Rename files with EXIF data?

September 28, 2006 6:58 AM

DigitalPhotoFilter: I'm really bad for remembering when I took certain pictures so I need to batch rename a bunch of photos using the date and time EXIF info. Is there an easy way to do this on a Windows XP machine?

Yes, I searched for other posts but nothing I found really answered my question or explained if/how this was able to be done. Any help would be great.

posted by ChazB to computers & internet (9 comments total)

ACDSee (not free, but worth a purchase in my opinion, and there's a 30 day trial if I recall) lets you do this pretty easily.

Follow these steps to do it:

- Browse to the folder containing the images in ACDSee
- Select the images you want to rename
- From the menu, choose Tools->Batch Rename.
- Choose "Use Template To Rename Files".
- Click "Insert Metadata"
- Select Exif->Camera->Date/Time

Tada! You're done! I actually quite like ACDsee's file renaming templating... I use it for all kinds of file renaming. :)
posted by antifuse at 7:38 AM on September 28, 2006

Rename Master has this capability, it's easy to use and it's free(beer).
posted by Mitheral at 7:38 AM on September 28, 2006

There ya go. Even better! (Although, in case peoples want it - ACDSee
posted by antifuse at 8:00 AM on September 28, 2006

FastStone Image Viewer is another option. It's my favorite photo browser/ batch tool for Windows. It's also free.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 8:10 AM on September 28, 2006

There's no need to rename the files. The date and time is already stored safely in the file's metadata, both in the EXIF and most likely in the Creation Date field in the computer filesystem as well. Surely whatever program you're using to manage your photos can display and sort by the date a photo was taken without resorting to this hackery.
posted by kindall at 11:08 AM on September 28, 2006

Free

JAlbum can do it too.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 11:45 AM on September 28, 2006

kindall writes "Surely whatever program you're using to manage your photos can display and sort by the date a photo was taken without resorting to this hackery."

Windows explorer in thumbnail view (or any view besides a specially enhanced detail view) doesn't display this information.
posted by Mitheral at 12:14 PM on September 28, 2006

Thanks for the info guys. I'll try the free (as in beer) progs as well as ACDSEE and figure out which is going to work best for me.
posted by ChazB at 12:45 PM on September 28, 2006

Windows explorer in thumbnail view (or any view besides a specially enhanced detail view) doesn't display this information.

Well, sure, but you wouldn't use Windows Explorer to manage your photos because of this limitation. You wouldn't find a grevious hack to let you use Windows Explorer to replace a proper photo manager, you'd just a proper photo manager.
posted by kindall at 5:56 PM on September 29, 2006