How to sort images by recording date-time

[willemx]

I have just downloaded a trial version of P2E to make sure that P2E can do what I need and right away I seem to stumble upon a major obstacle.

I use Adobe Lightroom to process my photos (and videos) and exported the processed images to a folder readable by P2E. NB: During export, the metadata was left intact in the exported files.

How can I now make P2E sort my slides in the right chronological order, that is: sorted by date (not the file creation date or file modify date, but the original media creation date as recorded by the camera in the metadata). That way I could just import my photos and videos for for my slideshow and have them already in the right chronological order.

(...And, since P2E wants to convert all my video files before using them, the converted video files need to be in the right order to.)

[davegee]

If you are using just one camera then the file name will give you the order that you require? it is the same as "chronological". however if you are renaming your files or doing something that you have not told us then you might let us know?

DG

[Lin Evans]

Hi,

The answer to the first part of your question is that you can't. PTE uses the file name, modification date, type extension, or file size as sort criteria and you may "reverse" any of those parameters, but it doesn't use the original file media creation date. Very often, that parameter may be missing from metadata in files which have been modified without regard for exif or metadata, so it would be possible and even probable to not be able to see certain files if that metric were used as a sort option. Developers must make choices about how to present data and the sort orders mentioned earlier are those which are available. Does LightRoom let you "export" or copy them by media creation date? If so you might output them to a folder by that criterion.

PTE offers the video file conversion "option" because some video is more difficult for computers with less hardware clout to display when the CPU must decompress a highly compressed file while displaying in the executable presentation. If you are creating an HD video presentation rather than an executable format for PC or MacIntosh, then there is no real advantage in choosing the "convert" option. On the other hand, if you are creating an executable file which may be used by a client with less than optimal hardware, using the converted video places less strain on the hardware and results in a smoother presentation by less powerful systems. It's your choice and not mandatory to convert your videos before creating your slideshow.

Best regards,

Lin

[willemx]

Thanks for your swift reply!

Some more details then:

In the slideshow, there are (approximately 750) images from 3 cameras (and a couple of smartphones), so using the filename for sorting is not an option. I never rename images (don't want to loose the connection with the originals in my Lightroom database).

Can P2E not just sort by image date-time? This is the most natural way of sorting photos and videos I think. Most photo-handling apps (like Lightroom) do this by default.

I would rather not go handpicking through 700+ files to get everything in order.

[Lin Evans]

Hi,

Only those sort parameters I listed are available. PTE is designed to "display" images rather than manipulate images and there can be no expectation that the images are original and unmodified as is the expectation with photo-handling applications such as Lightroom. In fact, in the great majority of cases, original metadata may have been modified or missing so that photos which had this data missing would not even be "available" to the user even though they might well be in the folder should this parameter be used as the sort criterion.

Your best bet would be to output your photos from Lightroom in the order you want them if the metadata date of media creation is to be used as the sort criterion.

Best regards,

Lin

[xahu34]

...

How can I now make P2E sort my slides in the right chronological order, that is: sorted by date (not the file creation date or file modify date, but the original media creation date as recorded by the camera in the metadata). That way I could just import my photos and videos for for my slideshow and have them already in the right chronological order ...

A simple workaround, maybe not what you want to do: Put copies (not your "originals") of the images that you want to show into a single folder. This is good anyway: If you place the project file of your show into the same folder, PTE will always find the images at later times, even if you have moved the originals. Open this folder in some freeware like XnView (French image viewer), and perform an appropriate batch renaming, e.g. adding running numbers at the beginning of the image names. As sorting criteria choose "Exif Date". The renamed images can easily be placed into PTE showing the order that you want to see.

Regards,

Xaver

[willemx]

@Lin:

I was still typing my answer to Dave so I had not seen your comments yet. (You boys and girls sure are quick!)

So I understand that sorting based on metadata date-time is not possible in PTE. That is really disappointing.

For a developer this should not be a big problem to fix I think (...having been a developer myself for a long time

Missing metadata for some or all of the images could just be ignored, resulting perhaps in a seemingly random ordering, no big deal...

Users could be notified of this problem by PTE and perhaps be prompted to select a different sorting criterion.

Regarding your second advice (let Lightroom do some form of file renaming based on metadata):

I will look into this. However, this will mean that files will be renamed, thereby loosing the connection with the originals in LR.

This can be a problem if in the future I want to update the slideshow after doing some more editing in LR or adding more images. It will be very hard to locate the right images then and also maintaining the renaming scheme will be very difficult and error-prone.

So, best thing would be if a developer steps in and solves this once and for all.

BTW, do you happen to know a developer...?

[denisb]

exiftool can change the "file modify date" to the "original media creation date" of all your pictures in a directory with one commandline:

exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate" directory

Best regards

Denisb

[willemx]

@Xaver & Denis:

I think this file renaming option is the way to go for me.

I will proceed with some more PTE exploration now and will not give up on PTE yet...

Thanks very much!

(I'm beginning to like this forum...)

[aplman]

...

Can P2E not just sort by image date-time? This is the most natural way of sorting photos and videos I think. Most photo-handling apps (like Lightroom) do this by default.

I would rather not go handpicking through 700+ files to get everything in order.

I agree. I have requested that feature in the "Ideas and suggestions" subforum, so you might like to add to that item.

My suggestion

People who don't value their metadata may never benefit from our idea, but for those of us who are even slightly meticulous, it would be a godsend.

Let's hope!

Ken T (aplman)

[Ray Groome]

If you are using Lightroom, you can gather the images for the slide show into a Collection, sorted under Capture date, and then rename the images during the Export process.(eg Sequence number followed by file name)

Ray Groome

[willemx]

Thanks for joining in!

Yes, in LR my images are already in a sorted collection. If I should export this collection and rename the images, I could indeed import them in PTE in the right order.

But, if I later would add new images to the collection in LR, I could not export again without things getting messy: new images would get duplicate sequence numbers and all images later than the newly added ones would be renamed. So this would only work for a one-time export-import.

Instead, I have chosen to use exiftool (or actually AdvancedRenamer (which uses exiftool)) to rename the exported files based on date-time. That way I could always add new images and have them automatically inserted in the right posistion.

(If Lightroom could rename images during export based on date-time I could skip the renaming with exiftool, but alas, LR can only rename based on date, not time.)

[BobFlangan]

I just released a free Microsoft Excel add-in that should help you solve. It will add the date and time to a copy of your files. Then, when you import these files into PTE, they will be in chronological order. You can find the product, Picture and Video Assistant, at http://www.add-ins.com/pva.htm. I use it to create videos from the 11,000+ files we have from over the years.

Bob Flanagan