Figuring out date and time in Photos adjustments

Question

Figuring out date and time in Photos adjustments

I just returned from France [7 hrs. time difference] - I took photos with my Canon camera w/o adjusting the time, so they show date & time from Midwest 7 hrs off the local time taken. My iPhone of course recalibrated itself and all its pics are with the correct time. I was going to change Date & Time just by adjusting it for the Canon and then when I went to do it although I only changed the time [hour] by 7 it said it was changing by 15 hours. I did nothing and before I go further would love to have someone help me figure out the best way for me to do this. I have created a Smart Album of only the Canon shots to work with. Thanks!!! I am in Photos of course.

Mac Studio (2022)

Posted on Apr 29, 2024 1:22 PM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Apr 30, 2024 11:56 AM in response to Victoria Herring

Victoria, if I understood you correctly, you did not modify the date and time in your Canon camera, when you went to Paris - it remained on your home time zone? And you imported the photos with the photos to your Mac after you returned, with the system time of the Mac set to the same time as your camera?

Then you do not need to change the date of the Sony pictures. The Mac should have assigned the correct timezone for the setting of the camera, unless the Sony pictures have been tagged with GPS - then the Mac my have assigned the mid European timezone to the photos on import, because of the GPS location.

In Aperture we could specify the timezone the camera has been set to, when it took the pictures. But not in Photos. Photos has to infer the timezone. It will use the system time of the Mac when we import the photos, unless the photos are tagged with GPS. Then Photos will use the timezone of the GPS location. Both assumptions may be wrong.

How did you import the iPhone photos? Have they been synced with iCloud to your Mac while you still have been in Paris or did you import them after you returned from Paris?

Reply

Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Apr 30, 2024 2:02 PM in response to Victoria Herring

When you view two pictures that are sorted incorrectly, look at the closest city in the "adjust date and time " panel in Photos for Mac. There are two items that should match:

In the upper part of the panel the "Time Adjusted" should be correct
In the lower part of the panel the "Timezone" and the "closest city" should the same.

Try first to get the photos all assigned to the same timezone, so t will be easier to compare the date and time. When you change the timezone and the closest city to Paris, the "time adjusted" will be changed to compensate for the timezone shift, and you should set it back. Compare the date and time only in the "Image > adjust date & time" dialog, where you can see the timezone as well. The date and time shown in the Info is meaningless, when comparing dates, as it does not show us the timezone.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 30, 2024 9:20 AM in response to Victoria Herring

Victoria Herring wrote: Isn't it possible to do a global time adjustment?

Absolutely. Just as Matti Haveri said. But, as always, make a backup of your Library, first!

This multiple camera time settings thing has been a problem for most of us for one trip or another. On an Ireland trip we had four cameras, all different! Your using a Smart Album to separate the Canon pictures was brilliant.

In "Photos>Image>Adjust Date and Time" is built for this. Unfortunately, I really don't get the 7 and 15 hours thing you saw, since those add to 22 rather than 24. I live in Texas, so when it's 11:07 am here, it's 6:07 pm in Paris-- 7 hours later. So a picture that says 2 pm should look like late evening. That could be adding 7 or subtracting 17. Hmm.

Anyway, what you do is Select All, go to "Image>Adjust Date and Time." It will show the date and time for the first of the images. Change, for example, "9:18:17 am" to "5:18:17 pm," and it should change them all by the same amount. When I do this (just now) it says

"The original Photos will be adjusted by 7 hours."

I almost always mess this up with the am to pm business! I did it the first time, here!

How does this work for you? Let us know...

Reply

Answer 4

Apr 30, 2024 1:26 PM in response to Victoria Herring

I duplicated the Library & 'favorited' the Canon pics [I MISS APERTURE!!!] then added 7 hours to the original time which since the pics were from the same event should have worked = I did a sort, oldest first - But = the Canon pic were all in order == but the iPhone pics were in order too but all gathered together == in other words matching topics were not side by side == for instance below is a pic of a boat at 8pm taken by the Canon [correct time = we got on the boat at 8p] and the iPhone pic of the Basilica at 10pm which is correct but the iPhone pics are all collected before the Canon pics. And there is a separate pic of the BAsilica taken with the Canon which is at 10 pm also but totally at the end of the batch of Canon pics. I checked and Sort was Oldest first and can't figure out why the Canon and iPhone pics at 10p aren't side by side.

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 30, 2024 3:03 AM in response to Matti Haveri

I want to do it all at once and would think there's a way to do it. I have 350 Canon pics and about the same iPHone and right now they're not related to each other = for instance the iPhone pic of something is totally separated from the Canon image of the same thing or taken more or less at the same time. True of each pic, really. Isn't it possible to do a global time adjustment?

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 30, 2024 12:56 PM in response to léonie

I traveled to France and did not reset the Canon camera - it was on Chicago time throughout = And the iPhone of course updated based on location. I did just keyword some photos taken by Canon and others by iPhone of same day/time and compared them = the Canon says 1pm [that would be CDT] and the iPhone says 8pm - France time. So it seems that I can/should add 7 hours to all the Canon shots. I had all the Canon pics on one card and imported them this morning. I do not think it did the GPS update = kept it on the Midwest timezone.

I did import the iPhone pics to the iCloud library [they were synced at the end of each day via wifi from the iPhone to the iCloud/system library] - in the meantime before importing the Canon pics I but I am now, to be safe, working with a specialized Photos Library created just for these pics and once the time issue is settled, will delete the ones in iCloud and use these as the new masters for the system library = I am not messing with the system library or iCloud version at all now., nor with them on the iPhone = just this separate library on my computer at home. I guess the easiest thing is to go to the Canon pics and add 7 hours to them??? I can also just duplicate the library and do a test, I suppose. Many thanks.

Reply

Answer 7

Apr 29, 2024 10:22 PM in response to Victoria Herring

Shift the Canon images' time in Photos so they sync with iPhone images' times.

Reply