Import: Time Zone Options

Kevin,

when you are importing images, you are dealing with three different time zones -

• your system time, set in the System Preferences
• the time zone your camera is set to
• the time zone of the location of the shoot (or the time zone you want to see on your images)

Without the time zone setting, Aperture would assume, the camera was set to the system time zone, and the shoot location was the system location.

In your example you would choose Pacific in the Actual Time pop-up, if you want that Time Zone to apply to the imported project, but more important, you need to specify the camera time in the "Camera Time" pop-up menu. Not all cameras record the time zone, and then Aperture has no way to know how the camera clock is set - if you do not specify that, Aperture will assume the camara is running on system time, and if you match the images in the "Places" View with GPS tracks, your places may be off by several hours.

I got into the habit of keeping my camera set to UTC and also setting the "actual time" to UTC. That corresponds nicely with my geologger and I have a continous time base for all images, without daylight saving discontinuities. And I don't have to remember how the camera was set, when I import, since it is always the same.

Regards

Léonie

Hello Kevin,

Without a time zone feature, the time and data alone doesn't provide the correct, or complete time info.

Right.

Are time zones part of the EXIF data?

I am not sure about that; read the EXIF documentation 😉

If my camera does have a time zone setting, I would assume this feature would also override it. So that in either case, Aperture uses this feature to assume the time zone for the images taken by the camera.

If you set this info, yes. It will override the camera setting, which is good, since you could have set the camera incorrectly.

Then is the Actual Time needed if I moved time zones with my camera, but I didn't change my camera's time or zone?

The actual time you need, if you want to store the capture time in a time-zone format different from the system time - typically the time zone of the location where the image has been taken.

I think I understand that UTC is GMT

GMT changes depending on daylight saving time, UTC is the scientific, fixed timezone without seasonal changes and much better for a continous timebase.

But how does that time look inside Aperture, or in the EXIF data when someone else looks at the image?

Look at the screenshot: You can display the "Date created" tag and the "Date". For the "Date Created" Aperture uses the System Settings, for the "Date" the actual time zone you set. If I do not want to do date calculation myself, I set the system Time to the Timezone I want to see.

The big advantage of having Aperture manage the Library in UTC is the continous time base - no mistakes if I shoot with several cameras and forget to set the time in the cameras (since they will always be set to UTC) and I am less likely to make mistakes on import, since the actual time setting is also always the same. And the date differences on the images are easier to compare, if all images show the dates using the same time zone, independent of where they have been taken.

(sorry, couldn't think of a Hitchhiker's reference)

No, that book deals more with time travel than with time zones, but probably Frank can provide a quotation 😁

Regards

Léonie

If all of this is correct (and that's a big if), then the time zone of the computer you are importing the photos one shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter what time zone your computer is set to, or what time zone you are in when you are importing the files. Aperture simply needs to know whether or not to add or subtract hours to the time.

You nearly got it, relatively speaking.

What you describe is, how Camera Time and Actual Time relate, and what is necessary to compute the time difference between Camera Time and Actual Time, and to make any necessary correction.

But if you don't tell Aperture the Timezones, then it will label the imported times with the system time, because it tacitly assumes the times are system time. You take your picture in the EST time zone, import it while having your system set to CST, and Aperture will print (or export) the EST image dates labelled as CST, which is clearly wrong. Aperture has to set some Time zone name, so it will pick the most likely default. You have to tell Aperture the name of the timezone, if it differs from your system time zone, otherwise the printed and exported dates will be wrong.

As you observed correctly in your second post:

Without a time zone feature, the time and data alone doesn't provide the correct, or complete time info.

Cheers

Léonie

P.S:. Frank and I recently had a discussion on time zone correction for Canon cameras - which seemed to be buggy, but I can't find the thread right now. Re: Import Window Time Zone brick, I wonder, if the last update solved that problem

I interpret this as you should use this feature if you didn't change your camera's time to the correct locale time when you took the photo.

This is perfectly o.k. if system time and local time (of the image capture location) match.

I guess, Apple assumes (wrongly) that local time zone and system time zone always match. That usually will be the case, if you download your pictures from your camera, while you are still in the time zone of the shooting location; but I frequently had trouble when I did travel thru several time zones during one holiday and imported all the images afterwards at home; then the system time zone would not match. The same problem arises, if you need to reimport the master files from their backup location for some reason later, you again may be in a different time zone.

It should say, If you took your pictures in a time zone other than the time zone of your computer, then make sure you use this feature to ensure your photo's time zone is correct. Otherwise, Aperture will change it.

It should say, If you took your pictures in a time zone other than the time zone of your computer, then make sure you use this feature to ensure your photo's time zone is correct. Otherwise, Aperture will interpret the time as given in the system time zone.

Regards

Hello leonieDF,

I've been reading this thread and it has been very useful to better understanding my problem -- which is a tangent to the issue being discussed here.

It looks like my photos imported to my computer do not have an attached time zone, so whenever I travel to a different place in the world, the "Date of Creation" for my photos shift, based on where I am.

I'm using both Picasa and Graphic Converter, but I'm guessing Aperture also works similarly.

I've tried to solve the problem by "setting the Date of Creation according to EXIF." That works! The times shown underneath my photos are all in the 7 pm hour in Spain, for example.

But the fix is temporary. It looks like as soon as I switch time zones on my system clock, the photos shift again.

Any ideas on how I might resolve this problem?!

Many thanks,

Melissa

Melissa, I'm having this same problem. Anybody out there can help us?!??

I have videos and photos which I transferred onto my OS X Yosemite directly from a memory card.

Whenever my laptop moves to another time zone, the "time created" in the video/photo info changes, so that it's always reflecting the current time at the faraway place where I took the photos/videos.

However, I don't want that because I'm working with time-sensitive video coordinations. I need the video to show "this video was taken at 06:17:33 AM", which is when it was actually taken at the place where it was taken.

I have searched many forums and internet but could not find any answer to turn off this strange feature of the Mac. Currently my solution is to keep my Mac on the time zone of that place where I took the videos (which is 9 hours ahead of where I physically am located, which can get confusing sometimes).

Lets assume you have the correct local time in your camera while clicking the photos.

• On importing photos in Aperture, they are imported with time = DateTimeOriginal (in metadata) and time zone = current computer time zone.
• Aperture does not recognize the metadata XMP:DateTimeOriginal which includes information of time zone also.
• Metadata -> Adjust Date and Time – This only edits date and time. Does not look at time zone.
• Metadata -> Batch Change – We select Adjust Time Zone. Then we put the time zone of the place where we clicked the photos, in both the fields – Camera’s Time Zone and Actual Time Zone. We select – Apply to Original Files. Then Ok.
• Now the metadata displays date and time same as before, but time zone (as GMT offset) as per entered above.
• However, on exporting the image and checking its metadata, we find :
• The new DateTimeOriginal is as per current timezone of computer.
• ModifyDate is same as DateTimeOriginal.
• Xmp:DateTimeOriginal value has been removed.
• GPS Date/Time fields’ values are safe in metadata. They can be used as reference point to get new values in DateTimeOriginal and xmp:DateTimeOriginal.