Photo Time Stamp
Most of digital cameras allow adding date or time stamp to photos when taking the pictures, but if yours don’t have a date stamp and you want to add one to a photo already taken, we have the solutions listed in this article for you.
Batch Add Date Stamp to Photos Already Taken (Windows & Mac) We’d better find a solution to add. A very convenient way to remember when a photo was taken is to embed the date and time in the picture itself. Unfortunately not all digital cameras can add date/time stamps on your photos and those who can usually display unattractive stamps that cannot be removed afterwards.
We pick 3 different ways to add a date/time stamp to photos already taken on Windows PC or on Mac. Also, we will reveal if online, free tools help on this task and how good they are.
#1 Batch Add Date Stamp to Photos Already Taken (Windows & Mac)
We’d better find a solution to add photo date stamp in batch, since it is muck likely we have dozens or hundreds of photos to be processed.
Pixillion Image Converter should be the 1st pick on this topic. It is a bulk image processor tool and has won rave reviews from users and authorities during the past years. It helps to read, convert, resize, rotate, flip and watermark photos, no matter your images are in common format, in raw or other industry-standard format. It batch support feature is so powerful, making your photo processing done in seconds and as breeze.
Pixillion Image Converter Main Features
- To add dates to existing photos, you can use timestamp information within the image file itself to add the date and time to the photo using a graphics editor or a batch photo date and time editor. Using Free Timestamp Software Some digital cameras add an automatic timestamp to pictures, but this feature is less common with smartphone cameras.
- Photo Time Stamp free download - Salaat Time, Say the Time, Photo Editor, and many more programs.
- UPDATED: photo app has no way of showing you the date and time that a photo was taken. Find out how to find the time stam.
- Read and write 50+ image formats, including raw and common ones;
- Add effects to your images: resize, flip, rotate, add watermark text/date stamp, add watermark image;
- Export images as 20 image formats;
- Batch convert and add effects to images;
- Allow output preferences;
Steps to Add Date Stamp to Photos Already Taken on Windows PC
(Pixillion Image Converter for Windows and for Mac have equivalent functions, they work the same way)
- Download and install Pixillion Image Converter to your Windows PC;
- Drag and drop photos to its main interface;
- Select all photos, click on Effects…
- Go to Watermark Text and enable it, input the date and adjust the settings for the date stamp, click OK to continue;
- Choose output and select output folder, then click Convert to batch add date stamp to multiple photos on Windows.
#2 Add Date Stamp to Photos on Mac or Windows for Free
When we get a Mac or Windows PC, we can also access to free applications that bundled in the operating system, in which there is always a photo tool included. For both Mac and Windows users, we can add date stamp to photos free with these pre-installed tools.
Add Date Stamp to Photos on Mac for Free
We will need Preview here.
Preview is the mac app to read and edit image files, though the editing features are limited, we have a trick to add a date stamp to your photos.
- Open photo with Preview;
- Click on Show Markup Tool;
- Then click on Text button;
- Manually input the date and time to the text box, you can also adjust the font settings;
- Once ready, drag and move the date stamp box to the place where you want to put a stamp on the photo;
- Finally, go to File>Save, your date stamp is added to the photo.
The Disadvantages:
- You cannot batch add date stamps;
- You need manually input the date and time;
- Limited options to set up the date stamp;
Add Date Stamp to Photos on Windows for Free
We will need Polarr Photo Editor here.
Like Preview, Polarr Photo Editor is the Windows free program to view and edit photos.
- Open photo with Polarr Photo Editor;
- Go to Text and Shape, add and edit the date/time text, adjust the settings;
- Save the file;
The Disadvantages:
- You cannot batch add date stamps;
- You need manually input the date and time;
#3 Add Date Stamp to A Photos Already Taken (online, free)
We have deeply realized that our Internet has built us super a powerful and convenient digital world to solve problems online, working on images is definitely one among those benefits. There are just so many online photo editors available, but here on this specific topic of adding photo date stamp, we don’t need such a powerful suite, because adding date stamp is just a tiny part of photo editing, while loading online photo editor and editing become cumbersome, what we need is a more compact tool, following 2 are the tools we pick for you.
1. ofoct—Auto Add Date Stamp
Pros:
- Free to use;
- Auto add date stamp;
- Export image as JPG or PNG;
Cons:
- Not support batch date stamp add;
- Image quality is lost when saving as JPG;
Steps to Auto Add Date Stamp to Photos online, free
- Visit ofoct;
- Upload the photo you want to add date stamp to;
- Edit the date stamp;
- Click Save and export the photos;
2. Watermark.ink—Manually Add Date Stamp
(Waterwark.ink is mainly used to add watermark to photos, but it can be used to add date stamps too)
Pros:
- Free to use;
- Batch add date stamp to photos;
- Download image with watermark as JPEG or PNG;
Cons:
- Respond slowly;
- Image quality is lost;
- Require to sign up with Google or Facebook account;
Steps to Add Date Stamp to Photos online, free
- Upload photos online;
- Go to Text>Add Text, input the date and time manually;
- Adjust the settings;
- Click Download Photos and save all photos with date stamp added to your computer.
