Organizing photos from un-synced cameras...GRRR! *edit:Lightroom Makes it EASY!* Yay!

[S-Man]

Seems like I saw a few threads here before about organizing photos from a wedding AFTER the fact- that is, from un-synced cameras.
My photos are fine, but the second shooter's camera was apparently like, a day or two off or something. (I know, my fault- chalk it up to experience )

Is there an easier way to organize the photos into sequential order instead of looking at each one and trying to remember when it was taken?
I'm using Lightroom, Bridge, and PS, I also have Aperture but never use it.

Help please!

[CaptainTom]

None that I am aware of .

When team shooting it is a MUST to sync the times of the cameras.

[MemoryMakers]

I forgot to sync a few weekends ago at a wedding and boy was it a pain in my booty to organize pictures. I searched the internet and came up with nothing. I know it sucks but I surely remembered to sync last weekend!!

[S-Man]

I was afraid of that.
The problem now is, the exported JPEGs from LR are in a folder. When I click "Arrange by date created" it arranges them according to the date that LR exported them, not when they were taken.
Should I import the JPEGs back into LR and then arrange by EXIF/date taken?
This is the fun part of wedding photography, right?

[MemoryMakers]

That's what I would do. I'm so sorry. We should invent some software and become rich!!!! *wink*

[janetg]

there are some solutions, although some could be painful -

if your second shooter had a different camera than you did...it's easy enough - if not, make a folder in LR - and move all theirs in there..and start by adjusting the day..then the hour, then minutes

if using breezebrowser it's fairly simple as well - using the same method -

you may end up having to re-export - but you really should take care of it before you do that.

i just went back and re-read what you wrote...what software are you using to arrange by date? that's just weird -

[CaptainTom]

just a thought.

Did you ever shoot any images at about the same time ?

you could develop a matrix that would enable you to interpolate the relative times of each image.

No, don't ask me to do it cause i'm not stupid, i'm just dumb.

[S-Man]

Janet, When I said I "click Arrange by date created" it's just in a finder window in my Mac. I'm going to see if I can figure something out in LR.
Second shooter was using a 5D and a 30D. I was using a 5D.

How would you go about editing the metadata to reflect the correct time and adjusting them accordingly?

Tom, When you start talking about Matrix's, I start thinking Keaneu Reeves...

edit: I like your Idea Brittany! We'll go halves on it!

S-Man added 16 Minutes and 14 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Good News! In Lightroom, there's a metadata option where you can "Edit capture time"...Now if only I can edit one capture time then apply the time correction to the rest...

S-Man added 42 Minutes and 52 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

I want to state for the record that it was in fact, MY camera that was off. Not my second shooters. His was dead on.

It's off by about -1:04:00. Yep, that's minus one hour, four minutes. I'm such an idiot.

Well in Lightroom, You can adjust an entire library's time like a time zone adjustment. So now, my photos are about 4 minutes off from my second's photos. I'll see if I can get by with making minor adjustments with that.
I wish you could adjust the minutes like that too!

S-Man added 58 Minutes and 35 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

OMG! SuhWEEEEEET! I got it guys! Lightroom is my hero AGAIN!
Check THIS out. On the instructions for this it tells you how to do it. I adjusted all the photos according to my second shooters' time. You select all, then click the one photo you know the correct time of (easy with a second shooter, just look at an identical photo's time) then adjust what needs to be adjusted, then click "Change All" and Voila! Presto! Sha-Zam! Ka-Pow! Ta-Dah! Whammyyy!
It's done. I'm so happy I found this. Hopefully it will help some in the future.

edit: I tried attaching the .PDF with instructions, but it's 323 KB in size. Someone should attach it and make it a sticky. Sometimes links go down, but I have the file saved.

[janetg]

sam, sorry for not getting back to you - and glad it worked out. make the website TIME.GOV your friend - i have one camera that is a little off everytime i check it. as a precaution against this kind of thing, i always keep my second shooter's files seperate from mine as they are downloaded, that way the time shift is easier if the files are not mixed together.

as a side note - also in LR - i always flag my second's files - red, and mine green. many many times, i find it easier to edit by camera, especially if they are different. recently my second was using a 1md2, and i have a 5dm2, he used no flash at 3200, i used no flash at 1600 - and many of the 3200 shots had to go b/w, as sorted by cam, that made the conversion that much easier.

janetg

[jonnydonut]

YES, you can in Lightroom.

you can sort the pictures if they're already mixed together either by name, camera, lens, etc.

get all the pictures from the second shooter, select all.

Go to MetaData - Edit capture Time.

then adjust.

The file will always have that original capture time in it somewhere, for legal reasons I guess, and you can even "covert to original capture time" if you mess up. However the new capture time is enough to fool the naked eye, and to sort the photographs in time order for editing ease.

I have to do this all the time with second shooters. For some reason, time sync is the thing I always forget. Better than forgetting memory cards I guess.

jonnydonut added 2 Minutes and 54 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

oh, I see now that you already figured it out.

[AllenAyres]

ExifPro can adjust time as well, I've had to use it a few times on second-shooter's images. In Bridge you can sort by camera (serial number) - just click on the serial number in the left column for the camera that is off, only those will show, select all (CTRL+A) and move them into another folder to which you can apply your time changes to. Bring them back into the same folder, sort by time modified and batch re-name them all.

I usually compare the time stamps for the first kiss, as that seems to be the most important one to sync, if they're off I adjust the time for all of those taken by that camera.

As Janet says, www.time.gov should be required reading for all second-shooters (and primaries ;) ). If you are a second-shooter you *must* know how to sync your camera time, that's just basic manners.

[S-Man]

Thanks guys.
I always keep the files separate until time to upload the gallery. Thats when I ran into the problem. Its all good now though. Lightroom is awesome.
I actually did use "the kiss" shot and the ring-trade shots as benchmarks.
I always forget to check the time as well, but not anymore!