'Advanced' Image Editing Techniques

I had two problems to solve.

1. I recently left my digital camera outside in a rain storm. It wasn't a sprinkle either. Anyway, I figured that the camera would be simply dead and maybe there was a chance I could recover the photos from the memory card. I dried the camera off, powered it up and thought all was perfectly fine...until tonight. I had a spare minute so I decided that I was time to move a batch of photos off the camera to the PC. I have been using Adobe's Photoshop Elements to batch rename the files to a directory. The file naming convention is always by date. Ever since the 'slip of the mind' which caused me to leave my camera hanging from a tree a few hundred yards from my door there had been an issue with the renaming process. After viewing the files on the memory card I realized that the first image was corrupt. Naturally, I deleted the first image and tried the renaming/import again. It did not work. What actually happened was that the number 2 image which after removing image number 1 became image number 1 - became corrupt.
   
   
   The Solution
   
   I decided that I probably wasn't going to have much luck trying to fix the camera itself or the memory card so I went another route - Google. I searched for 'batch renaming utility' - many choices came up and then I realized that there was a much 'safer place' to pickup a free utility - SourceForge. I found a program called "Rename-It!". I was a bit confused as to how to use the program but once I figured it out I realized how much time this method could possibly save.
   
   
   
   The Process
   
   Download "Rename-It!" - save the file somewhere on your desktop and install the program by double-clicking the file. Run the program after it has been installed. On the first screen you should see there is a button called "Add Files". Click this button and navigate to the directory where your images live. Select all of the images (ctrl + A) and hit the "Open" button. Next click the button called "Add Filter" - and choose "Search and replace". Next, put a check in the box which reads "Replace '%d'by a number serie". Next, click the small arrow to the right of the text box labeled as "Replace with:" and select "New file name". You should see the text box populate with this text "$(NewName)Image %3d". My standard file naming convention for image files is "YYYY.MM.A,B,C(etc..)1,2,3(etc..)". For example: 2007.09.A1.jpg. or 2007.09.B1.jpg. Using this format I replaced the text in the "Replace with" text area with this text "2007.09.A%d". In the preview area you can see the before and after affects of the renaming process. The final step is to click the button "Rename files". That's all there is too it.


2. The second problem I encountered during this process was timestamp related. The digital camera was saving images with the following date format 0000:00:00 00:00:00. I use Picasa to organize my photos and to upload them to an online photo album using my Gmail account. After renaming the files in the step above I realized that Picasa had put my new folder of images under the year 2000 (due to the timestamp issue) which totally screwed with my desire to be organized. In a nut shell, I needed to figure out how to modify the timestamp on image files.
   
   
   The Solution
   
   ExifTool
   
   
   The Process
   
   Download and unzip ExifTool (I recommend saving to your desktop). To read the image data you can drag and drop files onto the ExifTool file (named exiftool(-k).exe. The meta information will appear in a command line window. To edit the meta data you will need to change the file name from "exiftool(-k).exe" to "exiftool.exe". Next open up a command line in Windows (Start > Run > CMD) navigate to your desktop (or where you saved the ExifTool file). (To navigate using the command line in Windows: type 'cd ..' to move up a directory and type 'dir' to list the contents of a directory) - once you get to where the ExifTool executable file exists (exiftool.exe) - at the command line type 'exiftool.exe' and hit enter. Instructions will appear on the screen. Scroll the bottom or type 'q' + enter to skip the instructions. The command I used to modify the creation date use this format "exiftool "-CreateDate=2007:09:00 00:00:00" DIR" and for the original date and time you can use this format "exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal=2007:09:00 00:00:00" DIR" (you must remove the quotes from the command, and replace DIR with the path to the image files you are trying to modify). Here is an example of the commands I used: exiftool -DateTimeOriginal=2007:09:00 00:00:00 F:\Photos\2007_09_Digital and exiftool -CreateDate=2007:09:00 00:00:00 F:\Photos\2007_09_Digital.
   
   
   
   That's all there is too it! Timestamps modified, Picasa placed the files (and directory) in the proper sequence (which satisfied my sometimes obsessive desire to organize).