Date and Time issues when importing photos to FCPX

Hi

I'm a long time reader, but first time poster. I'm having a problem with the "date modified" when importing photos.

Background: Over the last year, my company completely restored a helicopter to be displayed at the Smithsonian. The helicopter was in pretty sad shape when we got it and it took a lot of work to get it to museum quality. During the restoration process, several employees took a TON of photos using three or four different cameras. My company wants me to create a "slide-show" video composed of these photos. I was given three memory sticks containing over 2000 photos. After reviewing all the photos using Preview, I discarded the bad ones (out of focus, etc.). I now have about 1500 photos on an external hard drive. Each photo has a time and date stamp coinciding with the day the photo was shot. Using Finder, I can organize the photos based on "date modified".

The Problem: The photos import into the FCPX event folder with no issues. My plan was to organize the photos by date, put 'em on the timeline, set duration for each photo and add a cross-fade transition for each photo. Should be easy. Well, when I look at the photos in the Event folder, they all have the date they were copied to the memory stick! The file numbering is all over the place (several cameras), so organizing the photos by file name won't put them in chronological order. Since they all have the date they were burned to the memory sticks, organizing by date isn't an option.

I don't have the cameras or their media, so I can't import directly from camera. Both Mac and Windows computers see the time stamps on the photos and will sort the photos based on date.

How can I make FCPX recognize the dates from the photos?

What I've tried: I tried importing the photos to my computer using IPhoto, but IP does the same thing as FCPX, i.e. gives the time stamp as the day the photos were burned to the memory stick. I tried copying the photos from the memory sticks to a folder on an external drive. FCPX uses the folder creation date. I tried copying the photos to the same drive, but without specifying a folder. FCPX stamps them all with the date and time of when I copied the files from the memory stick to the external drive.

If I could get FCPX to use the dates the photos were created, this job will take under an hour. Otherwise...........

Many, many thanks!

Hi Philthy
Welcome to the forums.

I suggest you rename all the photos and add sequential numbers prior to importing into FCPX.
Fortunately, this is very easy as long as the photos are arranged in the folders on your external hdd.

First you can do simple renaming by selecting items and then right (control) click on selection and choosing "Rename X items". Using this method is limited, but okay if you just want to change the name. It will add a sequential number immediately after the new name. You could divide the photos into sections and name each section differently, like Rebuilding engine, Restoring interior, etc… This may make it easier inside FCPX as you can easy track the appropriate groups of photos and create keywords or even new events.
See this article for batch renaming using Finder… osxdaily.com/2015/05/28/batch-rename-files-mac-os-x-finder/

There are 3rd party apps that rename in the App Store.

Personally, I recommend you use the application "Automator" in your Applications folder.
There are many ready made workflows that will allow you to rename the photos and or add sequential numbers to the file name.

Or you can build your own. Very easy to use Automator and once you do, you find other uses for it.
Here is a step by step Tutorial… macosxautomation.com/training/automator/tut02/index.html
Or this one is a little more extensive… www.chriswrites.com/how-to-batch-rename-files-in-mac-os-x/
TechRadar has 15 examples and you can download the ready made workflows… www.techradar.com/us/how-to/computing/ap...live-without-1305643

Additionally with Automator, you can set a destination, keep the creation date, resize photos and set resolution, even preserve or change the format. All of this can be accomplished by drag and drop of Actions inside Automator.

Personally, I think you should create the workflow as a "Service" or an "Application" so it is easy to reuse.
A service is available under the Apple icon “Services…” item and will be available while you are using many different applications or the Finder. In general I prefer this option.
An application needs to be launched.
You can then import the renamed photos into FCPX. If you want you can also set the parameter to "Leave Items In Place" instead of actually having to copy the media to your other drive. This assumes you will mount the external drive while editing.

The last thing to note, is that Automator has changed over the years, so if searching the web, you might want to limit the search to the last few years. If you do find older tutorials or even canned Workflows, most should still apply and Automator will convert older Actions to newer versions.

Hope this helps, Greg

Greg....sent you a PM if you have a chance to look at it. Dan.

Are you looking at creation dates, or modification dates, in the Finder?

Thanks for the reply. The "batch" renaming you suggested in Finder is a HUGE help. I never knew it was possible to rename more than one file at a time, despite the fact that my aviation career has included a ton of IT work.

The bigger lesson I learned is to import files directly from the camera whenever possible when using FCP. I was able to get my hands on one of the cameras used for this group of photos (sadly with only 37 photos) and imported the files using FCPX. All the file dates are the dates the photos were taken and can be organized by those dates.

Again, many thanks! You've saved me a lot of work.

Dan I PMed you a reply

Glad to help
Happy Editing
Greg