So, how do you add date stamp to your photos?
The program enables to set the file time stamp (i.e. date and time) from the EXIF date/time and also enables to shift the time stamp of multiple files.
What is this useful for?
For synchronizing time stamps of files from multiple digital cameras.
Why should I synchronize file time stamps?
O.K., let's start with a story...
With a group of our friends we usually rent a big chalet for one week holidays. Last year we have found a beautiful one, in mountains, far away from the nearest village... this is not important for our story; important is the fact that we had there two digital cameras and made a lot of snaps while enjoying the travels in the nature.
After the holidays I got a task to put images from both digital cameras to a CD and copy it for all friends. So I have put the images from both cameras to single folder, set ascending sorting by date/time in my old-but-still-good ACDSee 3.0 and enjoyed viewing the photos - sorted by time stamp they fitted together wonderfully, like a LEGO.
However, as I have found later, this was only an exceptional case. Next time I had to put together snaps from a wedding; that time I got CDs with snaps from four cameras. But unfortunately simple sorting by time stamp did not work this time. Why?
Photo Date Stamp App
- On one camera, the software which was automatically rotating portrait oriented snaps during the transfer, assigned to these snaps the time of the transfer (made in the evening).
- On another camera the internal clock was set inaccurately - it was about 15 minutes late, so the snap of the first matrimonial kiss was sorted between photos from other cameras made on the way out of the town hall.
- On the third camera the time was (almost) correct, but without a respect to the daylight saving adjustment, so it was actually shifted by one hour.
- And besides this, one of the guys used some graphical editor to enhance some of the photos - and this destroyed both the EXIF information in the JPEG files, as well as the file time stamp.
As a result, I had to change the time stamp on more than 3/4 of all the photos, the number of which was over 700! After unsuccessful looking for some software which would help me with this task I have decided to write my own. Here it is.
The program is pretty simple. It enables to get the time from the EXIF info (stored inside by the JPEG file) and set it as the time of the file. This is useful for fixing the case (1).
It also enables to select multiple files in a list and shift their date/time by a time slice - by single click you can increase/decrease seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. This is useful tool for cases (2) and (3).
Unfortunately for the case (4) there is no other solution, than to estimate somehow, when the snap was actually made and then set this time manually. This program at least makes this task more comfortable.
How to use the program
Before merging the snaps from different cameras into a single folder, it is better to leave them for the moment in separate folders, i.e. snaps from each camera in its own folder.
Time Stamp Photos On Computer
Fixing the case (1)
- Select the folder by the 'Select folder' button and sort the files by file date/time by clicking in the header of the Original time column.
- Investigate the files at the end - usually the wrong date/time is later than the correct one.
- If you find such files there, select them and press the 'Set time from EXIF' button.
- If the files contain EXIF information in proper format, you will see new date/time appearing in the right column. If not, then the files belong to the case (4).
- It is not a mistake to select all the files and set the date/time from EXIF for all of them - if the date/time of the file is correct, resetting it from EXIF should not harm it.
- Press the 'Apply' button to set the new date/time to the files on disk; the Apply button is used for all files, not only for the selected.
Fixing the cases (2) and (3)
These two cases are identical in principle - you need toPhoto Time Stamp Iphone
shift the time by the same time slice on all the selected images.On some types of events it is necessary to synchronize the images with a one-second precision. The wedding was a typical example; the first matrimonial kiss of the engaged couple was pretty short event (few seconds), but fortunately was also the event everybody was shooting, so such snaps then served very well as reference snaps.
- Select the folder with snaps from the camera, about which you are persuaded it had the correct time.
- Find the snap of the kiss and set it as the Reference image 1 (press the button). Setting it does not perform any action; it only displays this file date/time stamp permanently in the toolbar so you are now free to select another folder with images from another camera.
- In the next folder find again the snap of the kiss. Set it as Reference image2.
- Now you can select all the images from this camera and start modifying the time. Click on the time modifying buttons (with arrows) so that the reference snap 2 will get the same time as the reference snap 1. All the selected images will be shifted by the same amount of time, so this action will synchronize the images with the first camera.
- When you are done, press the 'Apply' button and continue with the folder from another camera.
Fixing the case (4)
If the image contains no information about its time, neither in its file time stamp, nor in the internal EXIF info, then you must guess its date/time. The most comfortable way how to do so it the following:
Photo Time Stamp App
- Merge the files from various camera to single folder before proceeding.
- Run the program twice, so that you get two windows.
- In one window select the file with the wrong time.
- In the other window sort files by time and look for the place where the snap would fit. When you find the place, you can estimate the date/time needed to be set.
- Return to the first window and set this date/time on the file. Press the 'Apply' button.
- Switch to the second window, and press the 'Select folder' button. Select the same folder (i.e. do not change the folder) and press OK. This forces re-reading the information from disk. Now you can check if the file is placed on the proper position (files need to be sorted by original time).
- Repeat the same process with other files.