shootShifter 3.0 ... redate and rename folders of photos on a Mac.

shootShifter ... redate and rename folders of photos.
Version 3.0 BETA 1

shootShifter helps to redate and rename photos based on the EXIF or filesystem dates. With the preview timeline its quite easy for example to synchronize several folders of images that were taken with differing camera dates.

ShootShifter presents photos (and now movies, too) in chronological order on a graphical timeline. Date-changes can then be applied with several tools to individual photos or even complete folders of images. E.g. its possible to directly enter new dates, or to simply drag the images around on the timeline, etc.
One of the cameras was set to a wrong date? The time was off? No problem!
And with the new fullscreen-preview and 100%-loupe its possible to get a great overview over the images and to already here get rid of the least successful ones.
At the end the images can be renamed with standardized filenames using the user-configurable naming-templates.

Quickstart: A workflow-example

1.Two photographers made photos from the same event:
- P1: old camera with small memory cards -> three folders, each with filenames "DSC00001 - DSC00xxx".
- P2: modern camera -> one folder with filenames "P6150001 - P6170xxx".
Both camera-dates were not synchronized, so the photos are in the wrong order when imported into iPhoto, for example.

2.So, let's fix this mess ... launch shootShifter and drag the folders onto the app.

3.Thumbnails for all photos are created and displayed in chronological order.
You can click on individual photos to view a more detailed preview.
Select one of the folders to make it the active one (its thumbnails are moved up)

4.Now you can move this active folder in time: Either by modifying the changes-interface in the upper right corner, or by simply dragging around one of its thumbnails.

5.Alternatively you can also double-click one thumbnail and directly change the photos' date and time.

Its important to realise the difference between the two date-change-modes:

In the standard "Adjust altogether"-mode ALL photos of the selected folder are always changed at the same time by the amount visible in the changes-interface in the upper right corner.

6.If you do not want to change every photo of a folder you can select the second mode "Adjust seperately" by clicking on the mode-icon or by using the contextual-menu.

(Shortcut: Holding down the alt-key during import changes the folders initial mode to "Adjust seperately")

7.In this second mode its possible to move one or more photos around, totally independent from the other photos of the same folder.

You can select several photos simply by shift- or cmd-clicking their thumbs or by drag-selecting them using the mouse.

8.Normally, when moving around multiple photos all their dates are modified by the same amount. Which means that the time lag between these photos is unchanged.

If you want to "force" all selected photos between two thumbs (changing their time lags in the process), you can hold the alt-key before dropping the photos. Now their dates are changed in a way that makes sure that ALL the new positions are inside the targeted gap.

9.With the Info-Popover (cmd-i) its possible to preview all the datechanges as configured in the preferences.

10.If everything is correct, you can save these datechanges.

Be sure to verify and adjust the renaming options and then press the "Ok" button.

11.You are done. All the the photos are named in a way that you can store them easily in one folder ...

12.... and because you also saved the datechanges back to the EXIF-tag the photos are in correct sequence when imported into iPhoto, for example.

