Separating Out Undated Photos $27
Learn the MOST IMPORTANT Digital Photo Organizing Task
An Essential Task EVERY Photo Organizer Should be Doing!
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Separating out Undated photos is an important task, because typically, 5% to 20% of photos in clients’ collections are ‘Undated’, yet a ‘Capture Date’ will be displayed for them! And that 'Capture Date' may seem correct.
Separating out Undated photos is an important task, because typically, 5% to 20% of photos in clients’ collections are ‘Undated’, yet a ‘Capture Date’ will be displayed for them! And that 'Capture Date' may seem correct.
Why do Collections Contain 'Undated' Photos?
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Photos sent by text or social media are stripped of EXIF metadata.
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Scanned photos (scanned by the client) will have no EXIF metadata.
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Photos improperly downloaded from cloud storage services are stripped of their EXIF metadata.
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Photos taken in the early 2000s with non-digital cameras were often digitized and delivered on CDs. They will have no EXIF metadata.
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Photos sent by email - but not as attachment - are stripped of their EXIF metadata.
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I don’t know all the reasons, but I know there are more ways EXIF metadata can be stripped.
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The older a collection is, the more ‘Undated’ photos it will likely contain.
Why are 'Undated' Photos Such a Serious Problem?
Think of a FILE as a CONTAINER for a photo.
Files have their own dates – File/System Created Date and File/System Modified Date. If a photo has no EXIF date metadata, the FILE date will be displayed.
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'Undated' photos are often received on the date they were taken (or close) so the FILE dates the client sees will appear to be correct (or close). But tasks photo organizers do will CHANGE the FILE dates.
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Clients may not care about the word ‘metadata’, but they expect their photos to be displayed in chronological order—as they were before they were organized!
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Collections typically include between 5% and 20% ‘Undated’ photos, so that’s significant!
Why is Duplicate Cleaner Pro 5 Necessary?
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After much persuading by me, EXIF DateTimeOriginal was added to Duplicate Cleaner Pro 5 in late 2023. Very few applications display the field EXIF DateTimeOriginal, and it’s essential to this task.
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DCP5 is great for so much more than duplicate removal! I’ve been working with the developers since 2021 and have figured out unique ways to use it. When you learn the ‘tricks’ I teach in this class, you’ll be able to use a filter to find all photos with no EXIF DateTimeOriginal.
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Because Duplicate Cleaner Pro 5 is one of only two application that can move files and preserve the folder structure. The other is Directory Opus.
Why Should ‘Undated’ Photos be Separated Out Early ?
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So that you will know where all the ‘Undated’ photos are and that the dates displayed for them cannot be trusted. That’s very important since typically, between 5% and 20% of photos in clients’ collections are ‘Undated’.
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So that when removing duplicates, you can compare the folder of ‘Undated’ photos against the by using the ‘External Only’ option in Duplicate Cleaner Pro 5. I typically find ‘Dated’ duplicates for about 3/4 of the ‘Undated’ photos.
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If you use PhotoSweeper, there is no combination of settings and preferences that will ensure an 'Undated' photo is marked for removal and the 'Dated' duplicate kept because PhotoSweeper does not look at EXIF DateTimeOriginal. You can solve that problem by separating out the 'Undated' photos.
Why is it so Important to Preserve Folder Structure When Separating Out 'Undated' Photos?
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Because folder names in the folder path (not just the parent folder) may include dates that can be used to add dates to the photos.
Example: 2006 / Christmas. -
Because multiple folder names in the folder path may include date clues that can be used to add dates to the photos.
Example: Eric / First Birthday.
Why Don’t More Professional Photo Organizers Know About This?
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Unfortunately, misinformation about photo date metadata is widespread. Few pros understand photo date metadata and so don’t know what date fields to look at.
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Most Professional Photo Organizers have taken courses or have attended webinars that teach that ‘Capture Date’, ‘Date Taken’, and EXIF DateTimeOriginal are the same thing! That incorrect, damaging information taught by so-called 'experts' has given pros false confidence in the photo dates they see.
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Applications like Lightroom Classic, Photo Mechanic, Apple Photos, and Mylio display a date for EVERY photo, and don’t allow photos to be sorted by EXIF DateTimeOriginal. So Undated photos are difficult to identify.
Course curriculum
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Course Overview and Preparation - Separating Out Undated Photos
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Understanding Undated Photos - Separating Out Undated Photos
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Instructions - Separating Out Undated Photos
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Demonstration Video - Separating Out Undated Photos
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About this course
- $27.00
- 5 lessons
- 0 hours of video content
Discover How Deceptive Photo Dates Can Be!
Visit the Photo Organizing Stuff YouTube channel to watch this eye-opening demonstration video!
