Scanning old pictures

[Jcloughie]

Thought I might give others a heads up on a useful Windows App.

I have just renewed my efforts into scanning my boxes of old pictures. I bought a new printer as the old one was very old. This Canon gives lovely quality photographs. The scanner is also good and will hold 3 pictures which it magically separates into 3 different files. So a bit laborious, but it works.

As I scanned each batch I tried to put a year to them as best I could. I then put the batch into a folder with the years name. So some semblance of order.

The problem then is uploading them to Apple or Amazon. The latter of which I prefer. Either way, they automatically get sorted into date order going by the pictures MetaData. The scanner has made this the date and time it was scanned. I know how to alter individual pictures MetaData using file properties, but that is extremely time consuming. So I just spent a few hours searching for a program to do this by batch processing. There are a few, the first is an all singing all dancing one called Photo Mechanic. It's for professionals and about £200

Eventually I found the very thing. It is simple to use and just does the one job on a whole folder.

EXIF DATE CHANGER


Highly recommended.

John

 

[otherclive]

Picassa could batch edit dates but that doesnt work on my new 64 bitMAC. I have uploaded many big photo folders to Amazon and it’s amazing how many photos are out of timeline sequence. Caused mainly by my wife forgetting to set her cameras to local time. So we have nice sunsets followed by vistas then more sunsets. And editing individual times can get boring.

Good thing about Amazon is I can screen mirror slideshows onto the tv. So after all the digital photos have been uploaded I will plough on with scanning and slide transfer. Need another few lockdowns 😂

I still have my old slide projector with a couple of spare bulbs and screen as a fall back.

 

[Jcloughie]

Picassa could batch edit dates but that doesnt work on my new 64 bitMAC. I have uploaded many big photo folders to Amazon and it’s amazing how many photos are out of timeline sequence. Caused mainly by my wife forgetting to set her cameras to local time. So we have nice sunsets followed by vistas then more sunsets. And editing individual times can get boring.

Good thing about Amazon is I can screen mirror slideshows onto the tv. So after all the digital photos have been uploaded I will plough on with scanning and slide transfer. Need another few lockdowns 😂

I still have my old slide projector with a couple of spare bulbs and screen as a fall back.

Picasso was good, but no longer available on any platform.

John

 

[otherclive]

Picasso was good, but no longer available on any platform.

John

But if it’s installed on a 32 bit machine it should still run. Mine stopped when Apple changed OSX to 64 bit, and my new MAC MINI runs Big Sur as the operating system.
If I need to seriously edit any photos I load them onto a sd card and take them to my friend who has Photoshop. He’s a serious photographer.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Interesting program.

I have a Lightroom and Bridge and Exiftool/ExifGui which also allow for changing the date on multiple image files, along with other metadata.

Of course you can still do this via Windows Explorer. Just select all the image files and then right click to get Properties. Select the Details tab and click in the Date Taken field and adjust as required. Other properties can also be done this way.

 

[Jcloughie]

Interesting program.

I have a Lightroom and Bridge and Exiftool/ExifGui which also allow for changing the date on multiple image files, along with other metadata.

Of course you can still do this via Windows Explorer. Just select all the image files and then right click to get Properties. Select the Details tab and click in the Date Taken field and adjust as required. Other properties can also be done this way.

Thanks, I did mention that I found paid for software that would do this, and I knew of the explorer option, but that will not do batch processes. The link I provided is not only free but is does what is required. I already have decent editing software, so had no need to purchase more just to make this alteration.

I posted it here as others have been scanning old pics from time to time. And they no doubt will have the same issue if they want to use cloud services. This freebee is a cure for that.

John

 

[Woodentop]

If you need to edit pictures but cannot justify the cost of a prog then download f.o.c. The Gimp which does pretty much the same as any other package but free!

If you want an inexpensive purchased package have a look at Affinity by Serif. Serif have always made good, well written and stable software at very affordable prices and have good customer support (they are based in Nottingham.)

If you would still like to run Picasa (I agree it was a superb package,) down load Virtual Box (free) and set up a Virtual Machine inside W10 or whatever you are using. Then install XP or even 98SE into the Virtual Machine* and Picasa will (should) run within it.

You should be able to find Picasa on the web somewhere, and M$ will show you where to download old operating systems also for free.

 

[otherclive]

If you need to edit pictures but cannot justify the cost of a prog then download f.o.c. The Gimp which does pretty much the same as any other package but free!

If you want an inexpensive purchased package have a look at Affinity by Serif. Serif have always made good, well written and stable software at very affordable prices and have good customer support (they are based in Nottingham.)

If you would still like to run Picasa (I agree it was a superb package,) down load Virtual Box (free) and set up a Virtual Machine inside W10 or whatever you are using. Then install XP or even 98SE into the Virtual Machine* and Picasa will (should) run within it.

You should be able to find Picasa on the web somewhere, and M$ will show you where to download old operating systems also for free.

GIMP is good and works on MAC OS too.

 

[Jcloughie]

If you need to edit pictures but cannot justify the cost of a prog then download f.o.c. The Gimp which does pretty much the same as any other package but free!

If you want an inexpensive purchased package have a look at Affinity by Serif. Serif have always made good, well written and stable software at very affordable prices and have good customer support (they are based in Nottingham.)

If you would still like to run Picasa (I agree it was a superb package,) down load Virtual Box (free) and set up a Virtual Machine inside W10 or whatever you are using. Then install XP or even 98SE into the Virtual Machine* and Picasa will (should) run within it.

You should be able to find Picasa on the web somewhere, and M$ will show you where to download old operating systems also for free.

As I said, I already have decent editing software. Also have Sony Lightroom. But not really used it, I don’t know if it would do batch editing, but it would be too cumbersome for my needs.

Gimp is good, but not user friendly. Not seen anything from Serif for 20 plus years, didn’t know they still existed. I will let Picasa rest in peace.


John

 

[Sam Vimes]

I perhaps didn't make myself clear in my previous post but you can Bulk Process such information in Windows Explorer. However, you seem to have solved your problem which is good.

Another program I use occassionally is Bulk Rename Utility. Not only does it allow you to bulk rename files you can also change other information in bulk such as the Date/Time. It's not that easy to use but very powerful and because I use it infrequently I have to take a few minutes practising on temp files before letting it run loose.

Bulk Rename Utility - Free File Renaming Software

Bulk Rename Utility: Free File Rename Utility for Windows. Bulk Rename Utility allows you to easily batch rename files and folders based upon many flexible criteria. Free Download.

www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk

 

[Jcloughie]

I perhaps didn't make myself clear in my previous post but you can Bulk Process such information in Windows Explorer. However, you seem to have solved your problem which is good.

I am surprised that batch, or bulk process of exif files is possible in Explorer. The research I did said it could only do it file by file. Which is why I was pleased to find that software.

(Not suggesting it can’t be done, just could not find out how on Google).

John