Lightroom: XMP:MetadataDate has wrong time zone

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Hi John,

Could you provide some information regarding specifically what your steps are in Lightroom? In the simple case at least, I don't see this problem. Here's what I'm doing:

1. Verify that my system timezone is set to PDT (UTC -7:00).
2. Import a JPEG into Lightroom. The DateTimeOriginal (Exif tag #36867) is "2011:05:09 09:07:35?00?"
3. Select the imported JPEG in the Library in Lightroom and choose Metadata>Save Metadata to File.
4. Examine the metadata in the file using a tool such as Exiftool.

Result: xmp:MetadataDate = "2011-05-13T16:48:40-07:00" This is what I would expect. Perhaps there are other operations that are necessary in order to make the bug manifest?

Thanks,
Ben

Ben, perhaps start with an EXIF timestamp that has no timezone? (I'm just guessing, I haven't tried it.)

To the best of my knowledge, EXIF timestamps never contain timezone info. I'm not positive that's true, I'm basing that statement on the Metadata Working Group spec which says, "Exif date/time values such as DateTimeOriginal do not contain time zone information."

Regardless, the EXIF timestamp in the file I used in my test had no timezone.

-Ben

The EXIF spec doesn't allow for timezones, but I've seen some files that have them stuffed in anyway. Your notes above say "The DateTimeOriginal is ..." with some stuff that doesn't map to ASCII properly but appears to be long enough to include a timezone, which is what made me think of it.

No, that is literally what it says in the metadata of my file (two zeros inside two question marks). I think that's (blank) sub-second info, but I'm not positive.

Here's how I've replicated the problem:

1. Configuration: LR 3.4, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

2. Verify clock set to UTC-8 (see screenshot below).

3. Make a new catalog.

4. Remove all metadata from p.jpg (attached below) with:

exiftool -all:all= p.jpg

5. Import p.jpg.

6. Add a caption in the Metadata pane.

7. Metadata > Save Metadata To File

8. Examine the metadata with Photoshop Elements 8 File > Info, and on the Advanced tab see xmp:MetadataDate containing a "+7:00" rather than "-7:00":

2011-05-14T07:30:44.017+07:00

8. Examine the metadata with exiftool and observe that XMP:MetadataDate has a "+7:00" rather than "-7:00":

C:\Users\Ellis\Desktop\test pics>exiftool -a -G -s p.jpg
[ExifTool] ExifToolVersion : 8.25
[File] FileName : p.jpg
[File] Directory : .
[File] FileSize : 987 kB
[File] FileModifyDate : 2011:05:14 07:30:44-07:00
[File] FilePermissions : rw-rw-rw-
[File] FileType : JPEG
[File] MIMEType : image/jpeg
[File] ExifByteOrder : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
[File] CurrentIPTCDigest : 08e4c683387bba4d1884d4f0729495
c1
[File] ImageWidth : 2560
[File] ImageHeight : 1920
[File] EncodingProcess : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
[File] BitsPerSample : 8
[File] ColorComponents : 3
[File] YCbCrSubSampling : YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1)
[EXIF] ImageDescription : Caption for p.jpg
[EXIF] Orientation : Horizontal (normal)
[EXIF] ExifVersion : 0221
[XMP] XMPToolkit : Adobe XMP Core 5.2-c004 1.1368
81, 2010/06/10-18:11:35
[XMP] MetadataDate : 2011:05:14 07:30:44.017+07:00
[XMP] RawFileName : p.jpg
[XMP] Description : Caption for p.jpg
[IPTC] CodedCharacterSet : UTF8
[IPTC] ApplicationRecordVersion : 4
[IPTC] Caption-Abstract : Caption for p.jpg
[Photoshop] IPTCDigest : 08e4c683387bba4d1884d4f0729495
c1
[Composite] ImageSize : 2560x1920