Quick photo tip: Synchronise images from different cameras

David Lee

17.12.2018

Translation: machine translated

1001 holiday photos from several cameras are to be synchronised by recording time. Even though the cameras' clocks are wrong. Is that possible? Yep, it's no problem!

Starting point: You were on holiday and several people took photos. Or you alone took photos with several cameras. Now you want to merge the images from all the cameras in the correct chronological order.

Each camera writes the date and time the photo was taken in the metadata of the file. But the camera's internal clock is rarely correct. Smartphones constantly correct the time using information from the network. A camera lacks this. And very few people regularly adjust their camera's clock.

Adjusting the recording time

First, we need to take a photo of a correctly running clock with each camera involved. This photo is copied to a PC together with the other photos.

A photo management tool should be able to customise the metadata. This is how it works in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, for example:

1. Import all photos
2. Select the photo with the clock, select all photos from the same camera with it
3. Menu command "Metadata > Edit recording time"
4. Enter the time displayed by the clock
5. All previously selected photos are adjusted

If you repeat this with all photos from all cameras, each photo will end up with the correct recording time in the metadata. This is the prerequisite for sorting the photos.

If you don't have the right software, download a free tool such as Exifer.

Sort photos

In software such as Lightroom, you can sort photos by the time they were taken. But not all image viewers can do this. As a solution, you can automatically rename the photos so that the shooting time is included in the file name. To ensure that sorting by name produces the same result as sorting by recording time - which is the aim - the time must be written according to the "year-month-day-hour-minute-second" scheme. So the largest time unit first.

Again using Lightroom as an example:

1. Select all photos
2. Menu "Library → Rename photos"
3. Enter and save a custom scheme, similar to the screenshot below
4. Apply scheme

Other tools can also do this. IrfanView, for example, or Adobe Bridge (Tools → Batch Rename). Photoshop itself cannot write the exact time in the name. But if you have Photoshop CC, then you also have Bridge or can download it for free via the Adobe CC tool.

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

These articles might also interest you