good free/cheap EXIF editor?

[MacInWin]

Don't drag an image from Photos. Use the File/Export process. That preserves the EXIF data. Bear in mind that there are several dates associated with image files. One is the date the image was taken, which is stored in EXIF and which, in my experience, is preserved in Photos and in the export process. Another the the file creation date, which is associated with the file itself, and not the image. It is the date the file was created in the system. So if you export an image from Photos, that new file will have today's date as a FILE, but the date taken in EXIF will still be whatever it was. There are other dates stored in the FILE metadata (date last opened, date last modified, etc), but NONE of them are EXIF data. If you want to see all the dates stored with file meta data, open Finder in List view and right click on the header bar where the titles of the column appear. You should see "Date Modified," "Date Created," "Date Last Opened," and "Date Added." None of them are EXIF, they are all associated with the FILE and are available to any file in the system. EXIF is the data related to the image itself, giving the time of the image being taken, the camera settings, location, etc.

 

[Yonderboy]

Thanks for that explanation, I think that sums it up nicely - it’s all coming back to me now . I’ve now got the file multi tool app and think that will be a great help. I like the fact that it lets me change ALL the various dates even the file creation date (which will stop me getting confused )

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Hi, I remember now one of the issues I found with changing the dates within Photos. If I change the dates within photos and then simply drag the photo to the desktop, the date created date is shown as the old one. Its like the EXIF only holds true within the Photos app.

That's possible, it never occurred to me that this may be the case. I'm wondering if it depends on if the photo was acquired digitally to begin with vs simple being scanned (do scanned photos even have EXIF data in them?)

 

[Yonderboy]

That's possible, it never occurred to me that this may be the case. I'm wondering if it depends on if the photo was acquired digitally to begin with vs simple being scanned (do scanned photos even have EXIF data in them?)

hi, that’s an interesting Point, I just assumed I’d be able to assign Jpgs exif data, however I’ve just tried to add some using File multi tool and it doesn’t seem to be liking letting me!

 

[MacInWin]

do scanned photos even have EXIF data in them?

I don't think so. None of my scanned images have EXIF data of any kind.

 

[Yonderboy]

it's odd, as some of the photos that ive scanned DO hold exif data the Ive added using File Multi Tool - and when I drag them into Photos they go right to their correct year, however that's not always the case :-/. Im wondering if its an issue with the software - all the scans were exported in the same way from photoshop as far as Im aware..