History

Version 3.0b1 2012/04/25	[new]	huge clean-up in the innards to make the app (presumably) App Store ready: shootShifter now requires Mac OS X.7 Lion (and probably the App Store with the full release)
	[new]	the EXIF-digitized-date is now fully supported. i.e. its possible to independently configure the way this date is changed. ! if you customized the date-changes in the past please verify with the new options !
	[new]	added information-popover for the currently selected photo (cmd+i). it mainly displays all the different type of dates and how they will be changed on "save"
	[new]	added a full-screen photo-preview and slideshow (cmd+f, space or doubleclicking central preview). you can navigate the photos with the toolbar or cursor-left/right. (doubleclicking any preview to open the image in Preview.app is gone, now)
	[new]	added a 100%-loupe ... the pixelPeeper :-) you can toggle this with cmd+l (or toolbar-button / escape) in the full-screen-preview. its resizable with scrolling up/down or the magnifying gesture. holding cmd only moves the crosshair.
	[hidden]	added two unsupported shortcuts to get a complete "quick slideshow solution" for my usage : hold cmd+shift during import to turn off thumbnail-creation AND date-parsing for a slideshow-only express-import (much quicker at least for some images), and cmd-r in slideshow-mode to toggle random-play, with added cursor-up/down "non-random peek".
	[new]	added option to move the currently selected file(s) to trash (cmd+backspace), so its possible to quickly get rid of the disappointing photos identified with the new preview-tools
	[new]	overhauled undo-support: its now possible to undo all unsaved changes, not just the latest changes in the currently selected folder
	[new]	added (pref-)option to enable the import of individual files. this adds their respective parent folder as a "partial folder"
	[new]	added (pref-)option to enable the import of movies: This is NOT complete movie-support however: i.e. you can rename them and change the filesystem-dates or RIFF-dates (e.g. some .AVIs), but a possible timestamp for EACH frame (e.g. some AVCHDs) stays unchanged.
	[new]	added option to copy and paste dates. pasting a date automatically opens the thumb-datepicker and prefills it with the new date, so further adjustments are quickly possible
	[new]	added option to mark photos (cmd+1 - cmd+5) and quickly jump back to these markers (1-5), so a much quicker "rearrange-thumbs-workflow" is possible
	[new]	photos with unsaved changes in "Adjust seperately"-mode, with import-changes or with a possible save/rename-error are now highlighted with a little dot beneath their thumb. its possible to quickly navigate to these highlighted photos with alt+cursor-up/down.
	[new]	added option in "Adjust seperately"-mode to remove datechanges again from a photo-(multi-)selection
	[new]	enabled lion-fullscreen-mode. hugely optimized the UI in the process (e.g. improved resizing-behaviour, larger UI, increased thumb-max-size etc.)
	[workflow]	added folder-selection-shortcuts: double-clicking (or pressing return on) a thumbnail of an unselected folder selects this folder. double-clicking a folder selects its first photo and scrolls it in sight.
	[workflow]	navigating the timelineView with home-, end- pageUp- and pageDown-keys is now possible
	[workflow]	moved the "Preview-Type"-selection from the Preferences to the "View"-menu (its now possible to quickly change this with alt+cmd+1 - alt+cmd+3)
	[new]	added option to override the general "Preview-Type" with camera/filetype-specific settings. so to optimize preview-performance its e.g. possible to have all your Olympus-RAW files use their EXIF-previews while for the iPhone-photos (where EXIF-previews are quite small) these are instantly regenerated.
	[new]	added option to also save "unchanged" photos (press additional alt-key when using one of the menus, or hold ctrl+alt+cmd to affect the save-button). so its possible to use the automatic date-adjustments (as configured in the preferences) on ALL images. the former workaround was to e.g. change dates +1 sec., save, change back -1 sec., save again. thats not necessary anymore.
	[workflow]	added a few context-menus and more main-menu-options for easier feature-access
	[fix]	updated XMP-support for the "Transfer EXIF-tag changes to existing XMP-data"-option
	[fix]	tweaked the timelineView to better support overlay scrollers and elastic scrolling. optimized performance and fixed a few display problems in the process
	[fix]	zooming the main window did not always work as expected when there were many folders imported (lion)
	[fix]	with the import options it is possible to set a manual date for photos without EXIF-dates or with empty date-tags. it was possible that these changes were not saved at all when the folder was imported directly into "Adjust seperately"-mode (by pressing the alt-key)
	[fix]	trying to rename a folder with unsaved changes pops up an alert ("you have to save first ... do you want this?"). depending on some pref-settings it was possible that the user-decision was ignored and the photos were saved in either case.
	[fix]	it was not possible to (multi)-select the rightmost thumb with alt/cmd + cursor-keys
	[fix]	removed a potential redraw slowdown for the bigger previews
	[more]	and countless other smaller fixes, optimizations, optical tweaks and wording changes!

