into a folder for 2''1. That's why I guess i need to check and maybe change the exif date structure.

As far as exiftool is concerned I did download the Windows executable version. After extracting the files I dragged the exiftool file to the C:\Windows folder and changed the name to exiftool.exe Clicking on this opes the ms dos window, however it is not possible to type anything in to this window at the cursor. I guess I'm doing somethig wrong! I also downloaded the exiftoolgui which is suppsed to make working with the program smpler and more intuitive, howevr when I open that it tells me it can't work without exiftool, which I had up and running aththe time.

I appreciate any advice you can give here as I'm stuck with using Lightroom until I can import correctly! By the way it is Lightroom 1.4.1

Many thanks

 

[Brad Snyder]

Hmmm, my Oly is a 3'4', and I haven't noticed that problem. If you can, maybe grab a screen shot of your import dialog settings and post it?

Try opening a command prompt window first, and then type 'exiftool + an image filename' at the prompt. E.g. K:\images\> exiftool PC13'''1.jpg

(Long ago I installed a Windows PowerToy (from Microsoft, google it) which adds 'Open a Command Window here:' to the right-click context menu in Explorer. That saves all that old-school "cd \images" DOS command typing in the command prompt window.)