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modify camera brand

Hi,


I have some old legacy non-digital photos that I scanned to include in my aperture library.

As a consequence the camera brand is unknown.

i would like to modify the empty EXIF data, specifically camera brand , camera model, and lens, to reflect what i used at that time, but could not find any editing options in aperture. Any advice or alternative exif editor ?


thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2x2.66 dual core xeon

Posted on Jul 31, 2012 4:52 PM

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Posted on Jul 31, 2012 5:31 PM

You'll need to do that before importing the images into Aperture. Aperture does not allow modification of the EXIF data.


EXIFTool is a command line EXIF data viewer and editor. It is very powerful and can be a bit intimidating at first but is worth the effort to learn it if you plan on doing a lot of work on EXIF data. I believe there are some GUI front ends, Google will let you know.


There are other programs out there again Google will do a more through job of listing them then I can.


Note it may be possible, if the originals (masters) are referenced to modify the EXIF data after an image is imported into Aperture. Never tried it so dont't know if the modified EXIF data will be read by Aperture. It would be an easy test to perform.


regards

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Question marked as Best reply

Jul 31, 2012 5:31 PM in response to HugoMe

You'll need to do that before importing the images into Aperture. Aperture does not allow modification of the EXIF data.


EXIFTool is a command line EXIF data viewer and editor. It is very powerful and can be a bit intimidating at first but is worth the effort to learn it if you plan on doing a lot of work on EXIF data. I believe there are some GUI front ends, Google will let you know.


There are other programs out there again Google will do a more through job of listing them then I can.


Note it may be possible, if the originals (masters) are referenced to modify the EXIF data after an image is imported into Aperture. Never tried it so dont't know if the modified EXIF data will be read by Aperture. It would be an easy test to perform.


regards

Aug 1, 2012 10:51 AM in response to HugoMe

As I wrote previously I'm not sure if a master's EXIF data is modified after the file is imported if Aperture will recognize that the data has been modified and use the new data.


It would be an easy test to run, covert a master to referenced and modify some EXIF data and see if the modification is reflected in Aperture.


If the modification is picked up by Aperture you would not need to re-import the images and if you didn't want to leave the masters as referenced you could move them back into the Aperture library once you were done.

Aug 1, 2012 12:27 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank,

I tested this previously with changing the GPS coordinates using GraphicConverter. Relocating the originals, editing the EXIF tags longitude, latitude, altitude in GraphicConverter, then consolidating again definitle worked. The changes to the master/original were duly reflected in Aperture.


So I have high hopes that your fix also should work with with the camera make.


LĂ©onie

Aug 1, 2012 12:40 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Franck


I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "convert a master to a refrenced". Is it the same i was suggesting ( exporting the photo, deleting it in aperture database, then reimporting it ) ? Or is it something else?


As I said, all my photos are inside the Aperture database currently, and as such i suppose they are not accessible to EXIFTool.

Aug 1, 2012 12:49 PM in response to HugoMe

I think, what Frank meant, was to turn your managed original image file, that is inside your Aperture library into a referenced original image file. This is done by selecting the image and using the command "File > Relocate original/master" from the main menu bar. This command will move the original image file to a folder of your choosing outside the Aperture library, so you can access it from the Finder. After youapply your changes, you can move it back using the "File > Consolidate originals" command. Whether the command will refer to masters or originals will depend on your Aperture version. What is your Aperture version btw.?

Aug 2, 2012 6:36 AM in response to HugoMe

However, I don't understand the distingo between "original" and "master".

That is question of the version of Aperture that you are using: Master and original are the same.


In the older Aperture versions (till Aperture 3.2.4) the original image files are called "Masters", since Aperture 3.3. they are called "Originals".


And that makes it very difficult for us to refer to them and to the menu entries, if we do not know the Aperture version that a poster is using 😝

Aug 2, 2012 4:01 PM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie


So I did that. Download Exiftool (in fact I've had already done it), give up on GUI tools that do not seem to exist for that purpose on Mac, move my entire pic directory , then launch 3 cmd line in Terminal (that do work in batch):


exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -preserve "-Make=Canon" /mydirectorypath

exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -preserve "-Model=Canon EOS 100" /mydirectorypath

exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place -preserve "-Lens=Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM" /mydirectorypath


then consolidate database.


I am now confronted with something strange:

All pictures have been modified (as stated by exiftool and checked with Preview: the original exif has been modified) but in Aperture, for an unknown reason only a third of them appear to be.


It seems that the finder did record a modification date on the files only on nearly a third of them, and these are the ones that Aperture sees as modified

Aug 3, 2012 4:34 AM in response to HugoMe

I just tried the following, given your observation:


You can force the OS to change the modification date with the "touch" command, as you probably know.


Type into your Terminal window

touch thepathtosomefile

e.g

touch /mydirectorypath/*.tiff


to change the modification date of all tiff-files in /mydirectorypath/

Replace "tiff" by the extension of the format of your image files that you want to change in that directory.


After "touching" the original files, Aperture (3.3.2) recognized the changes to the camera make made by exitool.


Aug 3, 2012 11:14 AM in response to léonie

Leonie, you surely are a truely helpful person. I did what you suggested, un unknown hint to me, and now everything is OK. Strangely i had to do it in two steps as in the first one a few photos managed to escape Aperture recognition.


Very happy to have now my old camera recognized as a proud contributor to my Aperture library !

modify camera brand

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