>>> complete history

Version 2.5.1 2010/05/12	[fix]	fixed ugly timezone-bug in the "Transfer EXIF-tag changes to existing XMP-data"-option: in some situations it was possible that the timezone for the XMP-dates was "off" by 1 hour (daylight saving time was not always accounted for correctly)
Version 2.5.1 2010/05/12	[fix]	improved smooth-scrolling/scrolling with inertia in the timeline-view for users with trackpads or Magic Mouse or the like

Version 2.5 2010/02/11	[new]	unified the interface: the drawers are gone.
	[new]	resizing the main window now resizes the previews! very large previews are possible this way. (do not forget to enable the "more accurate previews"-option in the preferences.) the old behaviour (resizing the tableview instead) can be accomplished by ctrl-resizing the app
	[new]	most date-format user-preferences are now honored when displaying all the dates
	[new]	added option to NOT change filesystem-dates at all when modifying EXIF-dates
	[update]	increased selection-border-width for improved recognizability
	[update]	when dropping a thumb the timeline-view is scrolled to keep the active thumb under the mousepointer in every case possible
	[update]	rename-templates are now sorted alphabetically
	[fix]	dragging thumbs outside the main window does not focus other app windows/potential drag targets any more
	[fix]	accessing the mode-menu cleared the undo-buffer, even if the mode and the active folder were not changed
	[fix]	it was not possible to confirm the import-option-sheet with the return-key while the datepicker is active (it swallowed the key-event)
	[fix]	it was possible to import folders using drag and drop when the app should be blocked instead due to an alert or another sheet. this could lead to unexpected behaviour
	[fix]	multi-thumb drag-selections with very fast mouse-movement could result in wrong thumbs being selected
	[fix]	double-clicking an "empty" preview does not try to open a non-existing or wrong photo in the Preview.app anymore
	[fix]	a few other minor fixes and tweaks
	[testing]	I extended my example-photo database: shootShifter is now tested successfully with JPEG-files from 336 and RAW-files from 79 different cameras. However if you have any photos that do not work as expected (e.g. other apps show EXIF-dates, but shootShifter does not), it would be great if you could send me one (or more) example files for debugging purposes.

Version 2.0 2009/10/28	[fix]	added support for another rare image-file special-case where the EXIF-date was not recognized
	[fix]	fixed a few minor ui-issues concerning photos without or with empty EXIF-tag
	[fix]	fixed a bug that could prevent a multi-thumb drag-selection with the mouse
	[update]	a few drag-selection optimizations and performance improvements

Version 2.0b1 2009/09/24	[new]	added a second date-change-mode making it possible to change individual photos and photo groups instead of only changing all photos inside a folder at the same time.
	[new]	added option to transfer EXIF-changes to already existing XMP-data. when using shootShifter on photos with included XMP-data (or with .xmp-sidecar-files) this option can be enabled in the preferences. this is a bit more time consuming and therefore optional.
	[new]	renaming photos now searches for potential .xmp-sidecar-files and renames them, too.
	[update]	there are special situations when renaming can result in naming-conflicts (e.g. when photos without EXIF-dates are ignored or when files cannot be renamed due to missing permissions). these situations are handled better with helpful error-messages. renaming again with updated options now behaves correctly in these cases, too.
	[workflow]	several UI-tweaks concerning keyboard-navigation and drag-scrolling in the timeline-view
	[workflow]	more UI-optimizations in the preferences to increase consistency and to further reduce the first-sight-intimidation :-)
	[fix]	changing the filesystem-dates is now reliable on Snow Leopard, too
	[fix]	thumb- and preview-images were sometimes very blurry on Snow Leopard
	[fix]	fixed very rare cases where a temporary preview was not updated correctly with the more detailed generated one
	[fix]	using the thumb-date-picker and canceling it could result in the changes-UI being reset
	[fix]	removing a folder during its import was not always successfully prevented. this could result in a crash or in weird behaviour
	[fix]	in some situations it was not possible to confirm the rename/save-sheet with the return-key
	[fix]	fixed another small oversight in the english localisation (checkboxes behaving like radiobuttons in the prefs)
	[fix]	fixed a few memory-leaks
	[fix]	a few other minor fixes and tweaks

