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alan_harper

478 Messages

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10.5K Points

Sat, Aug 20, 2016 9:09 PM

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Filter bar by date

I can't tell if this is a new bug, or just a feature/bug/annoyance that I somehow overlooked.(Lightroom CC 2015.6)

I put an image that I downloaded today into Lightroom, and then set its Date Created to the correct date (Oct 21, 2007). However, if I try to use the Filter Bar to find it, it shows up as today's date, not the date taken. I would like to be able to use the Filter Bar to find other photos taken the same day.

Exiftool has this to report on the file:
File Modification Date/Time     : 2016:08:20 14:01:37-07:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2016:08:20 14:01:54-07:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2016:08:20 14:01:37-07:00
Metadata Date                   : 2016:08:20 14:01:37-07:00
Date Created                    : 2007:10:21

The metadata panel for the image says:


But if I put it in a folder and then use the Filter Bar I see:

Problems

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Updated 

4 years ago

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3

This conversation has been merged. Please refer the main conversation:

Lightroom: Still inconsistent capture date/time for photos and videos

Responses

stephen_leggett

79 Messages

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1K Points

4 years ago

Probably old - there is a very similar issue on this thread - although it refers to video, almost all the issues referred to in that thread manifest themselves on any form of image.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom-still-inconsistent-capture-date-tim...

Adobe just doesn't seem bothered about correcting issues with date, except that, as I posted elsewhere; 2015.6 (and still in in 2016.6.1) they made it worse if you paste date from another image.

Fundamentally, LR stores the date in many locations, the actions such as 'Edit Capture Date'  inconsistently update these fields, and the actions that use them such as filter, sort and display have different rules for the order in which they use them.

Total shambles.

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alan_harper

478 Messages

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10.5K Points

4 years ago

Thank you, Stephen. I tried searching this forum, but the thread you pointed out didn't show up in the first few hundred hits (or I didn't recognize it's relevance, probably because it seemed related to video).

Anyway, it turns out that if you
a) set the "Date Created" to the date you want in the metadata panel,
b) if there is already an (incorrect) Date Time Original, then use "Edit Capture Time..." to set it to match the "Date Created" and then
c) "Edit Capture Time..." a second time with a delta of 0,
then Lightroom seems to accept the dates, allowing me to sort by date, and see the correct dates as options in the Filter Bar.

I agree with all the comments that this is a PITA and poorly designed, but I am able to make it work for my situation. I suspect I would be much better off setting the dates using exiftool before importing to Lightroom.

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stephen_leggett

79 Messages

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1K Points

To show how poor it is, if the following actions are performed:
  • Create a new catalog (so its easy to find the images)
  • Import two different images into the catalog from a 'supported' camera
  • Edit Capture Time on one of the images (the target)
  • Now Metadata Copy/Paste the Create date from the other onto the same target image
Using something like sqlitebrowser to examine the catalog file, you can see that the image that was the target has all three values at different points in the database; the one it started with, the one that was edited and the one that was pasted.

And yes, 'Edit Capture Time...' tidies most but not all of it up.

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4 years ago

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alan_harper

478 Messages

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10.5K Points

4 years ago

Stephen, your response gave me an idea. It may help in this situation.

Because I always have "Write Metadata Changes into XMP" set in my catalogs, I always think in terms of the XMP metadata. (See responses by John Ellis in the thread you link to that show that this is not an unusual way to think). But your response about what is in the database, and my observation that photos are sorting in a way that does not seem related to what is showing in the metadata panel, made it clear that of course, Lightroom might well have fields in its database that are distinct from the various external metadata fields.

I tried an experiment based on this. I import a photo with no date/time fields, and I set the "Date Created" field to the correct time. The photo continues to act like its date created is a few days ago (date downloaded in fact). I then Save Metadata and Read Metadata, and Wham! Lightroom changes the sorting behavior.

I wonder if other inconsistencies in Lightroom's behavior could be solved by writing and then reading metadata. Adobe has to have code that tries to make all the fields consistent when updating the database from external data, and this could override inconsistencies that creep into the database.

And, of course, this doesn't help with videos, since Lightroom doesn't write metadata into videos.

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stephen_leggett

79 Messages

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1K Points

Doesn't solve the problem with Copy/Paste metadata for .NEF files that need a sidecar either.

Anyone with Database experience, look away now or have a barf bag to hand. 

Although LR has a database, it (seems to) build the XMP string in all situations, store this as a single text column in the database and largely operates on that rather than the 'proper' database columns. In that string, and in the XMP sidecar, there are multiple conflicting date fields. There are further columns in the database as well...

Example from the external XMP for a test I did using actions in previous comment (import then copy/paste date from a different image), then 'save to file' followed  by 'read from file' on the target of the paste.

This is the end result in the XMP sidecar:

...  
exif:DateTimeOriginal="2016-06-11T11:44:59.41" <- Date from Import
...
xmp:ModifyDate="2016-06-11T11:44:59.41" <- Date from Import 
xmp:CreateDate="2016-06-11T11:44:59.41" <- Date from Import
...
 photoshop:DateCreated="2016-04-02T09:40:09.00"  <- Date from Paste data
...

Note Modify date is not the date I did the change??

Now, a lot of the LR code, such as display of Capture Date in the default panel uses exif:DateTimeOriginal by preference; so it appears that paste didn't work. What it actually did was write only the photoshop:DateCreated field. In prior versions of LR it updated more fields.

Edit Capture time also reads exif:DateTimeOriginal in preference but it writes both exif:DateTimeOriginal and photoshop:DateCreated. so resolves 'more' of the problems with dates.

But this means that in the above Edit displays 2016-06-11, which is wrong as its not the last action I performed on the image, and writes that back over 2016-04-02, destroying my intended value.

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4 years ago

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