This and That: Information in Digital Photos
By Elizabeth B. Wright August 2006
Have you ever looked at the information saved with your digital photos? It
can be very helpful and useful. However the fact it can be edited is one of
the many reasons photos are suspect in the legal system, now more than ever.
On our recent vacation, after about two days of gleefully snapping pictures,
my digital camera just quit working for no apparent reason. Because all the
memory cards I had brought with me were brand specific, I went looking for a
cheap replacement camera. Target turned out to have what I needed, although
at a higher price than I really wanted to pay. But I figured I would just
have to do without other souvenirs in order to do what I like best, take
pictures. I inadvertently set the new camera for the wrong time, am/pm wise.
My pictures were in order, but the time and therefore sometimes the date
were wrong by 12 hours. This is important because after downloading the
pictures from all three cameras (my two and my husband’s different brand
camera), whenever I wanted to sort my pictures by date, it put them in a
jumble if they were mixed with pictures that were correct. We often use more
than one camera, so when it comes time to make folders for specific events,
I might have some pictures with the correct information and some without it.
Also, when I discovered the problem and reset the new camera, it further
complicated the situation.
Therefore, when we got home, I began exploring various imaging programs to
find one that could change the time and/or date for me with the least amount
of aggravation. I finally settled on Photoshop Elements 4 as the program
with the easiest to follow menus and options. It still took quite a lot of
concentration to keep from making the wrong choices and getting things into
a bigger mess.
Briefly, the steps were as follows:
1. I opened the program in the Organizer View,
with the side bar open which showed the properties for a selected image.
This is where you find the date/time stamp for the selected picture.
2. Although I chose to select multiple pictures
at one time for date/time changing, an option not available in some of the
other programs, I will refer to just one selected image at a time for this
example.
3. Right click on the picture and choose “Adjust
Date and Time” from the drop down menu.
4. When the dialog box opens, there are three
choices. The third choice is “Shift by set number of hours (time zone
adjust)”. I used this because my pictures were off by 12 hours since I had
accidentally set the camera for the wrong interval (pm/am). You may find
that one of the other two options fits your needs better. They are: “Change
to a specified date and time” and “Change to match file’s date and time” (I
don’t understand the second one, but what else is new?)
5. After choosing option three, the next dialog
box is titled “Time zone adjust” and lets you set the number of hours
backward or forward that meets your needs. Naturally I chose the wrong
direction after keying in 12 for the number of hours my pictures were off.
So then I had to go back and readjust by 24 hours to get things back in
order. But eventually it all worked and my pictures can now be viewed in the
proper sequence when meshed with the ones from the other two cameras which
have the correct date/time settings to begin with.
Hopefully you won’t ever need to use this option, but if you do, work
carefully so as not to mess things up too badly.
Elizabeth Wright is a member of the CCOKC and secretary to the Board. She is a regular writer for the eMonitor