Version 1.1.1 2009/07/20	[fix]	fixed a STUPID bug introduced in the last version that could result in very slow scrolling performance in the timeline-view
	[fix]	removed a possible display-glitch in the timeline-view
	[fix]	fixed a possible crash when quick-navigating the selected folder with "alt + cursor-left/right"

Version 1.1 2009/07/02	[new]	added option to set a startvalue for the rename-counter (just once, or every time)
	[new]	added option to directly set the new date for a photo in the selected folder (double-click its thumb). all other photos in the same folder are changed accordingly
	[workflow]	optimized the UI to better distinguish between renaming and saving datechanges. i hope its more clear now, right from the beginning, whats going on
	[update]	EXIF-data-reading optimized to support some more rare .jpeg-variants
	[update]	improved error-handling for protected files: smooth import, meaningful error-messages and no more crashes
	[fix]	the small "cancel datechanges"-button now works in the english localisation, too
	[fix]	when removing a folder from the app it was possible that wrong previews were displayed temporarily
	[fix]	previewing photos that were deleted in the finder after import resulted in a crash
	[fix]	a few other minor fixes and ui-tweaks

Version 1.0.3 2008/10/23	[fix]	worked around some silly display problems:
	>	the shadows of the drawers are now correctly updated EVERY time the app changes the active/inactive-state
	>	in some situations the selected photo was not highlighted correctly in the preview-drawer
	>	in some situations the textfields in the preview-drawer had the wrong background-color

Version 1.0.2 2008/09/25	[fix]	Sony DSC-R1-raw-files are now fully supported: there were problems modifying the EXIF-creationdate
	[fix]	rearranging photos in the timeline resulted in several unnecessary redraws in the preview-drawer

Version 1.0.1 2008/07/24	[fix]	in some situations some photos were left unmodified in larger folders
	[fix]	slightly improved the rename-template interface: it was difficult to place the cursor between two template-elements using the mouse

Version 1.0 2008/02/29		first non-beta-release: removed the expiration-date
	[fix]	raw-support is a little bit less system-dependent: a few raws were recognized in tiger but not in leopard anymore
	[fix]	removed a few small inconsistencies in the UI

Version 1.0b9 2007/12/18	[workflow]	importoptions for photos without EXIF-tag (or with empty EXIF-tag) can be adjusted during import. no need to use the preferences before the import
	[workflow]	optional renameoption-prompt when saving/renaming. no need to adjust these settings in the preferences every time
	[new]	its now possible to configure how the dates are changed
	[new]	cosmetical changes for leopard like 512 pixel icon, new droptarget-icon etc.
	[new]	added "ugly but fast" display-option for the large previews
	[fix]	zooming the main window now resizes as expected and correctly redraws the preview drawer content
	[fix]	no more messages in the console when there are non-image-files or folders in a dropped folder
	[fix]	better support for photos with just the EXIF-modificationdate
	[fix]	some photos with included XMP-data could not be saved on Leopard. (For the time being XMP-data is completely ignored, again!)
	[fix]	fixed a crash that could occur when changing the photo selection very fast
	[fix]	fixed annoying memory leak when saving datechanges
	[fix]	a few more small bugs removed

Version 1.0b8 2007/10/26	[fix]	leopard-fix: shootShifter actually launches now! :-)

Version 1.0b7 2007/10/18	[new]	improved rename interface for more ease of use and more flexibility at the same time
	[new]	added fast(er)-import-option: hold down cmd-key to suppress thumbnail-creation during import. This helps if you just want to rename pics.
	[fix]	fixed a few small bugs

Version 1.0b6 2007/08/31	[new]	initial public release